The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See –374 pages

Book Blurb:

Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook’s differences are impossible to ignore. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.

My Review: 4.5 stars

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The Island of Sea Women was an adventure into another place and time, filled with deep love, intense friendships, hardships of war and the integrity of being an honorable haenyeo. Although haenyeo is new to many readers, I was fortunate enough to read White Chrysanthemum a few years ago. It too, casts haneyeo in the book, although the story is completely different. I recommend this as a companion read; it was an incredible novel.

This book is one that I finished knowing so much more about the world than before I started. The devastation and corruption in Korea under Japanese rule was horrific and often hard to read. I loved learning how these strong women managed in a matrifocal city, lived off the land, or sea, in this case, and continued generations and generations of old-world traditions. They had arranged marriages, which often came with heartache and abuse. Life was not easy, yet these women were respected as haneyeo and knew no other way of life. The sea was their second home and respected it as much as they would another person. Sadly, the sea took as much as it gave.

Friendship and mother/daughter relationships were paramount themes running through the book. Two main characters were the best of friends and we followed their story for decades. I won’t lie, much of it was depressing as it often involved incredibly difficult choices, some resulting in life or death. Learning to forgive was a powerful component in the story.

This book had so much to chew on and like all of See’s novels, it was written with impeccable historical detail and opened my eyes to a fascinating culture. If you enjoyed The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, you should pick this one up right away.

Quotes I liked:

You are not being punished for your anger. You’re being punished by your anger.” 

“Fall down eight times, stand up nine. For me, this saying is less about the dead paving the way for future generations than it is for the women of Jeju. We suffer and suffer and suffer, but we also keep getting up. We keep living. You would not be here if you weren’t brave. Now you need to be braver still.” 

“How do we fall in love? … How different it is with friendship. No one picks a friend for us. We come together by choice. We are not tied together through ceremony or the responsibility to create a son. We tie ourselves together through moment. The spark when we first meet. Laughter and tears shared. Secrets packed away to be treasured, hoarded, and protected. The wonder that someone can be so different from you and yet still understand your heart in a way no one else ever will.” 

“Every woman who enters the sea carries a coffin on her back. In this world, in the undersea world, we tow the burdens of a hard life. We are crossing between life and death every day. When we go to the sea, we share the work and the danger. We harvest together, sort together, and sell together, because the sea itself is communal.”