In Kang Sok-Kyong's short story, Days and Dreams, she is able to delineate an entirely new society that exists within Korea. A society that formed as a result of blatant geopolitical decisions imposed by a foreign country. She describes the lifestyle and culture of the female Korean prostitute communities that have developed around American military bases. Kang accurately depicts the nothingness that many of these women, such as the main character have come from, and the equally poor and yet more dehumanizing lifestyle they live out now. The narrator of the story came from a family ravaged by the war and ironically makes a living now by exploiting herself to these soldiers, apparently keeping peace and security for her country. Yet for many of these women in the story, that individual sense of security is what is lacking from many of their lives. Even one of the characters, Sun-ja goes to extreme circumstances to pose as a lesbian just to marry an American woman to relieve herself of her the situation she was currently in. Kang accurately describes the inhumane treatment that many of these women are put up, sometimes even by their own family members in order to pay a sibling's tuition or something of the sort. The narrator describes the tragic rape and murder of a friend who was killed by a Korean man. When upon asking what his motives were in the killing, he simply said that "she'd lived it up with the GIs and then give him leftover sex." All she essentially gave him was some leftovers by foreigners. Kang basically centralizes her story on the notion of Korea, being a country dependent upon "living off other countries' leftovers." And ultimately the lifestyle's that many of these women lived was to sustain themselves economically, while in the meantime exploiting their bodies in order to fulfill this requirement. Meanwhile the foreigners there, such as Overton, the playmate of the narrator, was a womanizer and philanderer, and at the same time was apparently married back in the US. Kang is able to bring to the reader the harsh rituals that many of these women must endure in order prevent themselves from becoming fully impoverished, but in the meantime, selling their souls out to the hearts of the foreigners. In Kang's novella, A Room in the Woods, she is able to depict a modern day Korean family influenced by neo-Confucian doctrine, yet each individually upholding different social values and had different notions of thought of their roles within society. The story focuses on the differing behavior of three daughters within the household of a clearly patriarchal family. The father is a successful businessman with an educated and intelligent wife who acts as homemaker. They have four children, the three daughters, and the youngest being a son, who is never mentioned, but as a signification favor he must endure being the only male child, and also the youngest. Amongst the three daughters, the older, the narrator of the story is the typical Korean woman. She graduated majoring in piano, plans to get married and not even work, yet she seems practical enough to always be looking after herself and her sister. Hye-Yang, the next eldest sister is the proverbial daughter, studying to go to medical school, she is smart and intelligent. The youngest of the daughters is So-Yang, the street-savvy and rebellious daughter who had just dropped out of college, she was sick of Korean standards of social qualms and was never afraid to speak against Korean society. Since the story focuses on the whereabouts and concern of So-Yang, since we she has left college, Kang muddles the reader with excerpts from her diary that her oldest sister falls upon. We learn through her diary of the possibility that she could be a manic-depressive. She also seems slightly suicidal, yet what seems to worry her sister the most is her tenacity at being sexually active and possibly promiscuous. Unlike the situation of the women in Days and Dreams, So-Yang uses sex as an instrument to her advantage, not as a means of economic power. Sex for her is a means of empowering herself, since she seems to have nothing else to fallback on. Yet she isn't the conventional Korean daughter, a product of a middle-class family. She is an active social demonstrator, smokes blatantly outside in public, serves as a hostess in a bar, but all the while does not submit to the languid and crass behavior to the men she encounters. She quits her job out of disgust when a man tips her down her shirt. What also complicated her situation were the stark differences she had with her father, a man clearly dependent upon Confucian thought and traditional behavior of the family. Her failure to enroll in college as well as her nightly prowling and partying enraged her father who out of frustration became abusive. Meanwhile her mother played the role of the silent, submissive type well by not being active in disciplining her children, but merely watching her husband do it all. Kang describes these tensions that assumably are evident in many Korean households as a potentially dangerous environment in which an outcome may be similar to that of the So-Yang's.

Having spent 1988-1993 in Korea with IBM, I began the collection of short stories with a strong cultural understanding. The stories vary from prostitution and the US Military (rate 5) to the very well crafted "A Room In The Woods" (definite 10) which uncovers the generation gap in modern Korea. "A Room In The Woods" is well worth the price of the book. A must for those interested in Korean culture.

