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Grass
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
17 posts | 16 read | 24 to read
This true story of a Korean comfort woman documents how the atrocity of war devastates womens lives Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World Wara disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history. Beginning in Lees childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a childs vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lees strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lees memories. The cartoonist Gendry-Kims interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lees wartime suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace.
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review
Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Excellent graphic non-fiction about “comfort women“ (Japanese euphemism for “prostitute“ which refers to the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery during WW2)
Beautifully illustrated, this book offers the moving testimony of a comfort woman. The author also shares her thoughts, she draws herself during the interviews, during her research, which adds value, and also shows how politically this issue is still unresolved.

22 likes1 stack add
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CoveredInRust
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Heartbreaking graphic nonfic about a woman's experience being a comfort woman to Japanese soldiers during WW2. Hard to read at times but definitely an important history to learn.

44 likes1 stack add
blurb
mrp27
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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#adventrecommends

Combining yesterday and today recommends. Two graphic novels by a new to me author that focused on aspects of the Korean War and WW2 that I was unfamiliar with. I certainly learned a lot and both books are well worth a read.

16 likes1 stack add
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AbstractMonica
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

An important graphic novel the sheds light on a very dark part of history. I couldn‘t put it down once I picked it up. The illustrations were somber to reflect the heaviness of the story.

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AbstractMonica
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Starting this one rn. I haven‘t read a graphic novel before, so I‘m really looking forward to it although the subject matter in pretty grim.

It‘s the story of Korean comfort women during the Japanese occupation of Korea. From everything I‘ve gathered, it‘s a must-read.

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RealLifeReading
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Why read a story like this one? To never forget. Not just the horrors faced by those who fought during the war but also those who were not soldiers yet fought their own wars. How terrifying it must have been to be taken at such a young age, to be abused in this way. These are stories that need to be told and read and remembered. Your heart will break over and over when you read this powerful and necessary graphic memoir.

53 likes3 stack adds
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RealLifeReading
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Why read a story like this one? To never forget. Not just the horrors faced by those who fought during the war but also those who were not soldiers yet fought their own wars. How terrifying it must have been to be taken at such a young age, to be abused in this way. These are stories that need to be told and read and remembered. Your heart will break over and over when you read this powerful and necessary graphic memoir.

review
Lindy
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Artist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim gently interviews Lee Ok-sun about her experiences as a ‘comfort woman,‘ a sexual slave for the Japanese army while they occupied Korea. With smudges & thick strokes of black ink, she documents Ok-sun‘s life from childhood into old age, in addition to the artist‘s own visits to the rest home for former comfort women, where Ok-sun now lives. Translation by Janet Hong. Outstanding, heartbreaking, heroic graphic nonfiction.

Smrloomis Not sure I can handle this right at this exact moment, but definitely stacking for later 📚📚📚 3y
CaitlinR Great review! 3y
Lindy @Smrloomis It‘s not an easy read. 🤗 3y
Lindy @CaitlinR Thanks ☺️ 3y
37 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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Lindy
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Lovely depictions of plant life in between the chapters help to soothe my feelings of sorrow and indignation as I read about the horrors some Korean women experienced when they were forced to be sexual slaves, then left to fend for themselves after the Japanese forces left.

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Lindy
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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The landlord kicked them out. Her parents took the youngest and sold themselves into bond service. Mija Eonni [age 4] was sent to her father‘s older brother. She tried to earn her keep by doing chores and looking after her nephew. She lived there for 2 years, and when she turned 6, she was married off as a child bride to a 19-year-old man in a neighbouring village.

LeahBergen Ooph. 💔 3y
Lindy @LeahBergen Their lives were hard for these poor Korean girls, even before they were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese. 3y
Megabooks Heartbreaking 3y
RealLifeReading I just borrowed this! 3y
34 likes2 stack adds4 comments
blurb
DrexEdit
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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A LOT of reading was done in December! #NeverNotReading

Plenty of other books still in the rotation. January with the start of challenges, is going to shake things up a bit. More on that in a bit.

#BookReport
@Cinfhen

Cinfhen Love the hashtag 🙌🏻♥️🤓 3y
31 likes1 comment
review
violabrain
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

This is an extremely powerful graphic novel about the Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II.

