Jimin Lee

This is a short novel, set over a few days in which Marilyn Monroe visits the troops in South Korea after the end of the Korean War. The novel is narrated by Alice Kim, a Korean woman who works as a typists for the American military and who serves as a translator during Marilyn's visit. reaAlice has a complicated and tragic past, including an affair with a married man, a relationship with an American spy, and the weight of her actions during the war. As the story unfolds, Alice confronts her past as people she thought long gone reappear and she struggles to reconcile with her own guilt. The Korean War is a conflict I feel I should know more about and while this novel hardly explains the war, it does provide a window into the destruction that conflict entailed.… (més)

‘The person I’m talking about isn’t really me, but an insane woman I am embodying. I can’t be myself. That’s the only way I can live with myself. I can only exist if I act out all of my truths along with all of the falsehoods.’

This short novel from Korean author Ji-min Lee centres on the character of Alice J. Kim, a young prematurely-grey haired woman working as a typist at a US military base just after the end of the Korean war. She is appointed as translator for the (real-life) visit of Marilyn Monroe to South Korea in early 1954 to boost the morale of the remaining US troops posted in the country. As the novel progresses Alice’s past, which has haunted her for years and is hinted at now and again, is revealed as the two main loves of her life – Yo Min-Hwan and Joseph – reappear in her life, forcing to face her demons. The book switches between 1954 and the years 1947-50, when Alice – real name Kim Ae-sun – is caught up in the Korean war, fleeing as events unfold around her. She is particularly haunted by thoughts of two little girls, named Chong-nim and Song-ha, and as events are finally related to us in a letter Alice writes we learn the true horrors of the Korean conflict and what has happened to her.

The two main characters seem to be the focus for the author, as she tries to make parallels between the two: the damaged, traumatised Alice and the (it seems) equally damaged Monroe, both of them putting on a front for the people around them. The climax of the book finds Alice, spattered in yellow paint and sitting in Monroe’s hotel bedroom: ‘Well, here we are, two fake blondes,’ says Monroe. This attempt to create another woman to contrast/mirror Alice’s predicament is also, more subtly, done by the use of the 1st-person present tense for the events in 1954, with Alice as the narrator (I laugh, I sit down, etc) and the use of the past tense for the historical events of the previous years (I stomped around the room, I waited, etc). For me, this worked for the book, as it underlines Alice’s attempts to distance herself from the past, to try to forget the person she was then, but as events unfold this is broken down and the novel ends in the now, in the present tense, as she starts to look forward.

There is an interesting afterword from the author in which she reveals that the inspiration for the book came from two photographs, one of a female interpreter during the war and another of Marilyn Monroe. I say this because, as much as I enjoyed the book, the two parts – Alice’s past and the present visit of Marilyn Monroe – just didn’t blend together. The ambition is there, but it either needed more flesh on the Monroe story to really make a parallel between the two women, or it needed to be more in the background and focus more on Alice. As it is, the Monroe visit seems merely to act as an excuse to reintroduce characters from Alice’s past who somehow get themselves attached to the visit. The translation, done by Chi-Young Kim, is fine, but whether it’s a problem with the original text or it is something in the translation, again it doesn’t quite flow. There are an enormous number of similes throughout the book; everything is ‘like’ something else, and it starts to become a little irritating.

On the whole, this is an admirable attempt at exploring the horrors of war, and the trauma of its survivors. There is a sub-plot involving spies and Alice is roped in to helping, which is all a little unbelievable, and again detracts from the impact of the main story. The themes of female identity, of the power of names and the play of real/fake appearances are all there, and are intriguing, but for me they are let down too much by the structure and some of the writing. I really wanted to like this more, so 3 stars for ambition and the ideas.… (més)

1954, the war in Korea is over but there are still some soldiers waiting to see their big star come for a short visit: Marilyn Monroe. Alice J. Kim, working as a translator for the Americans, is one of the few Koreans fluent in both languages and who could accompany the blond film star on her tour. But with the arrival of Marilyn also comes somebody else Alice had almost forgotten: Joseph, her former lover who turned out not to be a missionary but an American spy. Alice thought she could leave her past behind, like the war, just bury it all under the ruins and build a new life. But now, it all comes up again.

Other than the title suggests, the novel is not really about Marilyn Monroe and her visit to Korea. She appears as a character, yes, and I found she was nicely depicted, a sensitive woman lacking all kind of allures one might assume. However, first and foremost, it is a novel about Alice and the two loves she had: first, Min-hwan, a married man working for the government, and second, the American Joseph. None is the loves is meant to last and the political developments in the country add their part to these unfulfilled loves.

What I found interesting was the insight in the possible life of a Korean woman at the time of the war. I have never read about it and this part of history is not something I know much about. Nevertheless, the book could not really catch me. Somehow I had the impression that the two stories – Alice’s one the one hand and Marilyn’s visit on the other - did not really fit together and especially the last seemed more a feature to make the story a bit more interesting by adding a big name.

„These sleeping pills are a better friend than diamonds for those of us who want to forget their past.“

Parallels between Marilyn and Alice are evoked: a past they want to forget, well-known lovers who in the end always decide against the affair and for their wife, the change of name to start anew - but the link is too weak to work for me. Unfortunately, Alice also remains a bit too distant, too hard to grasp and to really feel sympathy for her and her fate.… (més)