A TV show and a Novel Review

To start, the TV show, we finished season 4 (the last season) of Manifest on Netflix last night. I think that some people might find the ending to be a little bit soft, predictable, or something like that, but I still enjoyed the show and the themes. In the last episode(s) the idea of that everything is connected, we all are connected I think is important and we as humans need to be reminded of that. I think they did a good job of showing what it must be like for immigrants and others that the government/general public deems as dangerous because we don't understand and as a result lock up in detention centers and treat them like animals. For me, I think I would take away the general sense of humanity that we need in this world that we seem to be lacking a lot of, the importance of valuing every day life, our families, friends, and the people we love or learn to love. I think all the acting was very good as well.

I also acknowledge that one of the last scenes where the main chararcter, Ben is carrying the young woman who is bad on the plane as kind of this image of the white man saving the day, but I am going not to think about this too much. I think the show in general did a good job of trying to present a diversity of different people, beliefs, and lifestyles that was important. So, all in all, I thought it was a good show and the people involved should feel good about it!

Now, I want to talk about the latest novel that I finished reading, Nuclear Family by Jacob Han. Jacob Han immigrated to Hawaii with his parents from Korea when he was a child, and I feel that is important to know before I start talking about the novel because I feel like it speaks of a lot of important things.

First, this novel revolves around a Korean family that immigrated from Korea to Hawaii and own a small chain of Korean restaurants. They have a son who is the oldest, named Jacob and their daughter, Grace. I am going to skip and run over a lot of things, but Jacob decides to go to Korea to teach English after graduating from college. Well, he can see ghosts and meets his deceased grandfather who originally came from North Korea and after he died is stuck in South Korea by an invisible wall at the 38th parallel. Basically, the grandfather inhabits Jacob's body and this leads to some serious consequences for Jacob even going to the DMZ and trying to run across the invisible line, so that his grandfather's spirit can finally cross and find his family in the north. Because the ghosts or spirits apparently cannot even cross the line evenafter their deaths to reunite with their families.

The story narrates or expresses this idea that basically the United States is to blame and wasn't necessarily the good guys that we have been taught or people have stamped into their brains. I am finding that a lot of Korean and Korean American authors are trying to change this narrative and say some hard truths that need to be told. For example, the 38th parallel was created because the United States was afraid of communism spreading and needed to teach the Koreans in the south how to govern themselves, but in reality maintaining their presence on the peninsula ever since and brainwashing Koreans that the north was their enemy, even though they were of the same people and families were split apart by the division between the north and the south.

The story then relates this back to Hawaii where the family currently lives and how Hawaii was a territory or islands where a soverign nation of people lived and the US government forcefully took over in the name of needing to have a place to station the military to watch the communists threat from Asia. Hawaii is this mix of immigrants, native Hawaiin people, tourists, soldiers there with the military and how it is not free. The book is making the case or arguing that the Koreas need to be unified so that the people can be free as well as Hawaii too. This is in sharp contrast of course with how a lot of the American general public feels about what it means to be free and how our military is the strongest and most powerful in the world and they are what makes the United States free.

This is also a novel that shows the significance and importance of family and the bond/relationship between siblings in Korean culture. It also I think does a good job of showing what many Koreans think of as love and how to express. This is a quote that I wrote down:

"But this lovewas only made possible by a larger love, one the size of the restaurant, that doubled, or tripled, because love for the restaurant was itself translated from love for the family, and the only way both could endure, in name was through a love for money and a love for work, espeically when work was all families had to show for love," (Han, 2022, p. 253).

I have skipped a lot and didn't go into much detail as I could have, but it was a thought provoking book, creative in how it is written, and I think another to add to the list if you are interested in Korean and Korean American culture; more than just K-pop or K-dramas.

I think that is all for now. I am thinking about making some cookies next week for the Summer Solstice and if I do, I'll sure to take pictures and post about it.