In the early years of the 20th Century, thousands of Korean workers migrated to Hawaii to work on sugarcane plantations.
With few unmarried women among them, they exchanged photos with potential brides back home, persuading them to come to Hawaii with the promise of a better life.
The Picture Bride is the first adult novel from this prolific and best-selling YA author from Korea, and her first to be translated into English. Beginning in 1917, it follows Willow, a girl from an isolated rural village, whose dearest wish is to go to school as her brothers did. When she’s told by a matchmaker that accepting a proposal from one of the Hawaiian workers will enable her to both marry and study, it sounds like too good a deal to turn down.
Willow has grown up so sheltered that she is taken in by the tales that, in Hawaii, clothes and shoes literally grow on trees. But the fact remains that, even after her more fanciful notions are stripped away, Hawaii does provide more opportunities for her than staying at home. The status of girls in Korea at this time is so low that some aren’t even given proper names.
She boards a ship with two other girls, the relatively well-off Hongju, who was widowed only two months after getting married, and Songhwa, who is of a shamefully low status, being the granddaughter of a shaman. All three, though, are bonded by their shared circumstances and pledge to be friends for life.
They arrive at their destination to find that not only is Hawaii not the paradise they imagined, but that it’s a common ruse for men to lure brides there by sending out-of-date pictures of themselves. Hongju’s husband is actually 39, Songhwa’s in his sixties. Willow’s husband, Taewan, does resemble his photo, but he’s a cold, aloof man who feels tricked into a marriage he didn’t want and whose real passion is Korean independence.
Nor is he the prosperous landowner she’s been led to believe, and the matchmaker’s claim that Willow can enrol as a student there turns out to be an empty promise. Nevertheless, the tenderness of her relationship with her new father-in-law, and her persistent efforts to break through Taewan’s icy exterior are both touching signs that all might not be lost.
An impeccably written piece of historical fiction, The Picture Bride presents an exquisite portrait of womanhood and the bonds of friendship and family, depicting Willow, Hongju and Songhwa adapting to an unfamiliar land and learning how to take their dashed hopes and reshape them into a tolerable life.
It’s set against the backdrop of a Hawaii-based Korean community that yearns to see the liberation of Korea from the Japanese, and the schism that has opened up between the followers of two opposed national leaders. Willow’s father and brother both died at the hands of the Japanese, so she can understand her husband Taewan’s passion and commitment. But how greatly can she let it impact on her marriage and the well-being of her family? And will the division in the community estrange her from the two women she’s come to love like sisters?
Willow’s mother used to say that “a daughter’s destiny resembles that of her own mother”. She’s devoted herself to proving otherwise, and wants a different destiny for her own daughter, Pearl. But the closing section of the novel, set 18 years later and told from Pearl’s perspective, brings to the surface a conflict that, even after all she’s endured, maybe the hardest for Willow to resolve.
The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi is available via Scribe, £14.99
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