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Comfort Woman
by Nora Okja Keller
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd (2001-08-02)
ISBN: 1860498744
EAN: 9781860498749
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback: 224 pages
SKU: T071219-3830
Condition: Very Good
Comments: Very good overall condition. No writing, very tight binding. Ships first class same day or next. Enjoy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Comfort Woman is the story of Akiko, a Korean refugee of World War II, and Beccah, her daughter by an American missionary. The two women are living on the edge of society--and sanity--in Honolulu, haunted by Akiko's periodic encounters with the spirits of the dead, and by Beccah's struggles to reclaim her mother from her past. Slowly and painfully Akiko reveals her tragic story as a "comfort woman" to Japanese soldiers. As Beccah uncovers these truths, she discovers her own strength and the precious gifts her mother has given her.
Penguin Readers Guide Bound into every Book Includes:
An introduction to the novel
A biographical note about the author
An interview with the author
Provocative discussion questions for reading groups
"Combines the familial intimacy of Louise Erdrich's early novels with the fierce magic of Toni Morrison's Beloved. . . . An impressive debut."-- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
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Customer Reviews
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The best kind of ghost story
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-11-07
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Nora Okja Keller's 'Comfort Woman' is that troublesome sort of book: a shimmeringly beautifully written story about a shudderingly horrible event.
A Korean mother, spiritually dead as a result of mass rapes by Japanese soldiers, attempts to protect her half-American daughter from all harm while at the same time fighting off the ghosts and demons of her Korean heritage. Not surprisingly, the daughter is confused, not least because the mother never reveals to her what has driven her to despair.
Much of the action works out in dreams, trances and ravings, and Keller is masterful at the difficult task of transferring the insubstantial confusion of dreams to the rigid format of words on a page.
Though he does not occupy much space, the character of the husband is savagely drawn. The entire novel is economical, packing a great many stories and ideas into 200 pages.
The setting, in Honolulu, is not drawn in great detail but (unlike most other novels set in Hawaii) is authentic as far as it goes. The pidgen dialogue of Auntie Reno will bring a smile to anyone who has ever spent time around a genuine Hawaiian 'tita.' (Literally, 'sister,' figuratively, a tough cookie who pulls no punches.)
There is one minor flaw in the book. The daughter works writing obituaries at a newspaper. The description of how she goes about this is not the way it happens at real newspapers. This does not detract from the novel and will not be noticed by anybody who has not written newspaper obituaries.
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Accessible Prose; and a stiring tale
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-06-26
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Comfort Woman is a very good novel that at once questions widely held ideas about memory, history, and the relationship between outsiders and mainstream culture. At the same time the novel tells a more personal tale about a mother and a daughter.The prose is simple, accessable, and at the same time beautiful. Without knowing anything about Asian-American history or literature, anyone can enjoy this book. Daniel Clausen
danielclausen.com
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Important subject matter, needs stronger writing
Rating  (4)
Date: 2004-03-09
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Comfort Woman is at times a harrowing book, delineating the two lives of a mother and daughter, Akiko and Beccah seem to represent the yang and yin of human existence. Akiko, the mother, was forced to be enslaved as a comfort woman to the Japanese soldiers during World War II, a horrible existence graphically recounted in this work. The daughter Beccah, is a Korean-American trying to grow up in one piece, as she tries to fit in, while the spirit world seems to be taking over her mother. The first story is one that must be told ,the savagery must be shared by the world, just as the Holocaust must be shared by the world. To me the most sad thing concerning the comfort women was after they were so terribly treated as young ones, they were required to live with the ghosts of it the rest of their lives. So, was the mother lost in the spirit world or suffering from mental illness brought about by her awful memories? And will the spirit world/ mental unbalance take the daughter? Some have said the daughter's story wasn't as compelling, I disagree, her story is more immigrant universal, and so therefore will impact the larger audience I feel, coinciding with many feelings children of immigrant parents must have growing up in America. Unfortunately, Keller -tells- the story , more then showing it to us, and letting our own eyes uncover the horror for themslves, so we can make it our own. The daughter's story isn't on the same emotional level as her mother's, and therefore her story does suffer somewhat. Her mother had been used as a human body bag, while Beccah is simply coming of age in America, whooo "Toots" teases her at school, who hasn't been teased at school. Beccah does, though ,have to deal with her mother's incessant reality loss, which would be difficult on anyone, so there is also harshness to her story. I just wish the book had been written in a more novelish manner allowing the characters to reveal rather than simply tell this important story to us. The knowledge of the comfort women and their plight should be known by all, but this book shouldn't necessarily be read by all. It doesn't deal with Korea or the comfort women, but Lan Cao's book ,Monkey Bridge, about a mother-daughter from Vietnam ,is more compelling.
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Comfort Woman review
Rating (4)
Date: 2002-12-17
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is captivating book about a former comfort woman, Akiko, and her daughter Beccah. Keller artfully weaves the tales of Akiko's comfort camp traumas with her new life as the mother of a teenage girl. Comfort Woman explores Beccah's hardships growing up with a less than normal mother, as the text serves as a journey for Beccah to understand her mother's past life. While discovering facts about her mother, Beccah finds herself on a journey of her own, as she begins to create her own self. Strangely, she finds much more of Akiko in her than she would ever have thought. Though parts of this book are painfully realistic, it is a deeply moving book. It is beautifully written and is certain to both warm and tear at your heart.
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Comfort Woman
Rating (4)
Date: 2002-12-13
Nora Okja Keller's Comfort Woman provactively examines the mother/daughter relationship and the immigrant relationship to the ethnic community. Through Akiko's description of her role as a comfort woman (a sex slave to Japanese soldiers), the reader learns that she experienced much pain and trauma prior to the birth of her daughter. This experience coupled with her Korean ethnicity work to make Akiko the woman she is today. Akiko's daughter, Beccah, feels burdened by her ethnicity in the hierarchical community of Hawaii and is often embarrassed by her mother's connection to the spiritual world. However by the conclusion of the novel, events occur that enable Beccah to make peace with her ethnicity and her mother as well as gain self-awareness. She follows her heart and has learned to trust her relationship with her mother.
This book opened my eyes to the terrible sexual abuse that took place during the war, as well as conveyed the importance of the mother/daughter bond and one's relationship to their past. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!
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