A review by sweetkalechip
Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story by William Andrews
4.0
This book was a very compelling and quick read, both because of the content and the prose - two things I have opposing opinions on.
The story of Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WWII is a dark topic, but one that is important to address. The fact that the author didn't shy away from the brutality of the situation, didn't gloss over the details that made it horrific. And yet, I have a lot of praise for the author and the fact that he (intentionally, according to the Q&A in the book) didn't write the first rape scene (or the others) in real time or explicit detail. This is a fine line when writing traumatic scenes, and it's very easy to create a sort of torture porn.
The story of Jae-hee, who was made to be a comfort woman, was compelling and inspiring. The pace was just right and the plot points came across as realistic - important in historical fiction.
The only thing I disliked about the book was the prose. It was quite choppy, with short sentences and abrupt time jumps. This was made more glaring because, sometimes, the prose would slip into a more poetic and descriptive style. The parts from the perspective of the main, contemporary character - Anna/Ja-young - were even simpler prose, perhaps in an attempt to emulate a 20 year old girl.
The prose seemed out of place because, repeatedly, it was pointed out that the two narrators were very smart women: Jae-hee, though not formally educated, was brilliant with languages and excelled in the corporate world; Anna was a college student who scored in the top 5% of LSAT testers.
All in all, I think the book was solid, and I was willing to settle into the prose for the sake of the story - beautifully woven through history and fiction, and which held it's cards close to it's chest until the very end.
The story of Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WWII is a dark topic, but one that is important to address. The fact that the author didn't shy away from the brutality of the situation, didn't gloss over the details that made it horrific. And yet, I have a lot of praise for the author and the fact that he (intentionally, according to the Q&A in the book) didn't write the first rape scene (or the others) in real time or explicit detail. This is a fine line when writing traumatic scenes, and it's very easy to create a sort of torture porn.
The story of Jae-hee, who was made to be a comfort woman, was compelling and inspiring. The pace was just right and the plot points came across as realistic - important in historical fiction.
The only thing I disliked about the book was the prose. It was quite choppy, with short sentences and abrupt time jumps. This was made more glaring because, sometimes, the prose would slip into a more poetic and descriptive style. The parts from the perspective of the main, contemporary character - Anna/Ja-young - were even simpler prose, perhaps in an attempt to emulate a 20 year old girl.
The prose seemed out of place because, repeatedly, it was pointed out that the two narrators were very smart women: Jae-hee, though not formally educated, was brilliant with languages and excelled in the corporate world; Anna was a college student who scored in the top 5% of LSAT testers.
All in all, I think the book was solid, and I was willing to settle into the prose for the sake of the story - beautifully woven through history and fiction, and which held it's cards close to it's chest until the very end.