Ten Thousand Sorrows

by ElizabethKim (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.34

  I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today.' The illegitimate daughter of a peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth Kim spent her early years as a social outcast in her village in the Korean countryside. Ostracized by their family and neighbours, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet there was a tranquil happiness in the intense bond between mother and daughter. Until the day that Elizabeth's grandfather and uncle came to punish her mother from the dishonour she had brought on the family, and executed her in front of her daughter. Elizabeth was dumped in an orphanage in Seoul. After some time, she was lucky enough to be adopted by an American couple. But when she arrived in America she found herself once again surrounded by fanaticism and prejudice. Elizabeth's mother had always told her that life was made up of ten thousand joys as well as ten thousand sorrows, and, supported by her loving daughter, and by a return to her Buddhist faith, she finally found a way to savour those joys, as well as the courage to exorcise the demons of her past.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $3.34

  I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today.' So opens this beautiful, sad and uplifting memoir. The illegitimate daughter of a Korean peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth spent her early years as a social outcast, because of the Korean taboo against the mixing of races. Ostracized by her mother's family and village, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet because of her mother's love and calm acceptance of her fate, inspired by her deep Buddhist faith, there was a tranquil happiness in the intense and close bond between mother and daughter- until the day Elizabeth's grandfather and uncle came to punish her mother for the dishonour she had brought the family, and hanged her in front of her daughter's eyes. Elizabeth was dumped in an orphanage in Seoul where the orphans were neglected, deprived of all affection, and abused. After some time, she was adopted by an American couple. Brought to America, she found herself surrounded by fanaticism and prejudice- her strict Christian Fundamentalist parents forbade her to remember her own mother and the traumas of her past, and