The Island of Sea Women

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It spans decades of life on the Korean island of Jeju, during occupancy during WWII and the Korean war. Now Grandmother and her friends liked to sort seaweed that had been washed ashore by the wind or dive close to the beach in the shallows, so they could spend the day trading jokes and sharing miseries. And even 17 years ago when my granddaughter was born, her other grandmother from Taiwan brought a suitcase full remedies as well as following certain traditions like washing her hair, etc.

Much like her last novel, “The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane,” which explored the lives of the Akha hill tribe and the tea trade in the remote Yunnan province through the lenses of a mother and daughter, “The Island of Sea Women” tells its own story through the friendship of Young-sook, the daughter of the head haenyeo diver, and Mi-ja, the orphaned daughter of a Japanese collaborator. This novice diver is of the last generation that will engage in this vocation, and serves as an important historical document. As Janet once again peers into her envelope, rifling through what must be more photographs, Young-sook smiles up at the white man. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them— The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives.this is such a heartfelt, if not tragic, story about two best friends and how the challenges of life work against them and their relationship. But now that the swells were rising, and the dipping and swaying of the boat was getting increasingly worse, all I wanted to do was go home. I turned the last page enriched by the experience of my reading, and was left with awe and admiration for these women of the sea and their strength, both physical and mental.

I started out both listening and reading this in print but ended up preferring the audiobook, by far. But just as these women test the uncertainties of these waters, Lisa See goes into the dark depths encasing the relationship between Mi-ja and Young-sook. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. Some were tiny and really have to do with logistical things like how to get someone from a small village to Jeju’s main port in the 1930s or how exactly did a diver get from Jeju to Russia in the 1930s and 1940s.

A snap decision, a gut-wrenching choice, and the suffocating aftermath will haunt each of them for many, many years. What secrets or clues about the past and the present are revealed in the scenes that take place in 2008? Yu-ri’s wedding was set for the following month, and of course she was dreaming of the son she would have, but her sense of anticipation seemed unimportant to me right then. Only years of experience can teach a woman how to get loose and still have enough time leftover to reach the surface for air. When I was on Jeju, I interviewed women in their seventies, eighties, and nineties—many of whom are still diving.