The Ginseng Hunter: A Novel
by: Jeffrey Talarigo
Published by: Nan A. Talese for Anchor Books
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Reviewed Patty Inglish
At the gateway to the 21st Century, a North Korean, who is passing as Chinese, hunts ginseng in the mountains bordering the Tumen River. Across the river from his farm among redwoods, he sees North Korea (NK) army bunkers. Ginseng and its well-described capture are his only joys.
The Korean Conflict and NK Communism forced Koreans across the Tumen by forced march and flight by night. Assimilating into Chinese culture, refugees were sold into prostitution or sent to tiny farms, barely sidestepping starvation by a longer stride than in North Korea. The inhumanities are true in The Ginseng Hunter.
Fearing for his life amid the elements and threats of repatriation to North Korea, the ginseng hunter gives tight accounts and few names. Not only he, but also renowned martial arts founders, military men, and academics have been Koreans under Chinese and Japanese names. Our hunter lives incognito, surviving each winter to work hard to survive the next and his monthly walk of 20 miles into town. Each year’s crops are smaller. People die or disappear and the survivors dare not muster emotion.
Old corncobs are ground for flour in North Korea, where Dear Leader mandates mixing it half with poison, as if it were valuable cocaine. Three daily meals are forbidden; only one meal of 2 ounces of rice with corncobs is permitted. Eating an additional meal results in public execution.
Kim Jong Il – Dear Leader – requires his face to be on a badge on every chest and a framed picture of his father, Great Leader, clean and straight, to be in every house. The dying have no excuse and are shot for failure to maintain it daily.
Generations of Korean-Chinese ginseng hunters live in a trap that keeps them half-alive and half-human. Their alternative is death or North Korea re-education camps, where fingers are smashed and toes cut off. Sleep deprivation and hours of reciting government “scriptures” culminate in death as well, or release into an unknown province. Praise Dear Leader, praise Dearest Dear Leader, praise Dearest Dear Dear Leader.
Armchair Interviews says: The Ginseng Reader is a must-read for high school and older, for its clarity and heart-gripping presence.
Author’s Web site: http://www.JeffTalarigo.com
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