Helie Lee

The story of Helie and her family's arduous journey to free her long lost uncle and his family from the harsh realities of North Korea was captivating and heart wrenching. This story is a follow up to her first novel, which sadly, is the underlying reason for the rescue described in this novel. Her uncle was in North Korea and if found to have family in the U.S.A. it could be fatal to him. Having lived in South Korea for a number of years I was aware of the realities of the North but this show more book informed me on a much deeper level to the horrendous treatment of the general people in that country. It still amazes me that in such a modern world we have people treated thus.

In addition, I recognized my own fears and resentments in Helie as an older single woman and the pressures put on women to fulfill the role of wife early. Her journey to understanding herself through the trials she faced was enlightening. I am so glad she did not end up with the guide, because although he did help her to grow in ways she couldn't have foreseen at the start, he wasn't what she would need in a man. show less

Still Life with Rice was my favorite title for a graduate class focusing on Asian-American authors. Lee's retelling of her grandmother's incredible story made me envious. I will never know my grandmothers' stories for both are long gone and I didn't think, as a child, that their stories mattered. What I would do for a chance to turn back time and interview them!

biography that reads like historical fiction. Helie's grandmother and her sisters emigrate to California with her family. With her prompting, Helie gets them to start talking about Korea and her grandmother's life was astounding. Helie tells grandmother's story in Hongyong Back's voice. She was raised in a unified Korea in a wealthy family, had an arranged marriage and moved into her husband's parent's home. During the first Japanese occupation, she flees with her husband to China where show more there is a small Korean settlement, and after husband spends her dowry, she founds businesses, including smuggling opium. Then they go back to Korea, settling in the North near their original home. But during the Korean war, husband and son leave home to escape being drafted into the army, which gets Hongyong thrown into jail for a month, with her eldest daughter walking her baby sister to the jail daily, so her mother can nurse her. When she is released, she eventually gathers her remaining children and starts the slow and dangerous trek into South Korea. Eventually, her oldest daughter marries and emigrates, with Hongyong Beck only leaving in 1976 to join her daughters. By a pure miracle in 1991, she finds that her eldest son never made it out of North Korea and now has a family. The book ends with the hope of getting him out of North Korea, an almost impossible task show less

Lee and her father travel to China to find her rediscovered Uncle, in an attempt to reunite him with his mother (Lee's grandmother, the heroine of her first book). Lee's journey across the border and her own journey of identity and character, recovering from a failed love, unfold simultaneously. Her challenges of limitations and cultural prejudices are embodied in her relationship with the guide who will ultimately find and bring 9 members of the family out of North Korea. He professes his show more love for her, she sees him as human and lovable, and herself, then, as well. The harrowing exploits and the complicated arrangements of two groups of refugees escaping North Korea are sharply contrasted with Lee's detailed descriptions of designer goods and the Western focus on appearances. show less