The Lucky Gourd Shop (Hardcover)

~ Joanna Catherine Scott (Author) "FOR WEEKS WE HAVE WAITED FOR THIS LETTER from Korea..." (more)
Key Phrases: gourd shop, fat teacher, lucky gourd, Kun Soo, Dae Young, Eun Hye (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Joanna Scott's richly imagined The Lucky Gourd Shop begins in America, where the adoptive mother of three Korean children tries to find out more about their pasts. But where she fails, we succeed; the rest of the novel takes us back a generation, to a South Korea ravaged by years of poverty and war. There we meet Mi Sook--orphan, independent spirit, and, as soon becomes clear, the children's birth mother. Found abandoned in an alley and raised like a stray in the back room of a coffee shop, Mi Sook grows up pretty, bubbly, and happy enough, but still "that rare creature in her society, one who did not draw her sense of self from fixed relationships with others." In South Korea, of course, to be without fixed relationships--to be without family--is to live in a dangerous limbo, and soon enough Mi Sook finds trouble. Throughout the events that follow, Scott's powerful narrative voice never fails to convince. In her telling, this is a story without villains; even the violent husband is no monster when we learn the intense economic and cultural pressures with which he struggles. More to the point, it's also a story without victims; as in all great works of literature, Scott's characters are made of flesh and blood, capable of agency and action and especially mistakes. This first novel succeeds on a number of levels, as an imaginative leap between nations and generations and as a snapshot of a culture in transition. Most of all, however, The Lucky Gourd Shop is a precise, affecting, and unsentimental portrait of Mi Sook herself, of hardships endured without knowing they're hardships and choices that are scarcely choices at all. --Chloe Byrne

From Library Journal

This tale of a ravaged contemporary South Korea quickly shatters the reader's complacency. Scott, author of Pursuing Pauline, a story of women in revolution, has written a riveting, compelling, and disturbing novel. The main characters are three Korean children who first we meet as Americanized teenagers searching for their heritage. We are quickly taken back to Seoul ten years earlier, where the story of Li Na, Dae Young, and Tae Hee unfolds. Remembering that this story takes place in contemporary times is often a difficult task because of the primitive surroundings and starvation fare. Mi Sook, the children's mother, doomed by circumstances to fail, has to abandon the children to an orphanage where they were found by their American family. But there is more to the story, and it soon becomes evident that the children's history will remain a mystery. Scott's descriptive talent is enormous; at times you wish it were not so good. Recommended for all venues.DPatricia Gulian, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878448013
• ISBN-13: 978-1878448019
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,367,885 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Verse set to Music, February 7, 2001

By	Pennsylvania Pat (Carlisle PA USA) - See all my reviews

After reading book reviews in The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor applauding Joanna Catherine Scott's book "The Lucky Gourd Shop" I had to get my own copy. For once I wasn't disappointed. Scott's literary style is brilliant, one that could only be accomplished by a gifted poet. Her words flow like verse set to music. The characters, when introduced, fly from the pages and become real people with a sometimes sad, but often enough uplifting, tale to tell. I love books that take the reader to a different place, one that would be impossible to get to. The Lucky Gourd Shop did that for me. Scott introduces the reader to a South Korea, desolated by war, overrun by poverty. Only the author's personal background in Asia and her passionate research with attention to the most minute of details could have accomplished the presentation of a place so different from the one we inhabit. At times on the journey through "The Lucky Gourd Shop" it's difficult to comprehend that this place exists in our world. Scott's characterizations are outstanding. I will always remember that grandmother, plugging away, never giving up, and trying to do the best with what she has for her family. The little boy, not really a child, watching over his sisters, grubbing for food and surviving in his meager existence is another unforgettable, real person. The wedding shop owner brings to mind the indomitable Asian women running businesses in our neighborhoods. The husband, though a drunk and a wife-beater, grabs the reader's sympathy because of the cultural burden imposed on him by the narrow society he occupies. Then there's Mi Song, who couldn't comprehend how many times she had been "found", or passed from one person to another since her early abandonment in back of the Seoul coffee shop. Throughout the book as she missed opportunities, faced choices, I wanted to shout out, "No, no, don't do that...go the other way!" But oh, how she perseveres! How proud Scott's adopted Korean children must be at the perhaps fictional but nonetheless believable presentation of this brave woman as their birth mother. They also must be proud of Joanna Catherine Scott, the mother who has cherished them since their early childhood for presenting them with this penetrating narrative reflecting their heritage. The "Lucky Gourd Shop" is a must read! I only wish there was a sixth star available for me to rate it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Never Fails to Convince -- by Chloe Byrne, June 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lucky Gourd Shop (Paperback)

Joanna Scott's richly imagined The Lucky Gourd Shop begins in America, where the adoptive mother of three Korean children tries to find out more about their pasts. But where she fails, we succeed; the rest of the novel takes us back a generation, to a South Korea ravaged by years of poverty and war. There we meet Mi Sook--orphan, independent spirit, and, as soon becomes clear, the children's birth mother. Found abandoned in an alley and raised like a stray in the back room of a coffee shop, Mi Sook grows up pretty, bubbly, and happy enough, but still "that rare creature in her society, one who did not draw her sense of self from fixed relationships with others." In South Korea, of course, to be without fixed relationships--to be without family--is to live in a dangerous limbo, and soon enough Mi Sook finds trouble.
Throughout the events that follow, Scott's powerful narrative voice never fails to convince. In her telling, this is a story without villains; even the violent husband is no monster when we learn the intense economic and cultural pressures with which he struggles. More to the point, it's also a story without victims; as in all great works of literature, Scott's characters are made of flesh and blood, capable of agency and action and especially mistakes. This novel succeeds on a number of levels, as an imaginative leap between nations and generations and as a snapshot of a culture in transition. Most of all, however, The Lucky Gourd Shop is a precise, affecting, and unsentimental portrait of Mi Sook herself, of hardships endured without knowing they're hardships and choices that are scarcely choices at all.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, March 13, 2001

By	John Biggs (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

I have just returned from a trip to a remote part of Mexico, where perhaps incongruously I read the most wonderful book about Korea, "The Lucky Gourd Shop." Some how it didn't seem out of place. The novel is an Asian "My Antonia," reminding us that the frontier qualities of courage, independence, and determination transcend nation and culture. "The Lucky Gourd Shop" has everything you look for in a book: an engaging story, characters you care about, a glimpse at an unfamilar (to me anyway) culture, insight into human nature, and gorgeous language (Scott is also a poet). This is a book I am giving and recommending to family and friends, and I recommend it to you.