After the Korean war, the peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel. Thousands of refugees who had fled the fighting in the north were now stranded south of the demilitarized zone. Since the 1980s, there have been periodic family reunification meetings, but they are subject to the vagaries of political will and manipulation. In South Korea, families are chosen by lottery. Although over 133,000 South Koreans have applied since 1988, over 60% have already passed away. 20,000 people have been able to participate in a family reunion meeting. The rest wait.

The author's mother is one of those waiting to be allowed to meet her sister. This book arose from the author's interviews with her mother and two other elderly Koreans who were separated from family during the war. The result is a novel based on the anguish of the original separation, the desperation of not knowing if your loved ones have survived, and the repeatedly dashed hopes of not being chosen for the sporadically arranged meetings.

Although I liked The Waiting, I felt it didn't have quite the power of her first graphic novel, Grass. I also missed the nature imagery that permeated Grass. Still a worthwhile read, however. ( )

I felt myself again regretting that I could not have a copy of this in Korean rather than English but I am thankful that we have a library system that purchases a diverse range of literature. With both this book and Gendry-Kim's Grass, I found myself most moved by the theme or tragedy, rather, of displacement.

I did not talk about it in my review of Grass but that theme seems to be the thing that bothers me the most. The forced displacement of human beings by other human beings and the attendant suffering through slavery or forced labor, loss of family and connection to home, and the suffering as a refugee in a place that is not necessarily welcoming. This seems to be a failing of human beings that continues to the present and, regrettably, will continue for the foreseeable future.

Again, the artwork really is key to telling this story and it is very well done. I highly recommend both Grass and The Waiting as graphic novels that teach and tell a story that everyone should read.

"This issue isn't simply about Korean people, Korean history, or my mother, and the Korean war isn't the only war where families were separated. We were not the only ones who were forced to flee our hometowns because of war." Keum Suk Gendry-Kim ( )

The Waiting is a fictional account of the life of the author's mother. The story is set in Korea before, during and after the Korean War in both North and South Korea. When Gwija was 17 her family rushed to marry her off because they had heard that the Japanese occupiers were seizing unmarried girls. However, Japan soon fell and Korea gained its independence. Gwija began having children and while she was on the run out of North Korea she became separated from her husband and young son. While she searched for them for days, Gwija soon realized that if she didn't leave them behind that she would be stuck in the North. Seventy years later, daughter Jina decides to help her mother locate her lost son as well as a lost sister. She is hopeful that a program that unites families from both countries for a day will select Gwija into the program. Most of the narrative of this graphic novel focuses on Gwija's march south. American jets overhead shot at the refugees, increasing the desperation of the migrants.

The author's first graphic novel, Grass, dealt with the women who were taken by the Japanese soldiers during WWII. The history of Korea continues with The Waiting. Both stories are heartbreaking. Here we read about the pain people felt over the separation of their country and, fortunately, before this older generation passes into history. Most Koreans are much younger and do not understand what it feels like to be separated from your family. The story is quite sad but is informative for those of us lucky to not have experienced what the author calls the "wounds of war." ( )

This historical fiction is a moving and heartbreaking look at the price of war on the civilian population, which in our histories of war are so often overlooked or reduced to cold statistics. For instance, this contrasts well with the recent Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Cold War Correspondent: A Korean War Tale, a graphic history that is almost entirely focused on American journalists and soldiers.

Additionally, the present-day framing sequence is equally engaging for its illumination of aging and the generation gap evident in its mother/daughter relationship.

It's interesting how much Keum Suk Gendry-Kim has grown as a writer an artist since her previous book, Grass. I look forward to seeing what she does next. ( )