David S. Cho Knihy

This volume examines the engagement with national histories, citizenship, and the larger transnational contexts in the narrative plot lines in selected twentieth-century Korean American novels. Critics have often expected, or even demanded, that the Korean American novel present the ideal and coherent American citizen-subject in a linear bildungsroman plotline. Many novels – Younghill Kang’s East Goes West , Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee , Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life , to name a few – do deal with the idea of an “American identity”, however, they consistently problematize such identification through multiple and conflicting national memories, historic eras, and geopolitical terrains. The novels are typically set in contemporary America, but they often refer either to the regional context and era of Japan’s colonization of Korea (1910–1945) or the Korean War (1950–1953). The novels’ characters are “lost in transnation”, contextualizing the multiple and multiply-interrelated national contexts and time periods that have formed immigrants and Korean Americans in the twentieth century.

"The term 'half-life' is used to describe radioactive decay, pharmaceutical drugs, rocks, the atoms of our human bodies, and even technological products. Using this idea as a starting point, A Half-Life provides a rare glimpse into the Korean American experience. The poems utilize the literal metaphor of the highway as the intersecting point of America, Asia, and the globe, to reflect on the emotional and physical journeys many Asian Americans take. From Chicago to Seattle, from the biographical to the fictional, from current times to the Korean and Vietnam wars, A Half-Life covers the joy and pain, the probable and improbable, the individual and communal--the cultural histories we all share." --From publisher's description

Set against the backdrop of 1970s Chicago, the narrative explores the life of a child of Korean immigrants, drawing heavily from David S. Cho's personal experiences. It delves into themes of identity, cultural assimilation, and the challenges faced by immigrant families, highlighting the complexities of growing up in a diverse urban environment. Through rich storytelling, the book captures the struggles and triumphs of navigating two cultures, offering a poignant reflection on belonging and heritage.