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A review by esdeecarlson
The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee
5.0
[This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review]
5 stars
The Evening Hero may well be the best book I’ve read so far this year. A rich and nuanced take on feelings of ‘otherness’ after displacement, The Evening Hero provides an insider-outsider’s view into both America and Korea (North, South, past, and present).
Yungman Kwak, the novel’s titular evening hero, is a man at the twilight of his life who, in many ways, is only now properly able to start trying to live, rather than merely survive. As a small-town American doctor, his observations on and perspective of the contemporary American healthcare system is insightful, pointed, and at times satiric. As a Korean immigrant, from a village once considered southern but now in DPRK territory, his memories of the Korean War (6.25) and displaced connection to his native soil are as enlightening and edifying to a reader unfamiliar with the “Forgotten War” as they are poignantly human.
It's difficult to discuss in a review format all of the ways in which this novel succeeds. As a piece of American immigration literature, it profoundly discusses feelings of displacement, estrangement, mixed national pride, otherization, assimilation, longing, fear, and hope. As a memoiristic novel about family, it neatly interweaves Kwak’s love for and desire to honor and do right by his ancestors and family with his complicated estrangement from his living family—his total break from Korean relatives, his awkward communication barrier with his Americanized son and grandson. As a piece of historical fiction, it’s a meticulously researched account of the realities of the Korean war that places human experience before political and military overview, without ever veering into melodrama or ‘trauma porn.’ As a commentary on modern American life, it’s a pointed look at social and racial dynamics and a harshly satiric funhouse mirror of our corporatized healthcare system.
The novel is an excellent work of literary fiction, a truly engaging narrative as enjoyable as it is important.
5 stars
The Evening Hero may well be the best book I’ve read so far this year. A rich and nuanced take on feelings of ‘otherness’ after displacement, The Evening Hero provides an insider-outsider’s view into both America and Korea (North, South, past, and present).
Yungman Kwak, the novel’s titular evening hero, is a man at the twilight of his life who, in many ways, is only now properly able to start trying to live, rather than merely survive. As a small-town American doctor, his observations on and perspective of the contemporary American healthcare system is insightful, pointed, and at times satiric. As a Korean immigrant, from a village once considered southern but now in DPRK territory, his memories of the Korean War (6.25) and displaced connection to his native soil are as enlightening and edifying to a reader unfamiliar with the “Forgotten War” as they are poignantly human.
It's difficult to discuss in a review format all of the ways in which this novel succeeds. As a piece of American immigration literature, it profoundly discusses feelings of displacement, estrangement, mixed national pride, otherization, assimilation, longing, fear, and hope. As a memoiristic novel about family, it neatly interweaves Kwak’s love for and desire to honor and do right by his ancestors and family with his complicated estrangement from his living family—his total break from Korean relatives, his awkward communication barrier with his Americanized son and grandson. As a piece of historical fiction, it’s a meticulously researched account of the realities of the Korean war that places human experience before political and military overview, without ever veering into melodrama or ‘trauma porn.’ As a commentary on modern American life, it’s a pointed look at social and racial dynamics and a harshly satiric funhouse mirror of our corporatized healthcare system.
The novel is an excellent work of literary fiction, a truly engaging narrative as enjoyable as it is important.