To Swim Across the World [Hardcover]

Ginger Park (Author), Frances Park (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2001

Korea, 1941, for Sei-Young Shin, a young man born into a poor family in the rural south, it is a time of oppression. The Japanese have issued strict provisions against the Korean language, religion, and food, and Sei-Young is learning important lessons about humiliation and defiance. For Heisook Pang, the daughter of a prominent minister in northern Korea, life is easier. But the onset of World War II changes everything, as Heisooks privilages are suddenly stripped away, and she is forced to make a daring escape, slipping across the border into the South, where her destiny crossed that of Sei-Young in an encounter that changes both their lives forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aim a telescope at a constellation or a village street and each degree of magnification makes the field smaller and the detail greater. This fine, intimate novel about two young Koreans one from the North, one from the South growing up during the Japanese occupation, WWII and the Korean War, focuses on small fields. Sei-Young Shin knows poverty and hunger in a mountain village in the South: he is the son of a drunken wood-carver and a stoic mother. "Hunger was just a way of life, like waking up and hoping for a bowl of rice soup and soy sauce, perhaps with ferns, for the morning meal." Life is not as difficult for Heisook Pang, the daughter of a relatively prosperous Korean family living in the North. But for both Sei-Young and Heisook, suffering under Japanese political domination, their Korean identity is always central. The story is spun delicately, illuminating the day-to-day journey through time and distance and fortune that brings Heisook and Sei-Young together, and Sei-Young to the position of assistant to President Syngman Rhee, where he is tossed into the crucible of historical events. After the Korean War, they decide to leave their tragically divided country for America. Frances Park is author of When My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon. She and her sister, who coauthored My Freedom Trip: A Child's Escape from North Korea (winner of the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award), based this book on real events in their parents' lives. Their first fictional collaboration is an affecting work that resonates with their Korean heritage and accurately reflects the tumultuous history of their country over the past six decades. 5-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The Parks seamlessly weave the stories of Sei-Young, a young man from rural South Korea, and Heisook, the daughter of a prominent North Korean family, into the tapestry of Korean history from the Japanese occupation to the end of the Korean War. We hear the voices of both as they take turns telling their stories, in which unfolding history brings tragedy to the families of both. Heisook must endure the repression of first the Japanese occupation and then the Communists in the North. Sei-Young becomes involved in Korean politics but is never really sure whether he is on the right side. Both suffer the disappearances and death of beloved family members, and somehow both keep connected to the past while striving toward an uncertain future. When Heisook makes a harrowing escape to the south, her path and Sei-Young's intertwine. The Parks, who are sisters, richly convey the sounds, tastes, and sensory riches of Korea in this wonderful novel based on the experiences of their parents. Marlene Chamberlain
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Miramax Books (June 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786867337
• ISBN-13: 978-0786867332
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,622,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A NON-TRADITIONAL LOVE STORY, September 27, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Swim Across the World (Hardcover)

It is an amazing story of faith and survival. It is also a love story - a nontraditional one because ardent patriotism is intrinsic to the love between the man and woman whose lives are recounted in "To Swim Across The World."

The son of an impoverished woodcarver, Sei-Young Shin lives in Nabi, a mountain village in Southern Korea. Sei-Young's father finds relief from the terrors of the Japanese occupation in rice wine; his mother wears a mask of impassive resignation.

The boy is nurtured by his adored grandfather, a Christian minister, who, when dismissing the youngster's Japanese dictated name, says, "Your name is Sei-Young, which means 'to swim across the world.' Someday you will do just that."

Hoping for a better tomorrow does not assuage the boy's present travail. "Hunger was just a way of life, "Sei-Young observes, "like waking up and hoping for a bowl of rice soup and soy sauce, perhaps with ferns, for the morning meal."

During World War II a lack of food was less painful than seeing his grandfather hung by the heels then clubbed by Japanese soldiers as the old man is told to bow to Shinto, not God. Sei-Young suffers in silence as their hut is ransacked, the clothes ripped from his mother's body. He weeps openly when his younger brother falls ill and dies.

