Review: The Lucky Gourd Shop
A woman discarded as a child, a man whose fury is stronger than his love, a mother who cannot raise her child out of the rage and societal restrictions of his time, the children who suffer: all this and more is found in The Lucky Gourd Shop by Joanna Catherine Scott. To be honest, I would never have read this book if not for my book club. I nearly didn't get past the first few pages, but I am glad I did. It was a tragedy, full of heartache and misadventures — what a tale. Charles Dickens has nothing on Scott. The book opens with a mother telling her children what she discovered about their birth family in South Korea. Her teenage son, who was six when he left his birth parents' home, remembers a few things differently — and the story travels to Seoul, a generation earlier, and reveals the tale of their parents' lives (and, ultimately, their own). Mi Sook had an unconventional — even shocking — upbringing. The coffee shop manager falls for Kun Soo, a man wit...