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A review by sabotheking
Daughters of the Dragon by William Andrews
3.0
From the reviews here on GoodReads, you either like the story or absolutely not.
I am keeping in mind that this story was written by a white man and, as far as I can make up from the afterword, he consulted many historians, journals and books when writing this. This is a work of fiction but the stories of comfort women are very, very real.
I found this a very captivating, devastating and heartwrenching story. There were also things that I did not like about it, but still I found myself being pulled into the Jaehee's story and unable to look away.
It was incredibly heartbreaking to read her story and the shame she felt after that, internalized but also from her external enviroment. It was frustrating and saddening to read the victim-shaming and blaming she had to face every day, on top of her trying to overcome the trauma from the Japanese.
Definitely not a story I will forget very soon.
The story has a very fast pace and I definitely agree with the people who are saying that it felt like the author was rushing through parts of the story to talk about the trauma. I had the hardest time when the Americans entered the story, because I could see the authors bias coming through in his writing and it felt really strange because it didn't align with Jaehee's pov and what she was saying when she was narrating the story.
And maybe this is me just nitpicking but at the end of the book is an q&a when the author was asked the question if America was just as bad as Japan, and the author answered No... to which I just want to say: It is not up to you to decide that, just because you write about the history and trauma of Koreans (and specifically the comfort women) does not mean that you have gone through it and suffered its impact.
Anyways, it is a good story to read if you are unfamiliar about comfort women, but I do suggest finding stories written/narrated by own voices. Which is something I definitely am going to do after reading Daughters of the Dragon.
I am keeping in mind that this story was written by a white man and, as far as I can make up from the afterword, he consulted many historians, journals and books when writing this. This is a work of fiction but the stories of comfort women are very, very real.
I found this a very captivating, devastating and heartwrenching story. There were also things that I did not like about it, but still I found myself being pulled into the Jaehee's story and unable to look away.
It was incredibly heartbreaking to read her story and the shame she felt after that, internalized but also from her external enviroment. It was frustrating and saddening to read the victim-shaming and blaming she had to face every day, on top of her trying to overcome the trauma from the Japanese.
Definitely not a story I will forget very soon.
The story has a very fast pace and I definitely agree with the people who are saying that it felt like the author was rushing through parts of the story to talk about the trauma. I had the hardest time when the Americans entered the story, because I could see the authors bias coming through in his writing and it felt really strange because it didn't align with Jaehee's pov and what she was saying when she was narrating the story.
And maybe this is me just nitpicking but at the end of the book is an q&a when the author was asked the question if America was just as bad as Japan, and the author answered No... to which I just want to say: It is not up to you to decide that, just because you write about the history and trauma of Koreans (and specifically the comfort women) does not mean that you have gone through it and suffered its impact.
Anyways, it is a good story to read if you are unfamiliar about comfort women, but I do suggest finding stories written/narrated by own voices. Which is something I definitely am going to do after reading Daughters of the Dragon.