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Surfacing Sadness: A Centennial of Korean-American Literature 1903-2003
By Yearn-hong Choi and Haeng-ja Kim Homa & Sekey Books, 2003; 216 pages.
South Korea and the United States share a special relationship that is being commemorated this year on the event of the 100th anniversary of Korean immigration to America. The Korean-American experience is a unique entity unto itself that unlike other immigrants to land upon America's shores, Korea's first wave of immigration began rather humbly on the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii. However it would not be for another five decades before the second wave of immigrants would journey across the Pacific to a new life of hope and promise.
The Korean-American experience as defined by this second wave of immigration has found an enlightening collective voice in "Surfacing Sadness: A Centennial of Korean-American Literature 1903-2003." In this first serious effort to bring together the Korean-American literary experience with mainstream American literature, editors Yearn-hong Choi and Haeng-ja Kim have collected a kaleido-scopic collage of literary works which reveal...