East to America: Korean American Life Stories

This book emphasizes the importance of oral history. Although you might not find polished masterpieces here, "East to America" accomplishes the much-needed task of placing Korean-American voices within a more prominent context--or at least publishes their voices. Praise for Elaine Kim & Co. for compiling the book; in my own research there has been slim pickins as far as the K.A. literature goes). But, as a "second generation" (American-born) Korean-American, I was disappointed to find that few members of my own generation (X?) were included in the collection (But it makes sense; after all, the book is called "East to America" ...bah). I found the stories gritty and real, and it was hard to put the book down. I would recommend this book to not only any Korean-American, but to anyone who is interested in viewing the Korean-American population as something more than gun-toting greengrocers or model minority geeks.

I have grown a deep appreciation and respect for my Korean/American friends and neighbors. There is a tremendous sampling of real-life stories that I found to be very informative. Many of the problems in the world cultivate from a lack of understanding. However, the more we can learn aobut eachother and ourselves, the easier it will be to find common ground. This book has taught me a great deal about the struggles, agonies, and triumphs of Korean Americans.

As a 1.5 generation, I really enjoyed the book. The life stories range from the 1900's immigrants to the most recent.To the authors: how about a book based on the immigrants on the eastcoast?

For the reader who is looking to take a look at modern Korean Americans, this book is well worth the buy. It is not only highly entertaining but also very educational as it explores the lives of many different Korean Americans including some well known members of the Korean American community. One negative aspect of the book is that because it does cover the stories of the so many Korean Americans I found the stories sometimes to be a little brief. Maybe it was because I was enjoying the book so much that I wanted to read more and more. One final note. Elaine Kim is highly active in the Korean American community and has even produced Sa-I-Gu, (which means 4-2-9 which is the date of the riots), a movie about the L.A. riots in perspective of Korean American Women