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Loading... The Calligrapher’s Daughterby Eugenia Kim
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This book is really good. I knew about the Japanese occupation of Korea, and knew it was a source of resentment, but this book makes national issues much more personal. The main character is very compelling and you want to hear her story. I was hooked from the first page. (  ) OpheliaAwakens | Dec 1, 2009 |  JulieC0802 | Oct 13, 2009 | I enjoyed Eugenia Kim's tale of a young woman growing up during the Japanese occupation of Korea during the 20th century. I could not wait to read the next page. Kim drew me into the story and the lives of the characters, especially Najin. I especially liked Najin's mother. She showed great courage in standing up for Najin. The story is a good read of women's role in Korean society at this time. I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys reading coming of age fiction and/or women's courage as they struggle to win freedom from the old ways. wmcphail | Oct 7, 2009 | "The Calligrapher's Daughter" tells the story of a girl growing up and becoming a woman in Korea during Japan's occupation and through WWII. The history of this time was unfamiliar to me, but Eugenia Kim made it interesting and told it through the eyes of characters that you begin to care about. It delves into questions of family loyalty, faith, and tradition. Najin's questions of faith are familiar even though they are told through a different time and place. Her need for independence is admirable, but so is her devotion to her family. Overall, "The Calligrapher's Daughter" is a good read. It's detailed and slow at some points, but it all builds to create the world in which Najin lived. (  ) mama_kanga | Oct 7, 2009 | This was a beautiful coming of age story about a girl in Korea during the Japanese occupation. It is a period and place that I knew very little about. I was pulled into the story right from the beginning when we meet a young girl of five who does not yet have a name. Her father refuses to name her. He is a calligrapher and a political activist. Najin is finally given a name and as she grows into a young woman her life takes many unexpected turns due to the political unrest at the time and her father's determination to stick with the old ways. She is a strong character who earned my admiration. It is not a quick read but a book to be slowly read and savored. ( ) bookaholicmom | Sep 30, 2009 | 
This debut novel, inspired by the life of the author’s Korean mother, is a beautiful, deliberate and satisfying story spanning 30 years of Korean history. The tradition-bound aristocratic calligrapher Han refuses to name his daughter because she is born just as the Japanese occupy Korea early in the 20th century. When Han finds a husband for Najin (nicknamed after her mother’s birthplace) at 14, her mother objects and instead sends her to the court of the doomed royal Yi family to learn refinement. Najin goes to college and becomes a teacher, proving herself not only as a scholar but as a patriot and humanitarian. She returns home to marry, but her new husband goes without her to study in America when she is denied a visa. As the Japanese systematically obliterate ancient Korean culture and the political climate worsens, so do Najin’s fortunes. Her family is reduced to poverty, their home is seized and Najin is imprisoned as a spy while WWII escalates. The author writes at a languorous pace, choosing not to sully her elegant pages with raw brutality, but the key to the story is Korea’s monumental suffering at the hands of the Japanese. (Aug.)
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