Product Description

Uncle Hong-do arrives in Vermont from Korea to see the sister he has never met, a concert violinist long settled in the West. His colorful visit turns his teenage niece's world upside down, disrupting Anna's cozy existence with his eccentric

customs, forcing into it a fresh and intriguing tang of Korea. Then, too soon, he returns to Seoul. Years later, Anna, now an artist in Manhattan, finds herself in a state of Bohemian malaise--unhappy, aimless, uninspired, and mired in routine. She seeks to fill the void with an expedition to Korea, retracing her mother's journey in an effort to see my family undie. Her departure stirs up vivid, shocking memories for her mother, of her gilded childhood, and of her noble clan's fall from power. Long ago, her grandfather commanded his own private armies and owned vast estates across the country from north to south. In defiance of centuries of barbarous invasions--by the Japanese, Manchus, and finally the Communists--he built a temple high in the mountains and planted one thousand chestnut trees to shield it from view. Generations later, his trees call back his great-granddaughter Anna, who sets out with Uncle Hong-do to find the hidden temple and excavate from history the remains of her family's legacy. Mira Stout's debut novel has the sweep of a generational saga and the historical weight of grand epic. It is her great achievement to have captured the turbulent and largely unknown

century of Korean history with such elegance and assurance, all the while keeping the threads of this family tapestry firmly in hand.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #777620 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 319 pages

Amazon.com Review
How best to prepare for a trip to Korea? Forget the kimchi experiments and immerse yourself in a novel that's thick with the people, the history, and the feel of Korea. Mira Stout's protagonist is Anna (based loosely on Stout herself), a young artist who lives in New York and feels lost. Knowing little about her Boston Irish father and her Korean mother, and less still about Korea, she decides to journey to Korea, as Mira Stout herself did, to try to make sense of the random jigsaw pieces of her background--tidbits like the story of her great-grandfather, once the ruler of Kangwon Province, who was stripped of land and title by the invading Japanese and ordered a temple be built atop the highest mountain amidst 1,000 chestnut trees. In the novel, Anna's Korean curiosity begins as a teenager, when Uncle Hong-do arrives from Korea to visit Anna's mother, the sister he never met. Years later, Anna turns to Korea as an answer to her feelings of existential angst, retracing her mother's steps in an effort "to see my family undie." Told in her voice as well as her mother's and grandfather's, what you get is a stirring novel that combines Korea's epic history with a family legacy and a personal exploration. A fine read whether you're going to Korea or lounging in your living room, Stout's story is engrossing and educational.

From The Washington Post
Though uneven and overly ambitious, this first novel is saved by a long middle passage that may be one of the finest, most sensitive renderings of the Korean War that I've encountered in nearly three decades of reading about it.

Review
One is left feeling that the core of this sincere book might have been better suited to a novella, saving the multiple narrators and fact-filled descriptive passages for another occasion. -- The New York Times Book Review, Philip Gambone

Customer Reviews

A Different Voice Is Heard
_One Thousand Chestnut Trees_, is a wonderful book from an author conveying a very special point of view -- and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mira Stout's novel. I'm grateful to Stout for writing the book -- and pleased that she found a publisher.

I am an Amerasian of Korean-German descent. My mother came to this country as a foreign-exchange student after the Korean War, and later, married an American. I find this book so phenomenal because of a greater context. It wasn't that long ago that 17 states banned marriages between Koreans and so-called "Americans." And if American racial prejudices weren't enough, so-called "half-breed" Korean-American children have also faced unspeakable discrimination from many Korean communities. That Mira Stout has risen above this type of background rhetoric to present her story is a testament to something quite special in her character. She lovingly represents the Korean side of her family through this novel. And while she does share the "dark sides" of her family, countries, and cultures that she must bridge, she doesn't succomb to a tiresome tirade of old accusations. Rather, she presents these people in a far more sophisticated way -- showing their struggles, misunderstandings, and achievements. Stout shares a personal journey with all of its heartache and humor. We have many good texts regarding Korean history in the 20th century -- but we have far fewer books that give historical statistics names and faces and feelings.

As an Amerasian in the United States, my Korean heritage has been difficult to access. There are many reasons for this -- both benign and malicious. Benign in the sense that America is overwhelming European-American by habit; malicious in that racial prejudice still closes many doors on both sides of the Pacific. But Stout has been willing to risk writing a book that opens doors to my Korean heritage -- to my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles. Stout shares the thoughts that my family will never be able to tell me -- but notions which deserve articulation. I appreciate Stout giving voice to the voiceless. And in voicing, giving us an insight into people that are more than mono-syllables and horrible accents -- but rather, a sophisticated amalgam of love and hope without demagoguery.

I hope Stout writes another book soon.

excellent
1000 Chestnut Trees is a wonderful and highly enlightening book. Stout paints a very accurate and insightful portrait of Korea and its people. As a second-generation Korean-American, I was very well able to relate with Anna, in particular her experiences in modern-day Korea. Stout's impressions of Korea and Koreans are highly perceptive, and I was especially impressed with her ability to capture their essence in such a simple, easy manner. She also possesses a knack for humanizing each character in her novel, be it Uncle Hong-do or Anna herself. I found them highly believable and began to sympathize with them right away.

The diction is very eloquent throughout the novel-it strikes a perfect balance between the abstract and the concrete. I read other reviews that criticize Stout for being too "flowery" and "eloquent", but I disagree. Her style is very clear and precise. (Besides, isn't eloquence supposed to be a good thing? One can never bee "too eloquent".)

I have read quite a few books on Korean culture and history, but I have yet to find an author who can duplicate Stout's elegance and grace in presenting the topic.

dazzling & superb winner of a book
I can't recommend this book more highly. Unlike the other related titles you list, this is goes way beyond the racial stereotype tearkerking genre to reach the stature of a major literary work. Stout writes beautifully and with depth and enormous compassion. This is an unsentimental and moving book, which I urge others to read and pass on to their friends. Forget that sniping review from Sydney!