The Young Will Remember, Eve J. Chung (Review by Carli Monostra)

Rating: 4.5./5 Stars

The Young Will Remember follows a young Chinese-American journalist named Ellie Chang striving to cover the Korean War from the front lines; however, her determination inadvertently gets her stranded in North Korea following a plane crash. She is dramatically saved from soldiers when Hwa-Ja, a distraught elderly woman, intervenes because she mistakes Ellie as her missing daughter. The Pak family immediately points out Hwa-Ja’s obvious blunder when Ellie is brought home resulting in fights about how a foreigners presence impacts their survival.

Eve Chung gracefully writes this theme of identity by weaving it throughout several plot lines. She touches on how not only does your physical appearance and personal beliefs shape your identity, but also society’s perception of you. The main characters grapple with how these labels and societal beliefs shape their actions, consequences, and their relationships with one another. Ellie’s physical features allow her to pose as a Chinese citizen and affords her partial safety because of the North Kore’s longstanding relationship with China, but it also serves as a source of concern since her fellow Americans may see her as the enemy. Additionally, the abduction and sexual violence forced on women was ignored because society labeled these victims as dirty. Hwa-Ja knows this could have been her daughter’s fate, but her unwavering love drove the desire to find her no matter what anyone else thought.

Current critiques of the novel highlight that the writing style is more “tell” rather than “show”. This writing style is typically a bit irritating to me as well, but I feel like the purpose of this book was to make this piece of history involving China, Japan, and Korea more accessible to a wider audience. As someone who has very little knowledge in these areas, I absolutely needed explicit explanations. Otherwise, I would have had a hard time understanding how many of the key plot points could have been realistically possible. I will also acknowledge though that this does cause some conflicts to be a bit too easily resolved and extinguished some of the emotional charge built up. Historical fiction fans will still appreciate learning about a period of time not covered in the genre as much as others.