Talk about a story that pulls at the heart-strings! While The Waiting is "fictional," it is loosely based on that of the author's own family history; focused particularly on that of her mother, who fled to what is now South Korea during the onset of the Korean War that divided the country. Told through a framing bracket of the daughter/author's relationship (á la Maus) the mother's story gradually unspools in page after page of well composed comics, affectingly employing bold brushwork. Starting with the mother's harsh yet still bucolic childhood under the Japanese occupation, which was filled with its own sorrows, the story takes an abrupt turn with the start of hostilities between the Soviet and Chinese-backed North and the US-backed South, and the mother is forced to flee, along with her own, newly formed family. While the story focuses on one extended family, it can easily be read as a stand-in for the experience – and tragedy – of Korea as a whole. Reader's familiar with Korea's twentieth century history will probably already have some idea of the rough outlines that this narrative will take, but we'll nevertheless refrain from giving them away here, so as to not take away any of the impact.
Translated from the Korean by Janet Hong
Adapted from Park Wan-Suh's acclaimed 1970 novel of the same name, The Naked Tree is the latest of Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's graphic novels personalizing traumatic wartime experiences on the Korean peninsula, following Grass and The Waiting; all translated by Janet Hong and published by D & Q. It is effective in providing a sense of life during wartime, particularly – but not only – for its young female protagonist. Interactions with American soldiers – who are simultaneously protective defenders and alien occupiers – also play an important role in the drama, which, ultimately, focuses on the effects of trauma as it moves through the stages of repression, cathexis and catharsis.
D & Q has posted a six-page preview, HERE.
And this work has been reviewed from a medical point of view, with a focus on the nature of trauma and PTSD, at the website Graphic Medicine, HERE.
D & Q sez:
Appeared on best of the year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, and more! Winner of The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year!
Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War—a disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history.
Beginning in Lee’s childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child’s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee’s strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lee’s memories.
The cartoonist Gendry-Kim’s interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee’s wartime suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace.
Translated by Janet Hong.
Just in, the latest from the creator of Grass and The Waiting.
Translated from the origiunal Korean by Janet Hong.
Not hep? Check out a preview courtesy of D & Q, HERE.
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