Book review: Korean family saga The Island of Sea Women

The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See (Scribner, $35)
Reviewed by Yasmina Gillies

The small South Korean island of Jeju is known for its three abundances: rocks, wind and hardy women.

The Island of Sea Women introduces the fascinating world of the haenyeo, the all-female diving collectives of Jeju. These women are the breadwinners of their matrifocal communities, diving for octopus, abalone, clams, squid and seaweed while the men stay at home to look after the children.

"Given the dominance on Jeju of volcanic cones which are concave at the top like a woman's private parts, it is only natural that on our island females call and males follow," states the village shaman.
The haenyeo are fiercely strong in mind and physical capacity; despite modernisation and changes in sea life, the ageing population of haenyeo keep alive their unique culture and world view.

Growing up in the 1930s as the first-born child of the chief diver of a haenyeo troupe, Young-sook knows her future is set out for her. But that's not so for the orphaned Mi-ja, whose reputation has been forever tarnished by a father who collaborated with the Japanese who occupied the island and who are bitterly referred to by some locals as the cloven-footed ones.

But when Young-sook's mother takes Mi-ja under her wing, a rich and loving friendship, bordering on sisterhood, develops between the two young girls. As Young-sook and Mi-ja approach adolescence they join the ranks of haenyeo as baby-divers, learning the ways of the sea, and together share their joys, tribulations and rites of passages, documented through the charcoal rubbings in the rice paper book of Mi-ja's father.

Fast forward to 2008, when an elderly Young-sook is confronted by a Korean-American family with an old photo of Mi-ja, she adamantly denies ever knowing such a person.

The story unfolds through the various stages of Young-sook's life, maiden, mother and crone.
In this poignant, intergenerational tale, as tragic as it is spellbinding, See explores the nature of female strength, friendship and connection against a backdrop of foreign occupation and extreme political turmoil.

See's great feat is the way she weaves the emotion and intimacy of the story with an illuminating account of the history and culture of Jeju. The Island of Sea Women is a captivating novel that deals with a little-known community with a tragic history that will linger in the mind long after the last page has been turned.