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A review by maralyons
What We Kept to Ourselves by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
5.0
What We Kept to Ourselves follows a Korean-American family in the 1980s and 1990s. When we meet the family, there is a dead stranger in their yard and their mother, Sunny, has been gone for a year. The chapters move back and forth from present-day (1999) and the history of husband and wife, John and Sunny, from the 1980s to present. We eventually learn the deceased man is connected to Sunny.
Though there is a mystery surrounding what happened to Sunny and what happened to the man and why he was in their yard, the novel largely focuses on the character's lives. Each character is richly drawn. I felt especially connected with Sunny and could understand John's actions despite seeming so outwardly callous. John and Sunny were in Korea during the Civil War and US invasion. We see how they have processed or tried to escape their trauma and how its affected their families. Though very successful in Korea, they had to rebuild their lives from the ground up in Los Angeles.
This is largely a story about the expectations we try to live up to in our roles as spouses and parents and how the experiences of those who immigrate can be so different from that of their US-born children. This was such a well-written and insightful novel.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.
Though there is a mystery surrounding what happened to Sunny and what happened to the man and why he was in their yard, the novel largely focuses on the character's lives. Each character is richly drawn. I felt especially connected with Sunny and could understand John's actions despite seeming so outwardly callous. John and Sunny were in Korea during the Civil War and US invasion. We see how they have processed or tried to escape their trauma and how its affected their families. Though very successful in Korea, they had to rebuild their lives from the ground up in Los Angeles.
This is largely a story about the expectations we try to live up to in our roles as spouses and parents and how the experiences of those who immigrate can be so different from that of their US-born children. This was such a well-written and insightful novel.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.