to her neurosis, seems both familiar and new. She is
a caricature of the angst-ridden creator but a post-
modern caricature, self-reflexive and self-dramatiz-
ing to an absurd degree. Her text is checkered with
dashes, exclamation points, italics, boldface, CAPS,
and strikethroughs (as though the writer were edit-
ing herself even as she ferments). Quirky drawings,
charts, lists, and “manuscript” pages sometimes in-
terrupt her narratives. (A photograph of Bert Lahr
as the Cowardly Lion bears the label “The King of
Eye Bags” [169].) In effect, Loh presents a series
of short takes on the tragicomedy of suffering for
one’s art before one knows exactly what that art
will be.
But the book does trace an emotional curve,
a movement from despondency to acceptance.
Though the titles of its “seasonal” subdivisions—
“The Winter of Our Discontent,” “Spring without
Bending Your Knees,” “Summer Where We Win-
ter,” and “Fall of Our Dearest Expectations”—give
no hint of redemption, the “Fall” section tells of a
fortunate fall. To drop a set of crippling expecta-
tions is not an easy task, but Loh’s narrator man-
ages to do so, grumping all the while. If her year
in Van Nuys does not bring a significant change in
her circumstances, it does bring a grudging sense
of maturity. The “Sandra” who tells this tale finally
comes to terms with an outworn identity and de-
cides to move on: “And so, I step out of the cracked
dead shell of my Youth, and older, yet oddly lighter,
I set off ” (232).
Bibliography
Loh, Sandra Tsing. A Year in Van Nuys. New York:
Crown, 2001.
Janis Butler Holm
Year of Impossible Goodbyes
Sook Nyul Choi (1991)
In this autobiographical novel, SOOK NYUL CHOI’s
narrator is 10-year-old Sookan Bak, who lives in
Pyungyang, North Korea, in the spring of 1945,
near the end of World War II, and during the Japa-
nese occupation of North Korea. Choi wrote the
novel as an adult, yet she effectively conveys a child-
like view of the arresting horror and abject misery
that are the consequences of war. Choi skillfully es-
tablishes the novel’s underlying theme of preserv-
ing cultural identity when the narrator, Sookan,
begins her story by remembering the courage of
her grandfather and his insistence on meditating
outside, despite his fear of the Japanese soldiers:
“It has been thirty-six years since I have meditated
in the warmth of a spring sun. Today, the Japanese
soldiers will not keep me inside” (2). Choi juxta-
poses the simple courage of Sookan’s grandfather
with the peaceful quietude of his meditation and
prayer beneath his favorite pine tree, a tree that a
few pages later is cut down by Japanese soldiers.
As the novel progresses, Choi develops each
character’s desire to hold onto cultural practices
that are the constant target of attack by Japanese
soldiers. Choi’s protagonist keenly combines the
innocent observations of a child with a more pro-
found introspection brought on by the extraordi-
nary circumstances of war and military occupation.
Within the narrative, Choi demonstrates the inter-
connectedness of all life, past and present, as the
novel weaves together the lives of Sookan’s family
with the political events in the world around them.
Sookan and her brother learn their family’s history
when their mother explains each precious photo
in an old, charred wooden box. The experiences
of Sookan’s grandfather also become an important
part of the drive to preserve their family’s cultural
identity. Just before her grandfather dies, he asks
her to wash his feet with lemon oil. As the old
man’s feet are revealed to her, Sookan is shocked
at their condition, which was caused by the torture
her grandfather suffered while in prison for being
a part of the Korean resistance: “I held his toes in
my hands. My eyes filled with tears. I wished that I
could comfort these poor toes” (44).
Through Sookan’s eyes, Choi probes the psy-
chological effects of war and adversity on chil-
dren. Young Sookan must decide, as her mother
is detained by Russian soldiers, if she can continue
the journey alone without her. Choi tenderly ex-
poses the emotional turmoil inside Sookan, who
is forced to grow up fast and deal with adult situa-
tions in a war-ravaged country. Amazingly, despite
the horrors of war and the separation from her334 Year of Impossible Goodbyes