|
|
Author: William
Amos |
The Seed of Joy
A novel by William Amos
|
|
Author: William
Amos |
Author:
William
Amos
Boise, Idaho
(208) 396-3318
wpamos@rmci.net
Publisher:
David
Gettman
Publisher
Online Originals
London,
England
David_Gettman@MCKINSEY.COM
The Koreans have a saying: “Trouble is the seed of joy.” Paul Harkin, an American Peace Corps Volunteer, is sent to South Korea. A Korean political activist, Han Mi Jin, tutors him in the Korean language. As a Volunteer, Paul is forbidden to get involved in the politics of the country; however, as his relationship with Mi Jin grows, he finds it impossible to stay out of the maelstrom of Korea’s struggle for democracy. Mi Jin has trouble in her personal life as well: she must consent to an arranged marriage, one that she desperately wants to escape. Against this turbulent backdrop, a love story unfolds. Leaving both her parents and the Peace Corps behind, Mi Jin and Paul finally find happiness in the midst of the largest insurrection in Korea’s history. The novel reaches a tragic yet ultimately hopeful climax in the brutally suppressed Kwangju Uprising of May, 1980.
Much of this novel, especially in the details, is written from personal experience. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea during the time in which the story takes place. While I did not take part in the Uprising, I was in country when the assassination, the coup d'etat, the Uprising, and other historical events were happening. Several of my colleagues were in Kwangju and spoke with me at length about their experiences. The novel, therefore, is built on a solid foundation of fact. But please remember that this is a novel, not a work of history. No Peace Corps Volunteers were involved in the Uprising to the extent portrayed in the story. The plot is entirely fictional, and I have used considerable artistic license in portraying people and events.
|
|
William Amos as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in
South Korea, 1979 |
The Seed of Joy is William Amos' first novel. He presented at the ePublishing 2000 Conference in London in November, 2000 and is currently working on a collection of short stories. Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, he lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two sons.
Founded in 1995, Online Originals is one of the oldest electronic-only publishers in the eBook industry. The house's book catalog includes thrillers, historical and literary fiction, cultural commentary, and even science.
Uniquely, Online Originals maintains two separate book lists, one called "Works" containing books selected for their literary or intellectual quality and professionally edited, and another called "OO Direct," comprised of titles chosen from thousands of submissions and offered to readers "exactly as written by the authors."
The Sunday Times of London calls Online Originals "The world leader in publishing on the web because of its elegant approach and stringently selected titles. A beguiling range of international writers."
WILLIAM AMOS GIVES US insight into the coming of age of a young Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea. Set in the late 1970s, The Seeds of Joy tracks Paul, a recent college graduate from Indiana attempting to become a public health worker in a small village while teaching his boss English and learning a new language.
Soon Paul’s life becomes more complex and conflicted. He takes language lessons from Mi Jin, challenges the political views of his boss and develops an awareness of the combustibility of his host country’s authoritarian rule.
William Amos presents a full picture of life in a small village paying close attention to the rituals of food preparation, holidays, and the unspoken tension between and among families. However the main attraction of this book is the romance that develops between Paul and his language instructor, Mi Jin. We see Mi Jin’s conflict with her family, her work, and with her friends at the university resulting from this romance.
Unfortunately, Mr. Amos is too slow in bringing his readers to the point of becoming invested in this story. Not until page 135 of this 523 page book does the issue of romantic feelings get addressed. Until then, we are spectators as Paul makes the rounds of his village, gets lonely, eats new food, burns under the authority of his boss and Peace Corps administrators.
When Paul does speak his truth, stands up for himself and Mi Jin, and challenges the Peace Corps administrators, the book becames fascinating.
There is plenty of turmoil and intrigue from then on. Some of it is a bit far fetched, as when he goes A.W.O.L. from Peace Corps. But why not? I once risked my life for love. Paul does just this and shows us the cost. But I’m rooting for him by then.
I appreciate Mr. Amos’s comprehensive view of the political chasms between North and South Korea and the internal conflicts within the political processes of South Korea. Less interesting were the bumbling efforts of Peace Corps and State Department officials.
The ending is painful and, unlike the beginning of the book, the resolution of conflict occurs too quickly. As a returned Volunteer, I would have liked Mr. Amos to follow Paul’s life when he returned to the United States and give us some insight on how Paul’s alienation as a United States citizen propelled him into a new vocation, setting him apart, once again, from his returned Peace Corps colleagues.
Each of us, upon our return to the United States, had to renegotiate our life, for we had been changed. Mr. Amos could offer us some assistance by answering the question, “How is it we begin to improvise a life?”
