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James Zerndt is the author of The Cloud Seeders, as well as The Korean Word For Butterfly. His ficiton has most recently appeared in Gray's Sporting Journal and SWINK magazine. He live in Portland, Oregon and is currently at work on his third novel.
Reviewed by Kim Anisi for Readers' Favorite
The Korean Word For Butterfly by James Zerndt takes places in Korea during the soccer World Cup in 2002 and is about a few characters whose stories sooner or later intertwine. There is Billie who came to Korea with her boyfriend to teach English at a school - but they are not who they pretend to be. There is Moon, a former alcoholic who starts to realize how important family truly is. And there's Yun-ji who gets more involved with Americans than her family thinks appropriate. The story is told from their points of view and introduces the reader to a world in which Americans and Koreans collide and where racism is hard to overcome.
I enjoyed reading The Korean Word For Butterfly even though I always felt very uneasy when I spent time with the book. I felt hopeless and that there was just too much negativity. I wondered how the characters would actually find a good solution to their problems. That the book had such an impact on me shows that James Zerndt knows how to set a scene and knows how to describe a variety of things. It was good that the book didn't leave me feeling depressed (no spoilers here, though!) but with a bit of hope. Unfortunately, racism and misunderstandings between cultures are still a huge problem and it's nice to see that someone has the guts to put it in a novel without turning everything into cliches. This is certainly a book that could get people thinking.
