The Island of Sea Women

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They also limited my peripheral vision, creating yet another danger and forcing me to be even more vigilant in this ghostly environment.

Haenyeo - female divers in the Korean Province of *Jeju*, are known for their strength, their independent spirit, their iron will and determination.

The home strait is perhaps the weakest part of the novel but otherwise it had me grippe The fierce free-diving women on the Korean island of Jeju are the subject of Lisa See’s mesmerizing new historical novel that celebrates women’s strengths—and the strength of their friendships. For the first third of this novel, though I was liking the story, I felt like I was observing from afar, wasn't connecting emotionally with the story. Aprender sobre el tipo de vida que llevaban, la dificultad extrema para llevar a cabo su trabajo, cómo sostenían a su familia, sus costumbres y creencias me parecieron fascinantes.

THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN offers up an evocative tale of two best friends whose bonds are both strengthened and tested over decades by forces beyond their control. There is a lot of history in these pages, not only between these two women and their families/husbands but also on the island of Jeju itself. Haenyeo or "Korean Mermaids" have been a collective group of female divers who have taken to the sea for eons.

You are like sisters, and I expect you to take care of each other today and every day as those tied by blood would do. We each had a bitchang to use for prying creatures from their homes and a pronged hoe to pick between the cracks and embed in the sand or on a crag to help pull us from place to place. Young-sook’s mother must forgive herself for Yu-ri’s accident, Young-sook must forgive herself for her mother’s death, Gu-sun forgives Gu-ja for Wan-soon’s death. This novel spans wars and generations, but at its heart is a beautifully rendered story of two women whose individual choices become inextricably tangled. Set amid sweeping historical events,The Island of Sea Women is the extraordinary story of Young-sook and Mi-ja, of women’s daring, heartbreak, strength, and forgiveness.

Do-saeng and some of the other haenyeo began to rub Yu-ri’s limbs, trying to bring life back into them. Now, the story is told from the point of view of two young Korean girls, Mi-ja and Young-sook, living in the Jeju islands. Haenyeo is the Korean name for the sea women who, through careful husbandry, harvest the sea through various seasons of production and restoration. Two girls, Mi-ja and Young-sook, are the best of friends waiting for their time to be old enough to join the diving collective.This is a matriarchal society where the women go out and work and the men stay home and take care of the children. My first and second brothers, twelve and ten years old, sat cross-legged on the floor, knees touching. The horrendous conditions and the brutality were often difficult to read, but the history is important for us to know. Often she’ll get a young woman who’ll ask the question Young-sook’s heard discussed her entire life.

Here is my father when he was young,” Janet says, thrusting a blurry image before Young-sook’s eyes. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the History Maker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. Never before had I concentrated so hard—on my form, on the beating of my heart, on the pressure on my lungs, on looking.I learned about the haenyeo, the courageous diving women who live on the island of Jeju in South Korea. Thus begins Lisa See’s newest novel, “The Island of Sea Women,” which is set on a Korean island and draws on the centuries-long history of the haenyeo, female divers who have effectively created a matrifocal society — they are the breadwinners of their families, while their husbands take on the domestic duties of cooking the meals and raising the children. It was a story of the Japanese occupation of Korea and the horrors of young women being taken by the Japanese to be a “comfort workers” and a young haenyeo is taken. On page 39, Young-sook’s mother recites the aphorism If you plant red beans, then you will harvest red beans. The novel focuses on the deep friendship between Young-Sook and Mi-Ja, a friendship which will be broken asunder when civil war breaks out and Korea enters the darkest period of its history.