I don’t think Peace Corps administrators would recommend this book to newly sworn-in Volunteers. This is perhaps a book of what not to do in-country to be successful. For that reason I can think of no better reason for new recruits to read it.
Mr. Amos shows us how natural it is to become invested romantically and politically. How he gives closure to to this creative tension stretches my imagination but then again, Peace Corps Volunteers are committing themselves to live on this edge. Sometimes we fall.
Bill Coolidge in Peace Corps Writers
In a fictional account of the Kwangju Uprising in South Korea in 1980, William Amos brings to life an event in history believed to have damaged citizens' views of the U.S. to this day. The book is more about the people involved than the events, however, but as in any good historical novel, its readability and plausibility helps one to learn more about the featured events.
The main character, Paul Harkin, is a Peace Corps volunteer in Mokpo, a poor community southeast of Kwangju. He is a young man, in his early twenties, looking for new experiences as far away from his home of Indiana as he can get. While struggling to learn the Korean language, he enjoys forays into the community to check on medication compliance by outpatients with tuberculosis.
As chance would have it, he begins a relationship with a young Korean woman, Mi Jin, who volunteers to give him language lessons. Her friends are active in the student demonstrations for democratic elections and an end to martial law in the wake of the assassination of their president by the head of the Korean CIA. Paul encounters difficulties with his Peace Corps superiors because of his involvement in local affairs.
The way the story unfolds shows how events in a young person's life can either end up just being a brief and interesting experience, or change the lives of those involved.
The book actually inspired me to some further reading. Apparently, the Mokpo/Kwangju region of South Korea has a history of student demonstrations going back as far as 1910 during the Japanese occupation. I was struck by a feeling of familiarity regarding the events in the book even though I was not familiar with the history of the Kwangju Uprising. I grew up in Kent, Ohio, and lived there during the riots in 1970. The book reminded me of how those events polarized the community, and of some of the people involved.
Despite all this, and the historical setting, the book does not harp on any political concerns. Instead, it is the story of a young man's experiences, including living in a foreign culture and falling in love. It is the story of the people surrounding him, both American and Korean: their hopes and fears, and day to day concerns.
Amos was himself a Peace Corps volunteer which no doubt has enhanced the story by providing important details.
This novel is readable and entertaining. The author shows a sense of humor to counter the serious side of the story. Here is a passage which demonstrates some cultural differences between Koreans and Americans in a conversaton about Paul between his landlady and a neighbor:
The neighbor moved next to her and picked through Paul's clothes. "Tell me something, Big Sister. I'm dying with curiousity. The American--is he clean?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is he dirty?"
"Well, yes and no. He washes all the time and goes to the bathhouse every other day."
"That often?"
"Yeh. And he never fails to wash his hands every time he visits the outshouse." She shook her head, bewildered. "But in some ways he's so dirty. Do you know when he sat down to his first meal here, he turned his head and blew his nose!"
"You're joking!"
"No. I almost puked up my supper."
"Did he clean up the floor?"
"He didn't do it on the floor." The ajumoni gingerly pulled one of Paul's dirty handkerchiefs from his trouser pocket and brandished it. "He blew it into this. Americans carry their snot around with them!"
Aside from humorous anecdotes of this sort, Amos does well in developing his characters. The troubles Mi Jin experiences in dating a man favored by her parents outlines some of what it was like at the time for young women in Korea. Generational differences in attitudes towards the political state of affairs are brought to life in scenes about demonstrations. Some of the difficulties between North and South Koreans are illustrated by Paul's discovery of a box into which S. Korean citizens may report people they suspect of being N. Korean sympathizers or infiltrators.
This is a very fine book. Unfortunately, it is published only in e-book format. It's available in RocketBook (.rb), Adobe Acrobat (.pdf, ), and Palm (.prc) formats from the publisher's site as listed below.
I've got to apologize to the author for taking so long to review this. Part of my reason for this is financial--I only make money for the site (i.e., for Project Read) when I review books in hard-copy available from Amazon.com. The publisher's site states that they are "The Internet's first e-book publisher, founded in 1996, dedicated to producing quality new literature regardless of its commercial potential", and this intrigued me. This book definitely holds up the quality portion of this statement, and I think someone ought to offer to publish it in hard copy. I hope those of you who are regular e-book readers will support this author by purchase of the book, or try this for your first one. It is definitely a stick-to-your-ribs kind of book!
You can find more information about the book and the author at the Online Originals site.
