A review by sarahmatthews
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

informative sad medium-paced

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See 

Read on audio

Narrator: Jennifer Lim 

Pub 2019, 374pp

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This is the story of two young girls, Mi-ja and Young-Sook who grow up together on a Korean island, Jeju, and are trained by their community to be Haenyeo, divers who harvest the sea for creatures they can sell to support their family. This premise was very appealing to me, a culture where the men looked after the children while the women went to work was so interesting. And the fact they train to do something so dangerous and have such impressive lung capacity and could withstand the cold waters for so long was fascinating. The book begins in 2008, with Young-Sook as a very old woman, being introduced to an American family asking  her about their relative, Mi-ja. The story then takes us back to 1938 where we follow the story of how the girls met and learn about Korea having been occupied by the Japanese since 1910. Anyone working with the Japanese were seen as collaborators and were outcast. The book returns to 2008 several times as we go along and, as there are some very harrowing parts to this story, offered a much needed bit of light relief.

I felt I was learning about a part of history I had no idea about, and on the whole the story was well told and kept me reading, but the history came through in a bit of a distracting way for me at times. The research done by the author was very apparent and this took me out of the narrative which was jarring. It reminded me of another book I read years ago about a female pilot, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, not in content but in the way some historical fiction spans a huge time frame and includes so much drama it feels a little implausible.  

I wasn’t emotionally invested here as much as I thought I might become at the beginning of the story. The violent parts were affecting and hard to listen to, as they should be, reflecting a very important part of the island’s history. 

Some details really struck me, like when, in later years, diving became much safer with the introduction of wetsuits, weights and masks but when the divers were offered oxygen tanks they refused, stating they must respect the balance of the sea and not over harvest it, even though they could make more money. And how diving was not just a job but a way of life where the women were almost more at home in the water than on land:

“The sea is better than a mother. You can love your mother and she still might leave you. You can love or hate the sea but it will be there forever.”

I did feel that there was something a little too convenient about the ending but I won’t go into that here!

I read this for my book group and it was a great choice for a discussion; most people found it hard going and some people didn’t finish it. For me, I think it’s a very memorable book, though I wasn’t a fan of the writing style, and I’m glad I took the time to read it.