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jennyyates 's review for:
Skinship
by Yoon Choi
This is a strong collection of short stories, very moving. Each one describes the Korean-American experience, some from the viewpoint of immigrants, others from their children’s perspectives. Each story develops slowly, feeling like a little piece of a novel.
The first story, “The Church of Abundant Life,” takes us to an older Korean immigrant couple who run a convenience store in Pennsylvania. When they see a newspaper ad for the Church of Abundant Life, they realize that the person running it is an old friend of theirs. This story focuses on the ways our life trajectories cross and sometimes trip over each other’s.
The second story, “First Language” tells the story of a mother who has to abandon her illegitimate child when she gets married, and then, when she moves to the US, tries to reclaim him and integrate him into her family. The third story, “A Map of the Simplified World,” is about a Korean child and an Indian child becoming best friends at school, and, over time, how the prejudice around them isolates them from each other.
The next story, “Solo Works for Piano,” is about a sensitive, difficult and disillusioned musician, who comes across an equally brilliant and difficult student. Then comes “Skinship,” in which a Korean mother runs away from her husband, taking her two children to the US and moving in with her sister and her family. The story is written from the daughter’s perspective, as she adapts to her new life as an immigrant, and to the family’s status in another family’s house. This is especially interesting in that it explores the differences in how family is treated.
The seventh story is “The Loved Ones,” written from the point of view of a young man who is an aide to a hospice nurse. He is an adoptee from Korean, without any clear sense of identity, and he’s working in the home of a Korean-American family. The last story, “Song and Song,” is about two sisters who have chosen very different paths, dealing with the death of their mother. The story is told from the perspective of the daughter who has chosen the more traditional path.
The first story, “The Church of Abundant Life,” takes us to an older Korean immigrant couple who run a convenience store in Pennsylvania. When they see a newspaper ad for the Church of Abundant Life, they realize that the person running it is an old friend of theirs. This story focuses on the ways our life trajectories cross and sometimes trip over each other’s.
The second story, “First Language” tells the story of a mother who has to abandon her illegitimate child when she gets married, and then, when she moves to the US, tries to reclaim him and integrate him into her family. The third story, “A Map of the Simplified World,” is about a Korean child and an Indian child becoming best friends at school, and, over time, how the prejudice around them isolates them from each other.
The next story, “Solo Works for Piano,” is about a sensitive, difficult and disillusioned musician, who comes across an equally brilliant and difficult student. Then comes “Skinship,” in which a Korean mother runs away from her husband, taking her two children to the US and moving in with her sister and her family. The story is written from the daughter’s perspective, as she adapts to her new life as an immigrant, and to the family’s status in another family’s house. This is especially interesting in that it explores the differences in how family is treated.
The seventh story is “The Loved Ones,” written from the point of view of a young man who is an aide to a hospice nurse. He is an adoptee from Korean, without any clear sense of identity, and he’s working in the home of a Korean-American family. The last story, “Song and Song,” is about two sisters who have chosen very different paths, dealing with the death of their mother. The story is told from the perspective of the daughter who has chosen the more traditional path.