![]() Lee Ok-sun has had no schooling and cannot read nor write. ![]() We are introduced to her poor family and the difficult, miserable life she was born into. From there, we rewind to her childhood in 1934 rural Busan, during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Grass opens not at the end, nor at the beginning, but at a significant moment in Lee Ok-sun’s life as she, who has spent fifty-five years living as a wife and mother in China, is at last able to return home in the winter of 1996. The story of Grassbegins a little jumbled, narratively and chronologically, but the initial confusion serves to disorientate and unbalance the reader effectively before the stark and impactful tale truly begins. It’s a grisly but stoic, blunt, poignant, gripping, and enraging tale of one woman’s survival as a victim of kidnapping, abuse, and rape during a time of imperialism and war. What we have here is a result of her painstakingly crafting an honest, moving tale, using only the truth, and telling it in such a way that will effortlessly move the reader to tears but does not cloud the truth with distracting emotion and drama. ![]() No matter my position, I avoided sensationalising the violence, pain, and suffering of the characters.” This approach to the retelling of Granny Lee Ok-sun paid off in spades. Keum Suk Gendry-kim, creator of Grass, remarked in her afterword: “I resolved to try telling her story in a calm and even tone. ![]()
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