Gathering of Pearls [Hardcover]

Sook Nyul Choi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1994

The conclusion to the remarkable story of the young Korean heroine of Year of Impossible Goodbyes and Echoes of the White Giraffe. Sookan travels to the United States to begin her freshman year of college where she faces the difficulties of leaving her family and beginning a new life in a foreign land.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sookan, the young Korean heroine of Year of Impossible Goodbyes and Echoes of the White Giraffe, has arrived in the United States to attend a women's college at the start of Choi's latest novel, set in 1954-1955. Having survived the war in her homeland, Sookan now faces the challenges of learning English and adapting to a new culture while keeping up with her studies and making friends during her freshman year. She works harder than anyone else and endears herself to her classmates, roommate and professors. But the pressures of too much work, combined with homesickness, lead to exhaustion-and a more relaxed approach to the college experience. When she receives bad news from her family in Seoul, she struggles to "turn her pain into pearls of wisdom and understanding," as her mother has always urged. Despite some poignant scenes, this novel lacks the emotional depth and clear, exciting story lines of its predecessors. Sookan plays an almost martyrly role here, and the first-person narration shows her continually praising herself or being praised by others for her kindness and good deeds; her strength and spunk are conspicuously absent. Admirers of the earlier works may find this pristine, cheery world rather dull. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-12-This novel completes the autobiographical trilogy begun in Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Dell, 1993) and continued in Echoes of the White Giraffe (Houghton, 1993). Here the story begins with Sookan's arrival in White Plains, New York, in 1954 to start college, where she is the only Korean student at a small Catholic school for women. She confronts all the problems of adjustment normal to freshmen, plus the added burdens of absorbing a foreign culture and earning extra money. It is easy to fall in love with this gentle girl. She combines a delicate sweetness with a fierce determination to fulfill her dreams. She works hard to produce her own blend of cultures and values-she delights in the new, and tempers it with the traditional. She also attempts to maintain a correspondence with family members struggling to rebuild their lives in post-war Korea, but they see her as a deserter. Only her mother understands her yearnings and conflicts. The soul-searching quality of Choi's prose is at least as important to this beautiful novel as the plot line. It is not essential to have read the previous books to appreciate this one, but its full impact will be diminished for those unfamiliar with Sookan's experiences growing up in her war-torn homeland. On the other hand, those who responded to the suspense, hardship, and emotional tensions of the first two novels may be disappointed by the quiet, introspective mood of this intimately rendered narrative. However, readers who share in this emotional journey with Sookan will grow along with her in wisdom.
Margaret Cole, Oceanside Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; None edition (September 26, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395674379
• ISBN-13: 978-0395674376
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,581,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gathering of Pearls, February 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gathering of Pearls (Hardcover)

I rated this book four stars because it was a good book and kept my interest, but it wasn't my favorite book ever. I really enjoyed Gathering of Pearls because it was about a girl in college, and it helped me to see what college will be like. Recently, I've been looking up some information on the Internet about the college that I'm planning to go to. I also am thinking about which dorm I want to live in, and all of its fees. This book held my interest well because it told me more about the hardships of college life and what college life is like. It also told me what dorms are like.

There aren't really any other books that I know of that are similar to this one in any way, but I'm overall interested in Fiction and Fantasy books. I was surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did since it was more real-life than anything. This book is a sequel to Year of impossible Goodbyes and Echoes of the White Giraffe. Year of Impossible Goodbyes won a Judy Lopez Award and was chosen as an American Library Association Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults. The author of these books, Sook Nyul Choi, also made a picture book titled Halmoni and the Picnic.

This book is mainly about a girl named Sookan who is a foreign exchange student from Korea. She goes to a college in New York City, and finds out how different life in the United States is from Korean life. Sookan struggles with an internal and external conflict. She doesn't know if she should act Korean and keep Korea's ways or give up all of that and act like Americans. She is afraid that of she becomes to American-like her family will be dissatisfied with how she has become. Sookan finds that she is becoming more American-like and scolds herself for not following the Korean ways enough. Her external conflict is that she overworks herself with all of her subjects and gets a serious lack of sleep since she studies so much. She would stay up many hours into the night and study, sleep a few hours, and wake up early to study more. It's very interesting how she fights through all of her difficulties, so I would definitely recommend this book to teenagers interested in college and/or becoming a foreign exchange student in the future.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've read a lot of books and this one is good, April 10, 2003

By 

D. M. Petersen (Salt Lake City, UTAH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gathering of Pearls (Hardcover)

I don't like to write reviews, usually, but I'm breaking the rule because this is such a great trilogy and deserves its five stars, not its two or three from .... These books have depth and the author writes above average and a true book of fiction will ferret you out of your world and into theirs and this one does enjoyably.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars okay, June 26, 2009

By 

Melissa Sack (georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gathering of Pearls (Paperback)

Sookan is off to college. She struggles with things such as making new friends and managing her money as well as keeping up her grades. On top of this is a major struggle. Sookan is Korean and is going to a Catholic all girls school. She has to learn all about the culture as well as improve her English. She tries to fit in writing letters back home to her family but doesn't keep up with it well. It seems to her family that she has forgotten them. The only person that seems to understand is her mother. They remain connected through the miles, even as tragedy strikes the family back home.

Young teens may be able to relate to some of the feelings that Sookan is feeling. This would be a good book for teens to read if they are thinking of studying abroad.