{"id":15844,"date":"2012-02-01T10:11:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T14:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=15844"},"modified":"2022-07-23T18:27:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T22:27:44","slug":"forgotten-country-by-catherine-chung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/forgotten-country-by-catherine-chung\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/02\/Forgotten-Country.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-27702 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/02\/Forgotten-Country-530x800.jpg\" alt=\"Forgotten Country\" width=\"530\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/02\/Forgotten-Country-530x800.jpg 530w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/02\/Forgotten-Country-800x1206.jpg 800w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/02\/Forgotten-Country.jpg 1061w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a>As Janie weeps over her first-ever separation from her mother, who is about to give birth, her grandmother admonishes her with the grave responsibility Janie must bear for her new sibling. &#8220;In our family &#8230; a sister always dies,&#8221; her grandmother warns, sharing the horrific tale of her own infant sister&#8217;s death during the Japanese occupation of Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Two decades later, living Stateside, Janie&#8217;s family is in crisis: sister Hannah has severed family ties, while their father faces terminal cancer. Seeking the latest treatments, her parents return to Korea, charging Janie with bringing Hannah back. The sisters&#8217; devastating confrontation sends Janie alone to rejoin her parents and extended family, each scarred by the terrifying legacy of colonial occupation, war, dangerous politics, and a fractured country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: No argument that the prize-winning Chung writes elegiac, exquisite, multilayered prose, yet her debut ultimately falters between too much (self-absorption overload, cousin Gabe&#8217;s death, sleazy adviser) and not enough (Hannah&#8217;s disappearance, her uncle&#8217;s silence). For greater satisfaction, readers might try <a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author-interview-sonya-chung\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sonya Chung<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/long-for-this-world-by-sonya-chung\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Long for This World<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/admission\/whatsdistinctive\/facultyprofiles\/lee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Chang-rae Lee<\/a>\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/2010\/06\/10\/the-surrendered-by-chang-rae-lee\/\">The Surrendered<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/reviewscenter.mediasourceinc.net\/detail%2FLibrary%20Journal%2F2011%2F7-5906101537668228178.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, February 1, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Janie weeps over her first-ever separation from her mother, who is about to give birth, her grandmother admonishes her with the grave responsibility Janie must bear for her new sibling. &#8220;In our family &#8230; a sister always dies,&#8221; her grandmother warns, sharing the horrific&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,38,6535],"tags":[6608,1185,75,10,1186,24,123,25,70,13,129,39,170,44,45],"class_list":["post-15844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-korean-american","category-repost","tag-bookdragon","tag-catherine-chung","tag-death","tag-family","tag-forgotten-country","tag-historical","tag-illness","tag-immigration","tag-library-journal","tag-love","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-sibling-rivalry","tag-siblings","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/forgotten-country-by-catherine-chung\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Janie weeps over her first-ever separation from her mother, who is about to give birth, her grandmother admonishes her with the grave responsibility Janie must bear for her new sibling. &#8220;In our family &#8230; a sister always dies,&#8221; her grandmother warns, sharing the horrific...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/forgotten-country-by-catherine-chung\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-01T14:11:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-23T22:27:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/02\/Forgotten-Country.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1061\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/forgotten-country-by-catherine-chung\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","og_description":"As Janie weeps over her first-ever separation from her mother, who is about to give birth, her grandmother admonishes her with the grave responsibility Janie must bear for her new sibling. &#8220;In our family &#8230; 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