Following the war Sei-Young becomes a student at The Christian Boys' Academy in Seoul. In 1948, after Syngman Rhee's election as Korea's first President, Sei-Young is amazed to be appointed assistant to the leader. But all too soon Seoul's streets erupt at the outbreak of the Korean War.

Just as Sei-Young is coming of age in the South, Heisook Pang is growing up in North Korea. The daughter of an influential clergyman, life is much easier for Heisook; in fact, so abundant that she asks her mother why they are called "the privileged Pangs." It is her father who tells her the truth - he gives the Japanese money from his church.

Confused and disheartened by this revelation, Heisook finds no solace from her mother, a woman of "veiled emotions" who suffers seasonal illnesses. The girl's beliefs are challenged by a beloved older brother who detests the Japanese and denies the existence of heaven.

Rev. Pang's payment to the Japanese does not protect his family from the effects of war. Heisook is forced to abandon her education, instead spending school hours repairing garments for Japanese soldiers. When her brother is called to duty in the Imperial Army, certain death for Koreans, he flees.

Following the establishment of the 38th Parallel, Rev. Pang finds sanctuary at the Seoul Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Pang, clinging to the belief that some day her son will return, refuses to leave home but sends Heisook to join her father. What follows is a young woman's harrowing escape across a treacherous border to a strange city.

However, it is in Seoul that Heisook and Sei-Young will meet, fall in love, and marry.

Based on the true story of their mother and father, the author's have woven a remarkable testimony to the power of courage and love. If, from time to time, Frances and Ginger Park have idealized their parents, they are to be forgiven. "To Swim Across The World" is a moving, almost miraculous journey, an inspiration to all.

- Gail Cooke

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Touching Story of Perseverance and Faith, October 18, 2001

By 

A. Wolverton (Crofton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Swim Across the World (Hardcover)

'To Swim Across the World' is the story of two young Koreans during a difficult time, the late 1940's and early 1950's. We meet Sei-Young, a poor boy who decides to try to lift his family out of poverty by performing demanding work for a Japanese farmer. Sei-Young's father drinks away the family's money while the mother takes care of Kwan-Young, Sei-Young's little brother. Life is quite different for Heisook, a young girl with an unusual family: Her father, although a Christian minister, is somewhat prosperous due to the fact that church offering money buys his family protection from the ruling Japanese authorities. Heisook's brother is a rebellious, wheels-off teenager, and her mother seems to have more love for the children in the local orphanage than for her own. Heisook believes that she has faith in God until Communist forces in North Korea change their lives forever.

'To Swim Across the World' offers alternating chapters from both Sei-Young and Heisook from childhood until adulthood. The book is a fictionalized biography of the Park sisters' parents. I enjoyed the book very much. Like other reviewers, I found the book to be a page-turner. Reading about another culture in a time of distress during our current time of distress was encouraging and soothing. This is a story about having faith, losing it, and finding it again. The book can be read by adults and young adults alike. I think the book could be very valuable especially now for young readers who can discover how other people in other places handle adversity and seemingly overwhelming odds. A good book for our times and for our faith.

One reviewer from Korea blasted this book, accusing it of being historically inaccurate. I don't know much about Korean history, but I do know that when I want to learn about it, I'll go to a history book, not a novel. Good novels are about people and the things they think and feel. It doesn't have to be historically accurate. (That's why it's called 'fiction!') If you want to learn about history, pick up a history book. If you want an enjoyable, touching story, pick up 'To Swim Across the World.'

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exquisitely moving and poignant, July 14, 2001

By 

Laurel Chaput, PhD (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Swim Across the World (Hardcover)

Long ignored in the history of our collective consciousness as a society and specific culture are the important contributions made by the richness and diversity of those who courageously left other places, for whatever reason...to embark on a journey to our shores. We have done an abysmal job of welcoming them in the truest sense of the spirit of welcome. We have asked them to forget their rich backgrounds to the degree, as the Parks so movingly report, that they deny it themselves. We require them to commit almost a form of spiritual genocide merely to be a part of what is this culture. This moving story should be required reading and we should be unable to successfully complete a high school education in the absence of a clear sense of honor and deep respect for the experiences that people such as the Parks bring to us. I am grateful for their courage, dignity...and extend my sincerest welcome.