The Picture Bride

 The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi, translated from the Korean by An Seonjae 320 pages

I am familiar with mail-order brides but have never heard of “picture brides.”  That is what attracted me to this book.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a large number of Korean men left for Hawaii, then a United States territory. They worked the sugar cane fields and became successful. Some even owned land, a dream of all Koreans. When it came time to take a wife, the men depended on matchmakers back home to help them find the perfect woman. The men would send a picture and a letter to the matchmaker. Basically, it’s 1918 Korea’s version of today’s dating apps.

“In 1918, three Korean picture brides sail to Hawaii, based only on photos of their husbands-to-be. Hongju, looking for real love, discovers her husband is 20 years older than his photo; Songhwa, escaping her home life, finds her husband is an old drunkard. Willow’s husband, Taewan, looks just like his photo. But the matchmaker lied when she said he was a landowner, and she could go to school.”

That is what hurt the most. Willow is intelligent and longs for an education. It was the only reason that she consented to the marriage. As the years go by, Willow dutifully cares for her husband, their children and his father.

As 1918 slides into 1919, Willow’s husband gets involved with the Korean Independence Movement. He is gone for years, leaving Willow to manage on her own. She does have her two friends, Songhwa and Hongiu, counsel as they struggle to survive.

I wish I had read the Author’s Notes and the Translator’s Notes first. It might have made a difference in reading this novel because I felt lost most of the time.

“The Picture Bride” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Kingdoms of Savannah

The Kingdoms of Savanah by George Dawes Green 304 pages

This Southern Gothic Noir novel has been compared to one of my favorite books, John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”  However, I didn’t find anything about this novel anywhere close to MGGE.

I must be on some kind of weird streak because this is the third book in a row that has thoroughly disappointed me. I should have known when the readers are told that two of the catalyst characters are murdered and disappears, respectively, in the second sentence.

Most of Savannah knows what happened and who is responsible, but the police, once again, look the other way. But society maven Morgana Musgrove has decided that the case needs more than the police are willing to do. She owns a small private investigation firm and puts it to work. Over the course, all four of her adult children are involved, but it’s nothing to write home about; It’s not even a page turner.

The “Kingdoms” that is referred to in the title are homeless encampment that ring the city. And the dark secrets the Savannah is trying to hide are hidden beneath its tourist spots. Savannah, Georgia, has secrets? How shocking! But the book is supposed to reveal those secrets that were neither shocking nor surprises. It never, truly, did.

Author Dawes Green goes against conventional things like punctuation, grammar, paragraph break, accents, character descriptions---which I’m not against---but they have to work, and you guessed it! For me they didn’t. Therefore, “The Kingdoms of Savannah” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Muskrat Ramble

“Muskrat Ramble” (Sequel to “A Sparrow Alone”) by Mim Eichmann 311 pages

After I finished “A Sparrow Alone,” I hoped that Hannah’s life get better. While “Sparrow” wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, I did come to care about the characters and was eager to see what would happen.

Author Eichmann pickups the story in 1913 after the African-American school Hannah founded in Kansas closes. Hannah and her daughter, Alice, move to New Orleans as job opportunities abound there, but mostly, Hannah wants to find Emma. There are only two people in the world who know that Emma is Hannah’s biological mother, while Alice is a rescue.  Hannah took and raised Alice after her biological mother died.

Emma is now thirteen years old. She has no idea who Hannah is. Emma is concerned with becoming a jazz singer. Jazz dominated this novel and the greats of the time were minor characters. People like Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, Sissieretta Jones, Honore Duetry and Jelly Roll Morton. The real person who was actually part of the novel was Edward “Kid” Ory. 

I’m sorry to say that this novel doesn’t feel like it was written by the same person. The style was completely different. It didn’t take long for me to not care about the characters any more when the storyline became redundant.  However, I had invested a lot of time with these people so I continued to read. I was dismayed when I reached one of the last chapters, at which time there was synopsis of what happened to the real folks, which was the most interesting part of the novel. 

The other, fictional, main characters lives were also explained, but the story read like a bunch of facts strung together.  And the final chapters read as if the author was tired of the story and wrapped it up. Therefore, “Muskrat Ramble” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.