Fox Girl

Overview

From the award-winning author of Comfort Woman?a heart-wrenching novel about two young girls in the aftermath of the Korean War

Nora Okja Keller, the acclaimed author of Comfort Woman, tells the shocking story of a group of young people abandoned after the Korean War. At the center of the tale are two teenage girls--Hyun Jin and Sookie, a teenage prostitute kept by an American soldier--who form a makeshift family with Lobetto, a lost boy who scrapes together a living running errands and pimping for neighborhood girls. Both horrifying and moving, Fox Girl at once reveals another layer of war's human detritus and the fierce love between a mother and daughter.

Editorial Reviews

The brutal candor and moving empathy that distinguished Keller's first novel about Korea, Comfort Woman, is again evident in this stark, disturbing portrait of that country's outcast children in the wake of the American occupation. Hyun Jin, the adolescent who narrates this absorbing story, is best friends with Sookie, doubly a "throwaway" child because her father was an American GI and her mother, Duk Hee, is a prostitute. Hyun Jin also carries a double burden: her face is disfigured by a large birthmark, and her mother treats her with hateful scorn. A third teenager, Lobetto, is the son of a black GI whose departure doomed Lobetto to a life scrounging as a pimp and a supplier for the whores of Chollak, a village near an army base outside of Pusan. Keller spares no sensibilities in depicting the bleakness and poverty of even ordinary civilian life in the postwar economy and the more desperate conditions of the despised women euphemistically described as "bar girls" at the GI clubs. Yet she sensitively reflects the naevete with which Hyun Jin views the horrifying circumstances of Sookie's life and her slide into prostitution, and the way Hyun Jin succumbs when she is disowned by her father. Hyun Jin's terrible coming-of-age encompasses more than her fall from grace; it's also a poignant story of a baby that she, Sookie and Lobetto share, and of the true bonds of motherhood. Unsentimental in portraying the callousness of human nature that's been degraded by violence and deprivation, Keller achieves eloquence in describing the pureness of spirit to which even the most bitter victim can rise. This rare, honest picture of a marginal society unfamiliar to most American readers is a signal contribution to Asian-American understanding. Author tour. (Apr. 1)Forecast: Despite its harsh subject, Keller's novel should do well on the basis of her strong writing and her courage in taking on women's issues. If Oprah takes a look, she could be hooked.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Author Information

Bio of Nora Okja Keller

Nora Okja Keller lives in Hawaii with her husband and two daughters.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Penguin (Non-Classics)

Filesize

1.12 MB

Number of Pages

320

eBook ISBN

9781440611810

Awards

• Orange Prize for Fiction