Book: Can’t I go Instead
Author: Lee Geum-yi
Translated by: An Seon Jae
Blurb:
Can’t I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th century. When the daughter’s suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage to one of her father’s Japanese employees and shipped off to the United States. At the same time, her maidservant is sent in her mistress’s place to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army.
Years of hardship, survival, and even happiness follows. In the aftermath of WWII, the women make their way home, where they must reckon with the tangled lives they’ve led, in an attempt to reclaim their identities and find their place in an independent Korea.
My Review:
This story is a historical fiction that alternates between the lives of a noblewoman, Chaeryeong, the daughter of Viscount Hyeongman and her maid/servant Sunam. After the former is gifted the latter (as a birthday present no less), a relationship between the two characters is born that becomes ever increasingly complex and interwoven.
“Chaeryeong couldn’t hide her disappointment. She had never seen such a dirty and useless gift in all her life.”
Set in Korea, the book explores primarily the Japanese Occupation of Korea through the different fates of the two characters. The two women become embroiled in a complex and cruel twist of fate when Chaeryeong finds herself embroiled in a romantic relationship with a Korean Independence fighter. Chaeryeong is quickly ushered into an arranged marriage and a change of identity that takes her to America. Sunam however bears the consequences of her mistress’s actions, and is sent (manipulated) to serve as a ‘comfort woman’ in Chaeryeong’s place .
“She paled as she realised that everything she’d thought of the viscount had been a lie, that he’d sent her to this place knowing exactly what would happen.”
The novel, at least to me, being someone who has, at the point of typing, very limited knowledge of Japanese occupation, appeared well researched and sensitively written. While I was reading the book I felt I wanted more detail of the reality but with hindsight, I think that was a great idea on the author’s part. The decision to write about history in a manner that I would respectfully call a ‘gentle retelling’, made me want to learn more about the history myself, and I was glad that my first exposure to it wasn’t full of the true and explicit horrors as I might have found it too upsetting and might have instead chosen to play ostrich. I felt exposed to ‘just enough’ of reality that I feel obliged to better educate myself.
I liked that this book wasn’t all misery and doom, it did have elements of happiness and positivity for the characters. The ending was really interesting too. It was an interesting twist that I didn’t really see coming, so I liked that.
If you are looking to read more about the Japanese occupation, I was recommended the following books to read:
- Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910–1945 by Hildi Kang
- Colonial Modernity in Korea by Gi-Wook Shin
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
I recently read this book and thoroughly enjoyed the read. I still about the characters in the book and how they overcame their hurdles and worries.