83go to New York for graduate education. Her par-
ents agree because she will live with her relatives
and because they hope she can meet eligible young
Indo-American men in New York.
Anju’s experience in New York is transforma-
tive as she discovers her talents in public relations
and embarks on a career, much against her parents’
wishes. In her quest for a husband, Anju has a brief
romance with an American man, which does not
work out because of the vast cultural differences
between them. Her matrimonial quest becomes
the subject of humor and concern for her friends
both Indian and American. Eventually Anju dis-
covers Indian matrimonial Web sites and meets a
man who lives in Los Angeles. Neither Anju nor
her boyfriend discloses their courtship to either’s
parents since they want the relationship to flourish
without the influence of their respective families.
They fall in love and get married at a grand cer-
emony in India.
The novel is a romantic comedy that humor-
ously exposes the flaws in both Indian and Ameri-
can societies. Daswani’s characters are funny,
charming, and very human, and the novel has a
dynamic plot. As a writer, Daswani takes the con-
ventional theme of the clash of cultures and ex-
plores ways in which her heroine is able to bridge
both cultures and draw upon the best in both to
shape her life.
Nalini IyerFox Girl Nora Okja Keller (2002)
NORA OKJA KELLER followed the success of her
debut novel, COMFORT WOMAN, with an equally
successful second novel that has confirmed Keller’s
capacity to illuminate dark corners in history
and established her as a powerful voice. Fox Girl,
which was long-listed for the 2003 Orange Prize,
is set primarily in Korea in the mid-1960s after
the Korean War and tells the story of two young
Korean girls who are forced to struggle to survive
by turning to the desperate world of prostitution
in “America Town,” a military town in southern
Korea serving American GIs. Again, as in Comfort
Woman, Keller is concerned with bringing aware-
ness to a subject too long neglected—that of the
lives of “the ‘throwaway’ people of the postwar Ko-
rean-American towns: biracial bastard children of
U.S. servicemen and the Korean prostitutes who
hold onto these children as they hope for a pass-
port to America” (Ho 118).
At the center of the narrative is the confident
and cocky Hyun Jin, whose seemingly privileged
and prosperous life—her parents own a store,
there are regular meals, and her biggest worry
is maintaining her perfect attendance record at
school—is suddenly shattered. When she learns of
her true parentage as the daughter of a prostitute,
Hyun Jin is abandoned and reduced to making her
way on her own. Sookie, her best friend, is aban-
doned out of necessity by her mother, Duk Hee,
a former sex slave to the Japanese imperial army
and now a prostitute. The two girls, confronted
with extremely limited options, end up working
the bars and shanties of America Town, pimped by
their one-time school nemesis, Lobetto. The harsh
realities of daily life for the two girls are tempered
by fleeting moments of tenderness when the vio-
lence and betrayals they endure at the hands of
complete strangers, and each other, give way to a
deeper sense of loyalty and even love. Both Hyun
Jin and Sookie manage to escape to Hawaii, but
ultimately the effort to make money and stay alive
takes too great a toll on the friendship and, by the
novel’s end, Hyun Jin and Sookie part ways, sadly
confirming Sookie’s assertion, “Each one of us is
always alone. You can’t depend on anyone” (140).
The Korean legend of the fox girl, from which
the novel derives its title, offers a powerful frame-
work for considering Keller’s work. The shape-
shifting creature seeking to regain something stolen
from her could easily be Hyun Jin, or Sookie, or
indeed any of Keller’s female protagonists who are
faced with the task of reclaiming what is rightfully
theirs. One might even argue that Keller is herself
the fox girl, attempting to restore the voice stolen
from history’s forgotten women—an attempt that
will undoubtedly continue in her next novel.Bibliography
Ho, Jennifer. Review of Fox Girl by Nora Okja Keller.
Amerasia Journal 30, no. 2 (2004): 117–119.Fox Girl 83