We Do Not Part: A Novel

We Do Not Part: A Novel by Han Kang, translated by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris

A journalist's photographer friend has a bad accident and is in the hospital in the city. The journalist goes to see her and is asked to travel back to her hometown near Jeju  help feed her birds. She tries to fulfil the request, but is caught in a big snow storm. She gets there and finds the bird dead - or is it? Much if the story is remembrances of things that happened in the past and how the small town got caught up the civil war and ideology. There were many people that suffered in various ways. I was even wondering if the story was told as a "post death" view after the characters had passed away. The story is of loyalty and uncovering the past woven beautifully together.

The Name Drop

The Name Drop by Susan Lee

A Korean-American girl is looking forward to an internship with a big Korean company in New York. She thinks this will allow her to get a good recommendation to get scholarships to go to college. Her family cannot afford the school, but are not poor enough for financial aid. She has a challenge of over-sharing when under stress. When she goes to check in for her flight she goes in on details, which end up with her showing her id with her korean name. In the airport she also notices a dapper Korean guy.

The dapper Korean guy is the teenage son of the CEO of the company. He is going to HQ for a special internship for children of executives. However, his Korean name is the same as the Korean name of the girl. When he checks in, he gets the seat in the back that she was supposed to have, while she gets the first class seat. She ends up being picked up by the chauffeur and taken to the townhome, while he ends up joining the intern group in the cramped apartment and the minimum wage internship.

They eventually meet to discuss the situation and realize that both of them like it. The girl works to achieve with her responsibilities. He likes to be a regular guy.

The interns put together a hackathon for the company. It is a success, perhaps too much. The CEO shows up. He acts nice to the girl and offers her a scholarship, but also fires his father. The boy is in the bad grace of his father but still gets strings pulled to go to UCLA. In the epilogue, they meet again. Will the romance go somewhere.

The book is a light, superificial story of teenageers going through challenging situation. It showcases the masculine, patriarchal culture in Korean business. Is it still this bad? The boy and girl have a "trading places" vibe. It seems the company has a lot of talented people that are not listened to while those in authority are underqualified. 

Inheritors

Inheritors by Asako Serizawa

How where the Japanese impacted by World War II? This book contains a gorup of tightly-coupled stories of a family that span the time before and after World War II. There were family members that had a strong loyalty to the emperor and country and wanted to serve. There was also a discovery that there was Korean ancestry in the family. Family members had been involved in secret biological weapons work, including research on involuntary human subjects. The book continues to modern times and alternate-reality worlds that end up becoming intermeshed with the real world. There are family "secrets" that only become disclosed after many years - often limiting the chance for people to know their relatives until their death.

The family spanned both America and Japan. This left them somewhat isolated and not really part of the culture of either. The mind of the traditional Japanese is difficult for Americans (even of Japanese origin) to understand.