In the Korean novel The Valley Nearby, Kang discusses many themes present in the everyday life of a woman living in a traditional Korean community with an unconventional mind. Yunhee, the main character in Knag's novel discusses everything from her life living with an alcohoic husband, to how to make kimchi. Although she prides herself on being a faithful housewife, her life is hardly mundane. While she plays the role of mother quite well, Yun-hee exhibits feminist qualities wherby she consistently promotes the equality between men and women. She also depicts the immorality of men and of the political system. While Kang presents these important issues, her book proves to be lengthy and verbose. However the duality of Yun-hee's life as well as the injusstices of men and government ssereve as the focal points of the novel, providing the reader with a few interesting insights about Korean society. The first significant notion in Kang's book is the dualityof Yun-hee's life as a feminist house-wife. A conventional wife must stand by her man regardlessof his misbehavior and crimes. In ehr case, Yun-hee must succumb to her alcoholic husband, Hee-jo. As a starving artist, Hee-jo plays a key role in Yun-hee's arduous life. She must deal with his drinking fits and embarrassing rampages. Yet as his wife, she stays at his side. She even remains with him when she learns of his love for another woman. Instead of divorcing him, she befriends the woman, letting her husband enjoy infidelity.Yun-hee fantasizes of a better life, one without restraint, but with love and excitement. In reality however, yun-hee must deal with the everpresent patriarchy in Korean society. As a feminist, she sstands up for the position of women in Korean life. For instance, one one occasion, one of Hee-jo's friends, after drinking heavily, was cared for by a woman he had just met. While he found this gesture to be rather promiscuous, Yun-hee dramatically expplained that the girl was only being helpful, and that Hee-jo's fr! iend had actually misconstrued the entire incident. SShe felt angry that Korean society regarded women so lowly, discounting even the nicest fof gestures. She clearly por tarays this when fed up with three men illegally building a henhouse, she circulatiesa petition to oust them form the community. Here she assumess the role a typical korean man would play. Moreover, she does this without the permission of her husband. Another interesting theme in Kang's novel deals with the immorality of men and government. The henhouse incident clearly depicts the injustice of men. In order to have the henhourse approved , many officials had to be bribed. This provided Yun-hee with a challenge, as she had to deal with the corruption of Korean officials. Yet another immorality is displayed in the common infidelity of many married men. Yun-hee herslef was subjected to this phenomenon. Some men in Korean society sought love in the arms of a woman other than their wife. Yun-hee felt violated, as Hee-jo had done the same. There are many atrocities that the governement icurs on the people. One such injustice is seen in the protests at the YH tradign company. the government s inhumanity is protrayed as they attach harmless protesters. Kang's novel contains ample illustrations of the harsh conditions the people had to endure. Also, one cannot fail to mention the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Korea's past. Overall, Kang's novel, while displaying many important thermes, tends to be rather tedious and detailed. Because of this, it is difficult to interpret what she feels to be the most significant. Also, she presents cerain ideas only momentarily, failing to follow up on them. My primary dissatisfaction lies in the fact that she overdoes the production of punch'ong wares. While the actual Korean pottery itself holds great value in Korean culture, she over emphasizes minor details. Perhaps in translating the novel from Korean to English, she has lost the beauty the avid descriptions would portray. ! Moreover, I find that she becomes redundant in speaking of certain aspects of Korean culture. She speaks of food all too often as opposed to the histor y of Korean culture itself. There are many fascinating issues discussed in the book. However the stringent detail causes each event to linger, most of which tends to be irrelevant anyhow. As a studnt, I feel this book has only contributed to my knowlege of Korean pottery, instead of to my overall ungerstanding of what it means to be Korean.

The Valley Nearby is a touching story of the at first seemingly trivial lives of an ordinary homemaker and the surrounding population. The main character, Yun-hee, is depicted in the novel using English translated from Kang Sok-Kyong's Korean text. Although the story is captivating, and the struggle of Yun-hee to deal with her alcoholic husband and the consequential situations that result capture the reader's sympathetic emotions, there is much lost in fluidity of the central problems that exist in Yun-hee's relationships. The significance of certain sentences can be lost, while the entire chapters provided substance to induce a response in the reader. One cannot help but feel that there is much of the original emotional appeal and true ideas lost due to the translation into another language. Yun-hee provides the reader with a unique perspective into making decisions in the path of life. Her situation as a woman in Korea during the 1970's is unique with respect to the decisions that she had to make given her husbands non-traditional role in their relationship. Many other characters, such as Yun-hee's husband, Hee-jo, made decisions that were dire for their well being, but no one remained as strong and determined as Yun-hee, nor made such choices that were as difficult as Yun-hee's. To take on Hee-jo's responsibility as the head of the household, according to then conventional standards, in the fight against a family illegally raising chickens, Yun-hee had to make the decision to defy cultural tradition while protecting her rights. The theme of the book follows the Buddhist concept of enlightenment, where that is the ultimate goal of Yun-hee in making her choices. Yun-hee deals with the burden of having to make choices about dealing with her alcoholic husband. The enlightened period in the book is when Yun-hee realizes that the choices she made are for the better of Hee-jo. The Valley Nearby, despite the unfortunate loss of some symbolism and connotation through translation into English, ! was an excellent novel that illuminated women's role in Korean history. It also served to attach a more personal relation to the reader and the historical or cultural aspects that occurred in that time period. It furthermore captures the spirit and sacrifice throughout struggles to which all readers can relate, yet was delivered through the eyes of a fictional character whose role was true to non fictional Koreans of her time.

