Customer Reviews

In the Absence of Sun: A Korean American Woman's Promise to Reunite Three Lost Generations of Her Family

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The Korean reunion that Helie Lee writes about in this book is significantly different than those scheduled for late April and ealry May 2002 in North Korea. Those are government-sponsored and end after three days, an experience that must be glorious and agonizing all at once. Lee was determined to reunite her family permanently. To do so she had to smuggle nine people out of North Korea, not an easy task! It took eight months to make it happen and Lee got a thorough education on all kinds of unusual things, including dealing with the Korean CIA, bribing North Koreans, evading Chinese security checkpoints and more.

The story is powerful but not because the outcome is in doubt. The mission was completed (with several false starts and many roadblocks, both literal and figurative). The rescue received widespread media attention, including a Seoul Broadcasting System four-hour documentary and an ABC Nightline story that included secret footage shot by Lee. The book is captivating because of what it took to make the reunion happen and because of what we learn about the author both personally and via her identity as a Korean and an American. In the end there is success for the Lee family as their separation comes to a glorious conclusion. But for millions of Koreans the wait continues.

Next summer marks the 50th anniversary of the armistice in Korea that halted the three-year Korean War and brought an uneasy peace to the ravaged peninsula. Since that signing the Korean War, which claimed some 30,000 U.S. lives, has largely disappeared from the American consciousness and is often known now as "the forgotten war." But the war's impact will not soon be forgotten for the people of Korea, living in a divided land. The war split not just geography, but geneology too, breaking apart families from their land and from each other, breaks Koreans have been hoping to heal for the half century since. Helie's Lee's powerful account of such healing provides hope for all who one day would see the peninsula again reunited.

How could this true life story not be compelling? Multiple people risking their lives to get 9 strangers out of North Korea, one of the most brutal states in the world. Con artists, mercenaries and missionaries, oh my!

An awesome story to tell. But written here by a childish, sheltered and self-centered woman who fancies herself a writer and almost destroys all feeling for the richness of the story and the people involved. I didn't read Lee's first book, "Still Life With Rice" which reviewers here thought was better than "Absence" so I can only judge her as a writer by this book.

At the same time I couldn't put the book down because I had to know what became of these wretched people, I cursed the sloppy story-telling and infernally affected self-referencing throughout. Me, me, me, all about Helie. What a spoiled, boring woman, I thought. I would like to have read this story as written by a much more talented and worldly author. Even as one of the protagonists of the drama, Lee brought nothing to the table, even detracting from the story with her limited knowledge and experience of Korean culture and the world at large.

With a story like this one, the book could have been great. As it is, it's hardly adequate. Having stories to tell does not make one a storyteller. Perhaps Lee should consider a co-author for her next book about her family's heroic exploits.

This is a very engrossing story that moves along like an action-adventure story. I think the fact that Helie Lee wrote it in such a personal way only helps the story: you come away amazed by her courage and resolve. The style is quick-paced, absorbing and captivating. Most importantly, the book raises the awareness of North Korean refugees and shows the world that it is a human story that affects millions of Koreans and Korean Americans. Lives were at stake and big power politics recede into the background, but the commitment, love and dedication of a family triumphs.

And the author's personality and character are really impressive. Helie Lee is a plucky Korean American gal who has to put up with a lot of cultural conflicts and dangers. Through it all, she is vulnerable, sensitive, determined, strong, quick-thinking, courageous and ultimately full of love and devotion for her family. She is even witty. In the end, the reader comes away respecting Helie for pulling off such an courageous journey. I highly recommend this book for its overall quality, readability, and genuineness in revealing the power of a family's love to overcome divisions and scars that have haunted Korea for 50 years.

I just read some of the comments of your readers below. I don't think they understand the importance of this book to the 21st century. This book is a must read for anyone interested and concerned about North Korean refugees. I was inspired and touched by this family's journey to be reunited.

After reading Helie Lee's first work, "Still Life with Rice" which I thouht was very well written, I had an expectation that the sequel would also live up to her well deserved praise for the first, only to be severely dissappointed.

"Still Life with Rice" was not only well written, it had quite an insight into the lives and personal experiences and utmost difficulties that her grandmother has gone through impressively written in her grandmother's personal voice with great insights and impressive depth into her emotions by a granddaughter who never lived or experienced this park of Korea's most tragic era.

"In the Absence of Sun" however, lacked focus, intelligence, and depth. Her knowledge or understanding of Korean society, history, culture and the nature of male-female dynamic was rather shallow, imposing more of unknowledgeable Westerner's view and interpretation into the Asian culture especially in male-female dynamics. Moreover, the story was kept on interfered by often unnecessary details of her feelings and rage towards how she was being treated because she is a woman. If her intention was to show a certain development of her own awakening, she did a poor job as any character development was poorly portrayed while diverting attention from the "real" story, robbing a certain depth that this story could have carried. I wonder why she revealed so much about her often selfish and immature feelings so vividly without resolving them into any definitive closure.

It is a wonderful story, however, although I feel the Guide's role was not credited enough (somewhat due to Helie's personal relationship with him) and regrettable that his personal motivations were not tied enough behind all the risk he put himself into, which I think would made this story more inspiring.

And yes, there were several grammatical errors in the book which may dissappoint the readers farther for carelessness in the editing process.

How often we do things without regard of how it may affect others around us. Thus was the case with the author of this book. When Helie Lee wrote her first book detailing her grandmother's history in fleeing North Korea, she never considered the consequences of her words on family members still living in North Korea. This book details her life once she recognizes the responsibility she must undertake to assist those left behind. Honest, graphic and full of emotions! I thoroughly enjoyed this non-fiction, nail-biting journey into the darkest, (sometimes), corners of the author's life. Great book!

As a child of an American father and Korean mother I never thought too much about the Korean culture. I was too busy being an American that I forgot to appreciate the other half of my heritage. The two books written by Helie Lee inspired me to love being both American and Korean. She has opened my eyes to the strength and courage that Koreans have had to face throughout the last fifty years. I now have a greater respect for the way my mother does things and being a mother myself I want my children to learn about every culture that is in their ethnicity. I don't want them to not see how wonderful it is to have a Korean heritage. These two books are heartwrenching and powerful and those of us that have denied our Korean heritage no longer need to feel ashamed. I want to say thank you to Helie Lee for writing these books. You are truly an inspiration.

I felt like I was part of the author's family with her endearing and brutally honest descriptions of them. I am an American volunteering in Africa, who got this book as a gift. Being here, I could understand the issues of poverty, corruption, paranoia. But, her vivid accounts of getting her family out of North Korea brought it to another level of desperation. I went away inspired by her mission and wanting to know more about the status of her North Korean family.

This book is an amazing account of the Author trying to help her 82year old Grandmother unit their family from North Korea. Her realizations of the Dangers she has put her family and herself show the reality of This Communist country and it's leader. I highly recommend it and the the first book. Life in Rice. Both written by Helie Lee

One of the best books that I have ever read! It is life changing. Definitely recommended for anyone.