Customer Reviews

THE FOREIGN STUDENT (SIGNED)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I usually dislike reading KA fiction because it gets irritating when authors write about Korea but describe the country with skewed, distorted myths about it's culture and history and auto-Orientalist themes that cater to the mainstream.

Not so with this novel. I found myself completely lost in the story, not even caring about the "authenticity" issue because Choi does what all great writers do: she re-imagines and re-creates a palpable "real" universe that stops time. The fictional world transcends almost everything else I've read by Korean Americans, making you believe the characters, the location, the feelings. In short, it is a beautifully written novel and my personal favorite of all the Asian American novels I've read.

That having been said, I am happy to attest that Choi does indeed write about the truth of the Korean War that goes against the conventional American myths about this unknown conflict. Choi does not hesitate to go into little known aspects of the war such as S. Korean President Syngman Rhee's execution of political prisoners and the Cheju/Yosu rebellions which took 100,000 lives even before the Korean War erupted in June 1950. Moreover, Choi depicts the Orientalist, racist experiences for Chang, a foreigner in America's South, and subtly links it to America's damaging foreign policies that warped Korea. She even resurrects a devastatingly convincing portrait of Gen. Hodge, the commander of the US military government in S. Korea--you can practically hear him breathing and speaking. This novel is startling in its audacity to depict America's occluded responsibility for the war that probably even challenges what most Koreans over 50 believe. As a former fact-checker for the New Yorker magazine, I suspect that she used her skills to do meticulous research into the origins of the Korean War. Having lived in Korea (and in Chicago, where her description of Clark and Belmont is right on) I am surpised by her accuracy and the "truth" of her details. I've read an article where Choi downplays the "authenticity" issue of her novel, and emphasizes that it is fiction. She's right, of course, but I am simply delighted that she has rendered a beautiful story that will not only impress the common reader, but satisfy those familiar with Korean history. Her research only heightens the pleasure of reading this gem of a novel.

There's no doubt that Choi is a fine writer. Her descriptive powers are phenomenal; line by line, this novel is a gem. But what really stands out in this debut is Choi's intense psychological digging of her two main characters. To say that she gets into their heads would be a great understatement. When you read this book, you live these two characters' lives -- and goodness, what lonely lives they lead. I think that's why the scenes between Chuck and Katherine smolder -- because they are two lonely people fighting their own battles through their love for each other. For me, the best part of the book was seeing the _creep_ of love, the way it climbs like ivy -- slowly and in tangles, its resilience and its power to bore through -- even through the stone exteriors of these two characters.

Furthermore, I believe this is the first work to actually use the Korean War as a significant backdrop. Kudos for you, Ms. Choi -- somebody had to do it, and I'm glad it was you, because you did it right.

This is by far the best-written work I've come across that deals with issues inclduing the Korean War, Koreans in America, etc. But more than that, it's a novel of manners about the South in the 1950's. I'd given up on a lot of stuff that is categorized under "Asian American fiction," but this is one of those novels that you don't want to put down. It's beautifully written, evocative, and the best novel--in any category-- that I've read in years.

THE FOREIGN STUDENT is a well crafted novel that deserves more attention than it received when it was initally released. Perhaps with the increasing interest in written works by Asians there will be a belated audience - author Choi deserves it. There were elements in reading Ha Jin's "The Bridegroom" stories that rang a responsive memory bell about Choi's book, encouraging a return to re-approach Choi's work. On second reading it gains in quality. Choi has quite successfully captured the sense of buried secrets carried by us all, but epitomized in her Chang, her Katherine, and the entire tenor of contemporary life in the South - both American and Korean. Similarites to the youthful struggle with ideolgies, loss, muted desire, resolution or dissipation.....Choi captures it all with smooth, elegant yet walloping writing. This is a fine novel.....let's hope more are coming.

A+. Like an addiction! I love this book. Susan Choi captures the essence of rural America in her odd, thrilling first novel. Choi has cooked up two radically distinct story lines, each one wonderful. With its longing, thoughtful prose, Katherine's tale reveals a woman whose life revolves around a single daring act, while Chang's story is a devastaing unveiling of pain. In the scene where Katherine confronts Chang in the Silliman dining hall, Choi cunningly reheats an observation first made by the lyricist Anton Regalado "Men and lions can die. Kingdoms fall and time will end. Only our pride survives." Powerful characters, keenly drawn emotions--a feast. I can't wait for the next serving from Choi!

