The Foreign Student

Susan Choi

I finished reading " The Foreign Student " by Susan Choi. This book was highly recommended by Stewart O'Nan when he was in town for a book signing. On a scale from 1 - 5 I would give it about 3.5.

The book is about a young Korean man, who comes to American on a scholarship. The time frame is the early to middle 1950s, just after the Korean War. At times the author's prose is breathtaking, but at other times, the writing is stilted and confusing. She tends to use a dialect on and off, couldn't quite understand why she did that. The story revolves around three main characters, young Korean man, young southern woman, and older professor. Aside from this triangle, the book also contained a a lot of history about the Korean War and America's part in that situation. Over all I am glad I read it....it was on its way to be DB d but I hung in there and found that I was rewarded for the effort. This is a first novel, if Susan Choi keeps writing, I can see that she could very well produce an excellent book.