16 May 2018: The Girl with Seven Names, by Hyeonseo Lee, is the Common Reading for the upcoming year at Shepherd. I started it this morning and, about eighty pages in, I find it quite compelling. It is making me think about The Handmaid's Tale (the TV series more than the novel). Sometimes when I watch the show and take in the world that is Gilead, I think, "Is this a bit too much? Would a government really be able to pull of this level of control, down to eliminating writing and having people so thoroughly indoctrinated?" Those are silly questions to ask, I know, considering what human history has shown us, but I still sometimes find myself incredulous that such things can actually happen. This book, though, set in North Korea, is stunning in its depiction of how such systems work. It is, in that way, a very dark book, a darkness enhanced by its timely topic given the day's news.
There are moments of light, though, a welcome reminder of how love can shape us even in such difficult circumstances. Lee's depiction of her parents' relationship--their deep love for each other--is quite touching. As she explains, her mother's family opposed the idea of the marriage, even insisting she marry another man. Yet "[l]ove...was setting a course of its own, cutting through my grandmother's best-laid plans, like water finding its way to the sea." Lovely.
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