The Island of Sea Women

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I made it about halfway to the boat before I had to flip onto my back to float and rest for a moment. A stupendous multigenerational family saga, See’s latest also provides an enthralling cultural anthropology highlighting the soon-to-be-lost, matriarchal haenyeo phenomenon and an engrossing history of violently tumultuous twentieth-century Korea.

For not only are they under the duress of their diving but they as living on Jeju island where they are undergoing the realities of the times.This book spans decades, following Japanese colonialism of Korea in the 1930s and 40s, World War II, the Korean War, and the present day. I turned the last page enriched by the experience of my reading, and was left with awe and admiration for these women of the sea and their strength, both physical and mental. I had some truly great experiences interviewing women in their homes, but my favorite interviews were with the women who sit on the beach to gather and sort the algae and seaweed that’s washed ashore overnight. Set amid sweeping historical events,The Island of Sea Women is the extraordinary story of Young-sook and Mi-ja, of women’s daring, heartbreak, strength, and forgiveness. Yes, there are the few women that we all know about—the Bronte sisters, Emily Dickinson, George Sand, Virginia Woolf, and a few others—but really they were few and far between.

It’s been a long time since she’s been touched by someone so white, and she instinctively pulls away.Discuss how common you think it is even today for daughters to follow in their mothers’ footsteps—personally or professionally. Three roundtrips, carrying earthenware jugs in my hands, were required to get enough water to satisfy our morning needs. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers. Since this book spans so many years we are audience to the many atrocities that accompany wars and demonstrations of control.