Kang Sok-kyong's The Valley Nearby could potentially be a very good book, but its good qualities are mostly overshadowed by a lack of any obvious theme and an ungainly translation. Despite these flaws, the unique setting and interesting characters still make it a unique experience for Western readers. The emphasis on color and Yun-hee's struggle to be an independent woman despite her position as a rural housewife makes it a good book for someone trying to learn more about the modern Korean mindset. The story focuses on the life of a Korean woman named Hong Yung-hee and her potter husband Hee-jo. It is set in their rural home in 1970s Korea under Park Jung-hee. Because of this rural environment and Hee-jo's circle of intellectual artist friends, the story spends most of its time focusing on the social issues of modern Korean society. Although part of the stuffiness of the prose used in the book may be the author's style, it seems to be more of a result of a poor translation. The language lacks any depth of feeling, keeping a banal, purely descriptive tone the whole way through. There are also many cases where archaic sounding words were used in sentences, and much of the grammar seems forced. The English seems more like a direct textbook translation rather than an attempt to convey the feeling of the original work in the English language. Hopefully a translator with a better grasp of the English language may attempt to work on this book in the near future. A better translation would make this book a great deal less awkward. Despite the poor translation, the book does have a vibrant emphasis on color and scenery. The visual quality of the descriptive passages drew me into the story, and if any feeling was lost on the wooden style of the English prose, it was not lost in these particular parts. These passages helped to keep the story from being a boring, unemotional account of the events in Yun-hee's life. The second major flaw I found in the book cannot be blamed on the translator. Al! though this is merely a conflict with my personal preference, I found that the book did not have any clear sense of direction. Although there are definite themes in the book, I didn't really discover any one overwhelming unity of the events and thoughts in the story for a long time. Although there is a clear emphasis on Yun-hee's struggle to reconcile her ideas of equality with her life as a housewife, it does not seem to take center stage in the story. The book goes into great detail to cover the events which happen in her life over that one year, but it fails to string them all together in a clearly visible way. Overall, I get the impression that the story was perhaps too detailed and might have benefited from a stronger focus on events which supported its themes. What the story does offer is a different setting from what most users are used to. Not only is the Korean rural setting very different from the world in which modern people live, but the lives the artists leave make them seem even more unique than those around them. This setting, with its mix of the traditional rural lifestyle and the Hongs' modern sensibilities, allows the reader to see the kinds of social conflicts and issues that modern Koreans must come to terms with. The combination of the necessities of a rural life style, the social world of the artists, and the atmosphere of Korea in the 1970s is perhaps more unusual than any kind of contrived setting, yet it is easily brought to life because of the writer's familiarity with it. The characters in the story are also very well portrayed, especially since we see them through Yun-hee's eyes. Her opinions on people even seem to fluctuate slightly throughout the story as she comes to terms with various events in her life. The unusual social circles of Hee-jo and his artist friends provide a great number of interesting and unique characters. Most of these artists are concerned with the social implications of their art. Yun-hee herself is constantly trying to deal with the two cont! rasting elements of being both an independent woman, and simultaneously being a traditional Korean housewife. These writers, painters and other artists each have their own way of reconciling their modern sensibilities with Korean tradition. The use of the setting and characters, and the whole basis of the book itself, seems to be Kang Sok-kyong's way of dealing with the question, "What does it mean to be Korean in the 20th century?" The characters all seem to be dealing with different elements of the same problem, trying to reconcile the past, their cultural heritage, with the liberal ideas and economic focus of the modern world. Overall, this book might seem a little tedious due to the very forced translation and the seemingly aimless attention to details, but for someone willing to struggle past these problems it is a very rewarding book. It gives the reader a glimpse into a part of Korean culture and life that most Americans do not ever get to see or hear about. It does this with a sense of color and movement that helps it overcome even the poor translation provided in this version.