The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
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.
The Island of Sea Women is an epic set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wetsuits for the women divers. 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.
Review
The Island of Sea Women is set on the island of Jeju, the largest island of South Korea, and it focuses on the famous haenyeo, female divers whose livelihood consists of harvesting a variety of mollusks, seaweed, and other sea life from the ocean. The predominance of female divers led to a semi-matriarchal society on the island which meant the men looked after the children while the women were the bread winners. As a result, the birth of a female was regarded as more valuable as she would eventually become a diver and increase the family’s income. While men were still seen as being the head of the household, the women of Jeju were more independent than their counterparts on the mainland.
The story is told from the point of view of Young-sook with chapters set in the past where she is being taught how to dive by her mother who is the leader of the village’s diving collective, and chapters from the present when she is an elderly lady looking back. The modern day chapters serve to add contrast to the main story as it is obvious that a lot has changed and the haenyeo way of life has declined somewhat as new diving and safety methods have been introduced. We are also made aware that the friendship between Young-sook and Mi-ja has fractured over the years to the point that they have not spoken to each other for a long time.
The development of strong female friendships is a recurring theme in many of Lisa See’s books and they are often complicated by the fact that the girls are of unequal rank which becomes an increasingly larger obstacle as they mature. This novels begins in the 1930s when Korea is occupied by Japan and Mi-ja, the daughter of a collaborator, is sent to the village of Hado to live with her aunt and uncle who mistreat her. The stain of collaboration will forever taint Mi-ja but it makes no difference to Young-sook who loves her like a sister. The early chapters are quite slow going as we learn about the haenyeo and their remarkable ability to dive to greater depths as they learn how to control their breath. Young-sook is determined to become one of the best divers in the village to make her mother proud and in the hopes that she will replace her mother as leader one day. However, there is danger around every corner as the Japanese steal young women for their own pleasure and young men are forced to join their army.
The story gets more interesting as the girls grow older and their thoughts naturally turn towards marriage and motherhood. When her mother dies on a dive, Young-sook becomes her family’s only source of income so she snaps up the chance to go to Vladivostok with Mi-ja to earn even more money. After months away, Young-sook returns to her village to discover the Japanese have taken her brothers away and she never sees them again. When the Japanese are defeated in the Second World War and forced to leave Korea, the islanders are looking forward to finally being in charge of their own lives but their hopes are cruelly dashed when the Americans install a cruel dictator who imposes harsh rules on them all. The beginnings of a rift become evident between Young-sook and Mi-ja when they fall for the same young man but his family are collaborators so a marriage is arranged for him with Mi-ja. Young-sook is initially devastated but Mi-ja’s husband turns out to be a cruel man who keeps her on a tight leash.
When Young-sook finally marries, she has to move to another village when her husband is offered a teaching position but she soon settles into motherhood. However, the call of the sea is never far away and Young-sook joins a new collective. However, the haenyeo are soon banned from diving and the families are facing starvation as well as the threat of extinction as they hear tales of entire villages being massacred as punishment for insurrection. This is the point in the story that marks the end of the friendship between Young-sook and Mi-ja as the latter is visiting when Young-sook’s husband, eldest son and sister-in-law are massacred along with hundreds of others in their village. As the wife of an official, Mi-ja is free to walk away but she ignores Young-sook’s pleas to save her children. In despair, Young-sook takes her surviving children back to her home village where she eventually becomes leader of the diving collective whose numbers dwindle significantly over the following years.
After the massacre, the story jumps ahead at frequent intervals as Young-sook’s children grow older and her daughters disappoint her by not joining her in the sea. As the political situation progressively eases, the horrors of the past are finally recognised by the government and a new memorial is created to honour the lives of the thousands who were killed during the massacres. As Young-sook’s extended family gather to honour their own lost ones, Young-sook is astounded when she is approached by a young American called Clara who is the great-granddaughter of Mi-ja. Clara has recordings of Mi-ja telling her side of the story and she is determined to make Young-sook listen as things were not as they seemed.
The Island of Sea Women is an extraordinary read as it not only honours the lives of the haenyeo whose way of life is almost gone but it also pays tribute to the ties between women whether they be mothers, daughters, sisters or friends. While the political tensions are present, they flit in and out of the story as they are not the primary focus until after the Second World War when the new puppet regime has dire consequences for Young-sook. I knew absolutely nothing about Korea before reading this novel so it was a revelation to me as to how the whole North and South parts became separate. This novel barely scratches the surface though as Young-sook’s focus returns to diving and raising her children. As always, Lisa See effortlessly entertains and teaches her readers as the same time which is why I love her books so much.
