... a clear-eyed character study of the fraught relations among biological and found families alike ... Kim captures the raw details of cleaning the bodies of dementia patients as well as the immovable 'dark silence' that 'flows' between mothers and daughters when communication changes nothing. This unflinching perspective illuminates the extraordinary power of tenderness in such a context. Kim's keen attention to character reveals the nuances of her narrator's pragmatic brand of compassion. In this way, Concerning My Daughter manages to capture a societal need for both accepting collective complicity and practicing enduring empathy.
Kim plays close attention to the precariousness — bodily, financial, social — of not only the mother, but also her daughter and Jen ... This is an admirably nuanced portrait of prejudice ... Jamie Chang’s precise, pared-back translation conveys the mother’s internal struggle between her biases and her love for her daughter in a careful, balanced way, so that the reader is able to understand her position without being asked to endorse it ... Wisely, Kim chooses to report rather than directly quote the mother’s worst homophobic tirade, against Lane ... This is not a redemption story, nor does it aspire to be ... There is the occasional tendency to lay on too thickly the resonances between the mother’s relationships with Jen and with her daughter ... But it’s generally a tightly conceived and executed work, and one that boldly takes on the daunting task of humanizing someone whose prejudice has made her cruel.
... moving ... The narrator is a silent force. Internally, she struggles with the way that she loves her daughter but does not understand her. In stark yet restrained prose, she circles around the fact that her daughter is gay ... This deep dive into her thoughts and emotions is stifling. Parallel situations unfold that force the narrator to reckon with a culture of silence and deliberate ignorance and to recognize that neither is conducive to a caring, respectful society ... a poignant novel that pits established behaviors against potentially better ways of thinking.
... demands a taxing quantity of empathy from its readers and protagonist alike ... a tiny, blunt book ... he narrator's prejudice is nearly unbearable to read. Yet Kim is equally clear that Green's mother, repellent as she can be, deserves empathy often didactic, privileging message over plot. Kim lets both Green and Lane deliver monologues about their right to acceptance; she also lets the narrator monologue, if only to the reader, about the precarity of her life. None of these passages are lectures, though: Kim gives them such emotional heft that they can only be pleas. Jamie Chang's translation, which is plain yet highly precise, amplifies this effect. She leaves no ambiguity in the text, which means the reader cannot hide from the intensity of the narrator's feelings. Ultimately, Concerning My Daughter turns into a confrontation — not just between Green and her mother, but also between Green's mother and the reader. Understanding, in this book, has to come from all sides.
... impassioned ... seamlessly translated ... Kim’s confessional first-person narration expresses the sense of urgency to unburden one’s most vulnerable thoughts and longings and readers willing to become intimate witnesses will be rewarded with a resonating and empathic tale.
... excellent ... Kim skillfully depicts the vulnerability and fear underlying her protagonist’s anxiety and anger, laying bare the ways in which family dynamics are fluid and full of paradoxes ... Kim’s compassionate portrayal of the narrator’s contradictions and ever-changing feelings makes her project captivating and moving. Readers will be grateful to discover this new author.
... challenging ... Kim is unsparing in her depictions of the indignities of old age, the corrosiveness of homophobia, and the piercing loneliness that comes from living in a culture of silence ... A heavy but tentatively hopeful look at the struggle for intergenerational understanding through one mother’s eyes.
