I first heard of “The Calligrapher’s Daughter” by Eugenia Kim when Jill (Soft Drink) at Fizzy Thoughts  talked about how much she loved this book (see her thoughts here).  Not long after that, she offered a give-away of a copy of this book — and I won!  I finally got a chance to read this novel recently.   I have to agree with Jill how good it is– or as she said, “375 pages of pure awesomeness”.   I actually stayed up past midnight to finish reading this book, and it’s been a long time since a book compelled me to do that.

When I started reading this novel, I was a little concerned at first when I saw that there were missionaries and talk of religious faith; especially after reading the “Kristin Lavransdatter” trilogy.  I was not in the mood for the possibility of more heavy-handed references to religious theology or preaching.  However, this book does not beat the reader over the head about religion.   Since this story takes place in Korea, a country where, as it says in the afterword,

 “is the only nation in the world where Christianity first took root without the priests of missionaries, but exclusively as a result of the written word — Bibles, translated into Chinese by Jesuits, that a Korean scholar official brought home from a diplomatic trip to Beijing in 1631″. 

 It seems that Christian missionaries came later to Korea, because the main character, Najin, attends a Christian school for girls run by American missionaries.

So, it’s only natural for Eugenia Kim to include religion as a major part of her novel (the story is actually inspired by the author’s mother’s life).  Najin, the calligrapher’s daughter, even falls in love with a man who later goes to America to study theology at Princeton.   Najin is not as religious as he is, so there were interesting passages in the novel where they discuss religious concepts.  She also wonders whether she will be a good minister’s wife, but her mother encourages her not to worry.

This novel takes place from the time that Najin is a small girl — she was born just when the Japanese took occupation of Korea (1910) — and ending when Korea was liberated, post-World War II.  I suppose this story could be considered a family saga.  Najin’s father is a calligrapher, seen with high respect since calligraphy was considered an art form.  Her mother (who I liked very much) is constantly supportive of Najin’s desire to be educated during a time when it was uncommon for girls to get education past grade school (if at all).  Najin has a dissolute younger brother.  There, of course, is Najin’s husband’s family as well.  One reason why I so much enjoyed this novel were the descriptions of the characters — I ended up feeling like I knew them well.  Here is an example of character description –this is Najin’s aunt:
“Imo was a little taller than my mother and not fat, but pillowlike, soft and round in all possible ways: her nearly white skin and hands, full lips, tiny rounded nose, curved elbows and even her earlobes.  She looked pliable and receptive, as if you could toss anything at her and it would make a dent, then settle in, but her austere elegance permitted only respect.  She wore a scent that brought to mind lilies and oranges, and her artful use of cosmetics required close examination to see the painted lines and feathery powder”.

“The Calligrapher’s Daughter” has the nice combination of descriptive characters and incidents, and enough pacing for me that I wanted to continue reading to find what would happen next.  A very good book, indeed!

Disclosure:  Once again, thanks to Jill for the give-away copy of this book!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 4:21 PM and is filed under book review, books, multicultural. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.