A review by maxzell
Black Flower, by Young-Ha Kim

4.0

I haven't read historical fiction in a long while, and I definitely haven't read anything like this. It's a pretty wild story: ~1000 immigrants leave Korea for Mexico just before Korea is absorbed as a Japanese colony. The story skips around a lot from character to character as the Korean immigrants move from plantation life to freedom to being caught up in the Mexican revolution. Some characters we get to know better than others, sometimes to a fault. I think that might just be a trope of the genre, though. Despite the lack of intense characterization, we get a strong feel for the community as a whole and its individual members drives and desires. It's a very interesting read, and I definitely learned a lot along the way.