Erica Lockhart in fiatgirl.com
***** (Top Rating)
"I began reading this book with a sense of hesitancy...Korea is not a country I've cared to know much about and I am a romance author in search of the ultimate happy ending...but then I started to read The Seed of Joy and I was suddenly transported to a time when Jimmy Carter was president and the world was a much different place than it is today.
"I saw South Korea through the eyes of Paul, an idealistic young Peace Corps volunteer caught up in the turmoil of revolution during the early 80s in Korea. I knew nothing of the history of Korea, but the author, William Amos, skillfully weaves the facts and history of the country into his story until the plight of the students and Paul become terribly personal.
"I cannot make enough positive comments about this book. The people and times and places of Korea become so real, so personal, that the ultimate conclusion is heartrending and cleansing at the same time. After reading The Seed of Joy, I feel as if I have been a part of the student uprisings against the totaltarian government, as if I have seen the wounded and dying in the hospitals, as if I have known the joy of each small victory, have experienced the bittersweet love of Paul and Mi Jin.
"I recommend this book very highly...it is a story that will stay with you, will haunt you, will be so unbelievably real to you, that the question of whether it is fiction or truth will leave you with the feeling you have read a diary of someone who lived the terrible times of revolution and discord in 1980s Korea."
Kate Douglas, author of Cowboy In My Pocket
"EXCELLENT!!! Please let me preface my comments. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in south Korea from 1978 until May 1980, at which time I was forced to resign from the Peace Corps because of my activities in Kwangju during the week that the citizens took possession of their lives and their city. Mr. Amos's (we were volunteers together) book has made me relive those turbulent yet exhilarating times again. He has been able to catch the emotion of the Kwangju Fight for Democracy (the Kwangju Uprising).
"The story made me think a lot about my time Korea, Kwangju and my time as a volunteer. I can only recommend this book with all my heart and pray that the reader can understand what was happening in Korea during those times. I can only hope that the reader will be able to feel some of the emotions that those of us who chose to stay in Kwangju felt. We had been ordered to leave by the Embassy and the Peace Corps Country Director, but we could not leave our friends, those people who were willing to lose their lives if it meant that other people's children could grow up in a democracy. With the widespread dissemination of this historic novel perhaps the world will recognize the Kwangju Uprising, and that the 2000-plus citizens of Chollanam Do and Kwangju will not have died in vain."
David Dolinger, former Peace Corps/Korea Volunteer
"A wonderfully woven tale of passion and patriotism brings the reader in and defies being put down. Not only do you get an insight into Korean culture and history, but you get it from the point of view of an American experiencing it first-hand. A first-rate novel that I thoroughly enjoyed."
Recommendations & Reviews by Q'eranna
Follow this link to jump to the latest version of The Seed of Joy home page. It includes a map, special links, and a growing selection of photos.
Online Originals offers a free sample chapter for all books on its list. Follow this link to The Seed of Joy's free chapter.
The World Wide Web has a wealth of information about Korea, the Peace Corps, and other subjects touched upon in The Seed of Joy. I hope you enjoy these links:
Korea Insights is a Web ezine about Korea and its culture. It's masterfully done, with beautiful photos and interesting articles: a highly recommended introduction to Korea. Korea in the Eye of the Tiger - An East Asian History is a well-written, detailed history of Korea that reads like a novel. It's a work in progress and unfortunately is not expected to extend beyond the end of the Korean War, but it gives invaluable background going back many centuries. Take a look at Korea Web Weekly for provocative articles about current affairs in Korea. It also has one of the best collections of Korea links on the Web. The Korea Herald and The Korea Times are English-language daily newspapers.
The United States Peace Corps is a federal agency that sends American volunteers abroad to work as teachers, health care providers, small business consultants, and more. The Peace Corps/Korea program no longer exists; it was phased out in the early 1980s.
St. Lazarus Village, the leprosy resettlement village near Anyang, really does exist. It provides medical care and a safe environment for over 100 people severely afflicted with Hansen's Disease. In the mid-1980s a large Catholic retreat center was built on its grounds among forested hills. Part of the village has houses, farms, and small factories owned by more active, less debilitated patients and their families. Visit the website for a look at the facilities and a chance to become a sponsor.
This watershed event in modern Korean history is also known as "The Kwangju Massacre", "The Kwangju Affair", and "The Kwangju Rebellion" depending on the political views of the speaker. Tim Shorrock's articles "The Kwangju Debacle" and "The US Role in Korea 1979 and 1980" are detailed and enlightening. Kwangju May18 Democratic Uprising is a strident but interesting site, with photos. Likewise, Kwangju Citizens' Solidarity has an agenda, but who wouldn't after what this city has gone through? The most impressive part of this site is the information about the monument to those who lost their lives in the Uprising.