14 likes1 stack add
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DrexEdit
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

This book is a pick for me despite how triggering or horrifying it might be. Grass is a graphic novel of the real-life story of Ok-sun Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese troops occupying China during the second World War. I knew nothing about this history until encountering a similar story (fiction) in A Gesture Life earlier this year. No official apology or reparations were issued by Tokyo until 2015.

DrexEdit I loved the style of drawing in this book. It's done in black ink brushwork that conveys both the sense of chaos and dread as well as hope, depending on how strong the brushwork is and how closely it is focused. 3y
DrexEdit The author's next GN is about a family separated by the 38th parallel during the Korean War. Korea seems to be a bit of a forgotten war in the US so I'm looking forward to learning more about how the war affected, and still affects, Koreans. 3y
jlhammar Subject matter is hard, but such a good book. 3y
Reggie I like how they put a statue of one of the girls that stared right at the Japanese embassy. This graphic novel was so sad. 3y
47 likes5 comments
review
stretchkev
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Harrow account of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in in occupied Korea.

What these poor women went through was utterly unfathomable. Strong of character is the only way to describe them.

llcoolnate Sounds along the lines of Unit 731-ish. Heavy reads 4y
stretchkev @llcoolnate Yeah it was a heavy read for sure, and the illstrates matched perfectly with the somber topics. Never heard of Unit 731, but just a quick search it sounds like another topic worth a deeper dive. 4y
llcoolnate Went on a kick of that area and time. Unit 731, Rape of Nanking, Flowers of War, etc. Made me have to switch to fiction for a while. 4y
stretchkev Yeah, real world atrocities are necessary to read but take it out of you. I got both Rape of Nanking and Flower of War on the TBR, but I think I'm going to pace those out for while much like after reading the Sea of Poison. 4y
33 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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Reggie
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

This GN tells the true story of Lee Ok-sun, pictured top left. In the early 1940‘s in Japan occupied Korea she along with 10‘s of thousands of girls were abducted and tricked by the Japanese into becoming ‘comfort women.‘ They were sexually assaulted for years by the Japanese forces until their liberation where they were then assaulted and killed by Soviet soldiers. There is a place in South Korea called The Sharing House which is a👇🏼

Reggie nursing home for the surviving ‘comfort women.‘ Lee Ok-sun still lives there saying she will survive until Japan acknowledges what they have done. Japan‘s account is that after talking to their soldiers that many of the comfort women were appreciative of their job being that it allowed them to send money home to their families. Lies. The pictured statue is of a ‘comfort woman‘ girl who is placed right in front of the Japanese embassy in South 4y
Reggie Korea. Regarding the graphic novel itself I don‘t think it works for me because I found myself not caring for the art but racing to read the text to find out more of what was happening. Also the artist puts herself in the story and I just didn‘t care for that part. But the story is important and that‘s what matters. Pick. (edited) 4y
TrishB So many wrongs done to people☹️ 4y
See All 10 Comments
Centique Oh man that‘s awful! Reminds me of a book about WW2 in Malaysia and the Chinese Malaysian women - war carries so many atrocities that need to be acknowledged, repented 4y
Centique I need to read some more about Korea though! 4y
erzascarletbookgasm Heartbreaking. It sounds similar to this tagged book, where in WW2, the Japanese shipped off women from Singapore and Malaysia to Japanese military brothers as comfort women. @Reggie @Centique 4y
Centique @erzascarletbookgasm I‘ll add that to my TBR too. Thanks for the recc! 4y
Reggie I feel like it never stops @TrishB It‘s always happening somewhere in the world. 4y
Reggie @Centique @erzascarletbookgasm Thanks for both recs. I stacked them both. Also, for being a graphic novel there wasn‘t anything overly graphic. The author purposely kept it “light.” 4y
Suet624 You‘re right. It never stops. 4y
75 likes3 stack adds10 comments
blurb
charl08
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Today has been very full on.

The monochrome illustrations of this GN suit my computer-tired evening.

TrishB Oh I know that feeling, brain tired. Enjoy your GN 😁 4y
charl08 @TrishB thanks. This week feels like a fortnight. 4y
TrishB Definitely. All groundhog days too. 4y
38 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
Sarahreadstoomuch
Grass | Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
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Pickpick

Powerful graphic novel about a part of recent history that I had no idea about (thanks Western-Centric public school education). This is the story of a Korean “comfort woman” kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery & service the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. You won‘t forget this story - highly recommend it.

LibrarianRyan I‘ll have to check this out. 5y
19 likes1 stack add2 comments