As I noted when I read Lisa See’s The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, I have loved reading her books for years, with my favorites including Shanghai Girls, Dragon Bones and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I was particularly pleased when, thanks to Scribner and NetGalley, I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Island of Sea Women, described as a book about “female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island.”
The island is Jeju, “…an island known for Three Abundances: wind, stones, and women.” The story centers on Mi-ja and Young-sook, two young girls living on the island who are best friends despite coming from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective.
Early on, the story of the women was so fascinating I had to take a break and do a bit of research into the Korean island of Jeju. OMG, these women really did exist and are unreal. And this is something I love about Lisa See’s books: I always learn so much about both culture and history, as Ms. See takes her meticulous research and weaves it into a story so seamlessly it has a powerful two-pronged impact: lots of learning combined with a terrific story involving complex relationships.
The story of the Sea Women begins in 1938, at a time when Korea “…had now been a Japanese colony for twenty-eight years.” The story moves from Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s through World War II, the Korean War, and into years of progress including cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Mi-ja and Young-sook find their differences are impossible to ignore. One big issue is that Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and this association will be with her forever. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo (women divers), her mother is the leader of the women’s’ diving collective,and Young-Sook is destined to inherit her mother’s position down the line.
As usual when reading a Lisa See novel, it was so interesting to look at a completely different world, in this case one where the women are in charge as their day-to-day existence takes them into physically demanding and dangerous work while the men of Jeju take care of the children.
It’s a classic Lisa See story, focusing on friendship between while examining the larger forces that are swirling around them. Fans of Lisa See will love this, anyone interested in Japanese/Korean history and culture will appreciate it, and those unfamiliar with either are in for a treat. I only gave Teagirl 4 stars due my feelings about the ending, but this one gets 5 stars.