Reviews

Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limón

burritapal_1's review against another edition

dark funny informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Spoiler

George sueño and Ernie Bascom are two MPs stationed in Seoul, South Korea, 20 years past of war. Don't ask me why they're still there? Their usual job is to investigate Black Market deals, but they are pulled off this detail to investigate the death of a young sex worker whose name means Jade. It's really a cover-up, though, because she was passed around between the big muckety muck generals and officers of the army base there. She was murdered in an extremely brutal fashion, that's never really spelled out in the book. but you'll find out by reading reviews that she was skewered, ie something stuck inside of her vagina and set on fire.
" our rank was classified. So if Young Buck sergeants, like me and Ernie, had to investigate a full bird colonel, we wouldn't be intimidated. That's another one of those things that doesn't really work in practice. After you've worked at 8th Army headquarters for a while, everybody knows you. And the colonels have this habit of protecting themselves and their fellow officers. In that order. Of course, the generals don't have to worry about anything. They're just one step below god."

It's kind of hard to stomach these characters, because all they care about is drinking and having sex with the poor young women sex workers, who, of course, are forced into this kind of work, usually by older madame.
" the girl I had been with last night was slightly harelipped, I think, with a long, slender, unblemished body. She sneered at me through the whole thing. I think I hadn't paid her enough money. And then she wouldn't let me have any in the morning.
Just as well. I was so hungover I hadn't really wanted it anyway. The attempt was a matter of form."

They also take advantage of the oppressed workers:
"People also have this idea of some sort of sad sack existence. I haven't touched a mop since I left the states. We have houseboys. Every night I throw my dirty clothes on the floor, in the same spot, and in the morning after I shower and shave I put on the clean clothes that were laid out for me the day before. About an hour before I leave for work, my houseboy shows up and brings my footgear to a high spitshine. When I get back to my room, usually at lunch or in the late afternoon, the place is clean, the bed is made, and my work clothes for the next day are hanging in front of my wall locker."
🙄
The protagonist George is also not ashamed to take advantage of an innocent native woman. 
"To be honest, there are some totally straight girls around, ones who aren't as desperate as Miss Oh. It's sort of hard for a GI to meet them, though, especially if you're like me and Ernie and spend all of your free time in the village of Itaewon. 
I did once. 
Ernie and I were pulling security, along with about 8,000 other guys for some big mucketymuck from the U.S. government who was visiting the Israeli Embassy in Seoul. Ernie was driving around a big unmarked sedan and I rode shotgun. We spotted her leaving the embassy, walking towards the bus stop, so we slowed down and offered her a ride. At first she didn't understand me but then I spoke Korean to her and everything was all right. 
I took her to lunch at the Naija R&R Center downtown and then on a date where we walked through Duksoo palace, and one afternoon I even went home and met her oldest sister. I don't know what came over me. Just going along out of curiosity, I guess. Anyway I took her to the Frontier Club after that on Yongsan South Post, let her listen to the live band, and bought her a Brandy Alexander. We spent the night together in a little yoguan I know in Samgakji. It was the first night she ever spent with a man. 
I saw her a couple of times after that but then I got tired of it and I stood her up once and then I wouldn't return her calls. Her brother-in-law, a Korean man of about 40, called me and in faltering English told me I couldn't do that to her. I was hung over, and in a bad mood, and I told him to go screw himself."
what an asshole character. Here's an amusing observation by this main character:
" I have a theory about fast-dancing, that it's intended to make men look ridiculous. And the more ridiculous a woman can make a man look, the more Power she has over him and the more she affirms her own attractiveness. It makes me want to barf to see all those guys out there shucking and jiving with big smiles on their faces, as if they're really enjoying themselves. I don't believe it. Why don't they admit that they'd rather be in the sack with the woman and stop pretending that they love the Rhythm and the sounds of the movement? Give me a break."
I got news for you protagonist george. Men will make themselves look ridiculous all by themselves. They don't need any help for that.

I wonder if the author was like this. Probably, because this is where he got his material. He was stationed in Seoul Korea for 10 years. Decided to make his experiences into a book. How lovely. I won't be reading anymore of this author.

usbsticky's review against another edition

4.0

Martin Limon's Sueno and Bascom books are all pretty solid. I started in the middle of the series and read them not in order. I like these books because they're a pretty good character study and I love the depiction of 1970's South Korea. Having said that, none of these books really stand out. They're all pretty solid police procedurals except that the police are US 8th Army CID officers. The whole series reads like a TV series binge. I finish one and go on to the next.

I finally get the first book but this first in the series doesn't do a great job of establishing the setting. It does explain why Sueno and Bascom are in South Korea, but it does it piecemeal in bits and pieces in the middle of the story here and there. I should have expected it as it jibes with how the stories are written.

katenetz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

Location, location, location. This book is all about setting and vibe. The strong noir feel was unexpected but interesting. I enjoyed learning about an unfamiliar time and place but I also felt icky about that time and place. The manipulative power structures of the post-Korean war period were not great. I need to go read a Korean perspective of this time after this. 

dcox83's review against another edition

3.0

This book one me over by the end. Sort of like "Chinatown" only set in Korea.

marystevens's review

2.0

GIs in Seoul, Korea after Vietnam. Very noir. Very sexist. Gratuitous violence. Wouldn’t have read it except that it was a book club book. Prostitute is raped, tortured and burned to death. Her fiancé is held for the murder but nobody believes he did it. GI detectives comb through brothels looking for clues.

left_coast_justin's review against another edition

3.0

This was a quite-readable procedural, but I'm a little astonished by all the rave reviews it's received. This book was written a few decades back, and maybe it's just that time has passed it by, but I find it odd that several of the reviews refer to its sensitive portrait of downtrodden Korean women when, in fact, every Korean woman in the book was some sort of sex worker, and little attention was paid to them outside the use to which they could be put.

It was perhaps a little more interesting than most of this genre, since it's so thoroughly marinated in two foreign cultures (military police and Korean). The level of authenticity and insider knowledge seems high, but it isn't exactly the best book of its type.

darrin's review against another edition

3.0

So, in the end, I liked this book...a lot. I like police procedurals and this one was made even better because I had a sense for the location. I lived in Korea for 8 years and Limón gives the reader an accurate portrait of the dysfunctional relationship between everyday Korean life and the culture of the American military.

Why 3 stars? The writing is clumsy, especially at the beginning and the pace was slow. In the end, however, the author seemed to find firmer footing and I could not put the book down. I am going to try more of his books because I get a sense his books will only get better and I like the two main characters of Sueño and Bascom.

rosseroo's review against another edition

4.0

Set in what looks to be 1970s-era Seoul, Limon's debut is a highly enjoyable procedural featuring two well-drawn US army CID officers. Normally confined to busting up black market operations, the two must battle army bureaucracy while trying to solve the murder of one of the hundreds of prostitutes who live off US GIs. The book is excellent at exploring the relationship between the army and the local service economy that it supports, and Limon's service in Korea brings raw authenticity to every page. Limon's use of both Korean and US army culture in service of the plot makes this well worth reading.

beedoc's review against another edition

5.0

The first and the best of the series. The others in the series are good but can't match the intensity, freshness and longing of this one. By longing, I mean you can feel the author's longing for the Korea of this era when he was stationed there. I'm a Korean-American who has lived a total of 19 years in Korea and I assure you the author absolutely nails the atmosphere of Korea at that time as seen from a perceptive American GI. It is a work of love and a masterpiece.