Por una parte tenemos a Akiko, que nos va a narrar su dura historia, siendo exclava sexual de los japoneses, en la época de la Segunda Guerra Mundial cuando Japón había invadido Corea, y las barabaridades que estos hicieron allí. La trama nos va a ser contada a dos voces. Ha sido un libro super interesante, pero me ha parecido algo lioso a veces. It is highly evocative, challenging, but most of all gives you every reason to care about a mother and her daughter.ģ,5 Me ha quedado un regusto agridulce al acabar este libro. The book is a breezy read, but never simple. Keller does an excellent job weaving the different pieces of the story together. It's the relationship between Akiko/ Soon Hyo and her daughter Beccah that make something that is 'just' history into something vital, human, and immediate.įrom the viewpoint of someone who writes, the decision to have Akiko/ Soon Hyo tell her story from her own perspective is very impressive, and was probably the hardest to write. This aspect of the book shines as the most essential part of the story, and it is made that much more stronger by our ability to empathize with Beccah's struggles through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. But for me, the strongest narrative element is the relationship between Beccah and her mother. The author is also skilled at examining what happens to bodies and their spirits when faced with these terrible incidences. The author uses it skillfully to examine issue of trauma, the meanings of names and the systematic violence that occurs when a culture is dominated by an outside force. The issue of history is certainly important in this book, and provides it with a very unique backdrop. The issue of the enslavement of Korean women to service Japanese soldiers during the war is at once a catalyst, a terrible haunting force, and the barrier to a better understanding of family lineage.

The comfort women issue-perhaps one of the most contentious and controversial subjects in Japanese-Korean relations-is the backdrop of this amazing novel. A Book that is about Far More than just History

Comfort woman keller