Customer Reviews

Voices from Another Place: A Collection of Works from a Generation Born in Korea and Adopted to Other Countries

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2 star:		(1)
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Yes, it's wonderful to have a collection of essays written by Korean adoptees. It's important, meaningful, and very much needed in a world (both Korea and America) which tends to ignore the uncomfortable and blame victims (in this case, adoptees) for their own misfortunes. Putting together our experiences into an anthology is a collective, empowering act.

So why was I so bored? I'm a fellow ADOPTEE, and I could barely get through this book. It's mainly because many of the adoptees in this collection are just plain bad writers, but it also has to do with the layout of the book--no overall theme, no linking together of stories, no effort to present these stories in a creative or innovative way.

Is it necessary to be creative? No. But since it's hard enough for our voices (as adoptees) to be heard in the first place, publishing dull, lifeless works like this anthology will do little to help raise awareness. This book is only really useful if assigned as an empathy assignment, but the creeping dullness would most likely counteract any positive effect it might have.

Voices from Another Place is a wonderful book for all international adoptive families to read. The feelings expressed by the adult adoptees are genuine and extremely sensitive. I reccomend the book to all adoptive parents of Korean born children. Much has changed in the adoption field over the last 40 years and social workers today are more in tune with the needs of adoptees to know their culture and past. This book clearly demonstrates the importance of acknowledging the adoptees past openly and honestly within the adoptive family.

As the older sibling of a Korean adoptee, I still remember the delight of welcoming my sister into our home 47 years ago. That was before the adoption of anyone in this book! Yet there were things I did not know, especially about the Korean culture. Not everything in the book applied to my sister, whose biological father was American. Each story is unqiue. Yet I have grieved with her over the losses and the special challenges that this book validates. It helps me know how to talk with her more. It helps me see her as a super survivor and to better understand the difficulties my parents had in understanding her needs. How I appreciate all who helped to tell the collective story!

Korean (and international) adoptees have so few venues for telling their stories that I hate to knock this one down. However, the stories fall into a dreary predictable sameness. Instead of highlighting how each adoptee is unique and how our stories can't be boiled down to a simple myth or stereotype, these stories don't have enough energy and "spark" to engage the reader. A notable exception, though, is the "Calling Card after Adrian Piper" which is a bilingual explanation why Korean adoptees who visit Korea can't speak Korean. I'd like to have some of those made for when I'm in Korea.

With a mixture of poetry, fiction, memoir, essay, photography and artwork, Voices from Another Place captures and conveys the hearts and minds of a creative and diverse group of adopted Koreans who share their struggles and successes from their own perspectives. From common roots as children in Korea, these voices speak of a generation of adults living around the world.

This is an excellent book for Korean adoptees and/or their parents. My mother wished she would have had this book when I was growing up. It gives the adoptee parents a glimpse of how the adoptee may feel. It was touching and heartbreaking and very healing for me. I can't wait to get my copy of the second book.