Katherine Monroe and her mother, Glee, are two of the most vivid women I have encountered in fiction for quite a long time. I began reading this book about two years ago, and although I put it down, I never was able to put out of my mind the opening chapter, when Chuck arrives at Sewanee and meets Katherine for the first time. Finally I have read the entire book, and I feel that it will haunt me for quite a while. One flaw in this beautiful novel is the love affair between Katherine and Chuck. I don't see that these very different people would attract one another. I found myself rooting for the depraved Charles Addison. Another flaw lies in the sometimes-lengthy flashbacks to the Korean War. They were sometimes labored and struck me as the product of fastidious research rather than first-hand knowledge (which would be impossible given Choi's birth in 1969). Aside from this, the novel is well worth reading and I look forward to Choi's future novels.

A friend in San Francisco went to see Ms. Choi read and brought this book home for me. For the next two days, I came to work bleary-eyed and happy.

The book is divided between the Korean War and American south, and Choi weaves in and out of both effortlessly -- the love affair unfolds like the petals of a flower, each more interesting and complex, and the War sections are as powerful as anything by Remarque or Orwell.

She excels at intimate scenes -- a couple in a kitchen or a car -- her skill at limning the unspoken tensions between Chang and Katherine is astonishing. Watch for the scene in which the two drive to Chattanooga together. And -- the dissolution of the affair betwen Katherine and an aging professor is precise and poignant. And the ending is just... well, I won't give that away, but it's a doozy.

There's a lifetime's worth of experience and wisdom in this book. I hope Ms. Choi's got it in her to do it again!

Katherine Monroe and her mother, Glee, are two of the most vivid women I have encountered in fiction for quite a long time. I began reading this book about two years ago, and although I put it down, I never was able to put out of my mind the opening chapter, when Chuck arrives at Sewanee and meets Katherine for the first time. Finally I have read the entire book, and I feel that it will haunt me for quite a while. One flaw in this beautiful novel is the love affair between Katherine and Chuck. I don't see that these very different people would attract one another. I found myself rooting for the depraved Charles Addison. Another flaw lies in the sometimes-lengthy flashbacks to the Korean War. They were sometimes labored and struck me as the product of fastidious research rather than first-hand knowledge (which would be impossible given Choi's birth in 1969). Aside from this, the novel is well worth reading and I look forward to Choi's future novels.

There is an error in the Amazon reviewer's comments on "The Foreign Student." I feel it should be corrected because it has a bearing on the story. Chang, the foreign student, was not tortured in a Communist internment camp, but in a South Korean prison. There is a sadness and brutality in that distinction that I am sure was important to Susan Choi.

Choi's first novel is quite good and I anxiously await her next work. Hurry up, Susan! My special interest in "The Foreign Student" is twofold. Korea was my home for twenty years, and I wanted to see how well Choi presented a Korean male protagonist to the American reading public. She did an excellent job but with a soft spot here and there.

There is a scene in this novel that made me put the book aside for a moment in wonder at such grand writing. Chang is thinking about his best friend Kim, a Communist, who might be dead or in the Communist north, and never to be seen again. He remembers Kim once saying to him, "Do you know what I think makes a great man? It's not what he does, but whether or not he has passion, the kind we have now, when he is old. And I will. I shall."

I think that thought is true and thank Susan Choi for reminding me of it in such a lyrical way.

This novel deserves five stars but I give it four so that Choi might work quickly on her next piece and not lose her young passion.-----Joe Psarto, Westlake, Ohio

The Foreign Student is an amazing novel in which character, setting and dialogue are beautifully, movingly rendered. Choi's style is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's in its delicate interweaving of past and present, where painful, deep-seated memories and feelings are gradually, hesitatingly revealed. I found myself constantly rereading passages to absorb the beauty of the language better, and thoroughly enjoyed the story of these two people trying to find their way in this small pocket of the world. Read The Foreign Student.