A review by johnmatthewfox
The Shaman of Turtle Valley by Clifford Garstang

5.0

This is a gorgeously drawn portrait of a culture clash inside a marriage, and how both the American husband and the South Korean wife are haunted by their past. The husband can't escape his past in the war and the history of his family in Turtle Valley, Virginia, and the wife can't escape her South Korean heritage, culture, and expectations. The writing is panoramic and sweeps you along, the sentences are finely detail and fine-tuned like a pristine train set, and Garstang has created a book with wide, if not universal appeal.