weren’t ever even exchanges” (Foreign Student 67).
Though “even exchange” proves problematic for
Chang and Katherine, their relationship demon-
strates that something else, something more, can
arise from the interaction between cultures and
across cultural differences: Insularity remains a
choice, not necessarily the only option. Chang and
Katherine derive solace from each other, as their
relationship facilitates a certain openness necessary
to unbind their respective pasts, a task fraught with
the emotional and psychological tensions of their
personal histories (his experience with the Korean
War and Katherine’s precipitous relationship with
a Sewanee professor in her youth). Taking place as
it does in the American South during the 1950s,
the potentialities of Chang and Katherine’s inter-
action highlight the undercurrents of racism and
class conflict that will soon come to a head during
the Civil Rights era and the social upheavals oc-
curring in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Choi’s second novel, American Woman, fic-
tionalizes the historical event of Patty Hearst’s
1974 kidnapping at the hands of the Symbionese
Liberation Army, a militant group with a radical
political agenda. Nominated for the 2004 Pulitzer
Prize in fiction, American Woman provides an inti-
mate look at the radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s
in the United States through the lens of its main
characters: Jenny, a former radical in hiding from
the authorities; Pauline, loosely based on Hearst;
and the duo of Juan and Yvonne, lovers and the
leaders of the guerrilla group. As An Hansen notes,
Choi “uses these historical events as a backdrop
to the development of the emotions and politi-
cal motivations that drive her fictional characters,
rather than keeping her storyline true to the genre
of historical fiction” (34). Far from detracting
from the novel, such a technique allows Choi to
explore the inner lives of her characters without
fully having to justify such thoughts and desires
within the specifies of a rigidly historical context.
In this manner, Choi investigates the intricacies
of the relationships among the self-styled revolu-
tionaries and their influence upon, and import for,
American revolutionary politics during the 1970s.
More interesting for Choi is the question of
how such idealistic and seemingly coherent group
politics can fall apart and unravel. Jennifer Egan
makes a similar point, noting that Choi “renders
a lucid study of the gravitational pull of race and
class in America, its ability to crush the most na-
ively passionate fantasies of unity” (39). Taking
such radicalism as a backdrop, Choi branches out
to investigate issues of race, class, and gender as
they play out in both group politics and citizen
responsibility. By doing so, the author simultane-
ously presents and challenges the incitement to,
and justification for, violent action. For Choi, the
generation that could have benefited from the les-
sons learned after the horrible violence of World
War II and the atomic bomb appears to have fared
no better, the promise of hindsight never fully real-
ized. Offering a meditative look at the motivations
for such radicalism and violence, Choi presents the
complexity of the situation to the reader without
casting judgment.
When Yvonne and Juan flee after an unsuccess-
ful and violent bank robbery, Jenny and Pauline
head west to California, attempting to hide from
the authorities while they develop a notably close
bond, which facilitates Jenny’s attempt to make
sense of her own past and motivations toward po-
litical action. When Jenny and Pauline eventually
come into custody, Pauline quickly repents and
discards her friendship with Jenny, forcing the
reader to sympathize with Jenny’s position, even
as she must take full possession of her past in the
form of a jail sentence. Choi remains reluctant to
the end to make moral pronouncements upon her
characters or their problematic and sometimes
ambiguous motivations; rather, as Sven Birkerts
notes, “questions of right and wrong are, rightly,
left to the reader”—a subtle form of interrogation
that Choi’s two novels share. With only two novels,
Susan Choi has obtained a prominent place among
contemporary American writers.Bibliography
Birkerts. Sven. “ ‘American Woman’: Days of the
Cobra.” Review of American Woman by Susan
Choi, New York Times Book Review. (5 Oc-
tober 2003) The New York Times. Available
online by subscription. URL: http://www.nytimes.
com/2003/10/05/books/review.48 Choi, Susan