Access The Magical Language Of Others Translated By E.J. Koh Shown In Hardcover

this ended up being heavier than I expected to be when it comes to the content explored.
Triggers for eating disorders amp suicide I can't say that I loved the way in which this

book was written as at times I found it to be a little disjointed.
Despite that though the story still packed a punch as we see how Eun Ji overcame all the difficulties she was confronted with.
I love the fact that she ended up finding a safety net through writing poetry, Eun Ji's story is built up on a very complicated relationship that she has with her mother.
Her mother longs to have a strong relationship with her daughter, but that's difficult due to the distance between them and also her inability to reach a deeper connection further than surface level.
While this book was incredibly sad at times, I found myself invested the whole way through.


“Neither happiness nor sadness are ever done with us, They are always passing by, ”



This was my first nonfiction read of the year and I havent stopped thinking about it since I finished it.
Kohs story is heartbreaking, but it ultimately left me feeling hopeful, Although my experience growing up was vastly different from hers it deeply resonated with me, especially when she recounts her time in college.
I loved so many things about this book, but Im a sucker for any book that honestly explores the complexities of a mother daughter relationship.
Also Koh is a poet so her prose is GORGEOUS! This is a beautifully written memoir that I cannot recommend enough.
The below review originally appeared on sitelinkOpen Letters ,

Nearly every teen girl has probably had their own Home Alone fantasy at least once.
As ones age ticks upward, so does the restlessness for independence, particularly from ones mother, Shes embarrassing. Shes restrictive. She seems out to make you unhappy, But like Kevin McCallisters startling realization, its only when that figure is truly absent that a child begins to understand the power of a parents presence.


E. J. Koh didnt have much say in the matter when her parents, residents of the United States for a decade, announced they were repatriating to South Korea for a toogoodtopassup job opportunity.
Sure, our author could have gone with them, but with a life fairly well established in California by age, it wasnt exactly a consideration that stayed too long in her mind.
Nor did it seem to be a mandate from her parents, who arranged for her to live with her older brother until she was ready to go off to college.


In, her parents had been gone nineteen months when she began receiving handwritten letters from her mother, all in Korean except for a few English words peppered in.
These letters supplemented other communication Koh had with her mother, but seem to have added something different.
Translated by the author and collected in her new memoir, The Magical Language of Others, they read like an extended, fussing hand, hoping to hold onto that motherdaughter bond across an ocean of distance.
Though we find out immediately that the author never wrote her mother back, we know the letters held immense meaning:

Once a week, a letter came.
I heard her voice, closer than it felt over the phone, I read them in my room, sitting at the desk, standing in the doorway, lying on the bed.
I folded the letter and slipped it into its envelope, I placed it on my nightstand, I kept her close. I read a letter once or twice, Moving my lips, I read it again, Each time, I hoped to see something new, a word that I had missed, When I put it away, a panic returned, I took out the same letter and, with no thought to what I had read before, started over.


There is no dissection of the letters or of the authors feelings about the absence of her mother in those critical years of development into womanhood.
Indeed, the letters are presented mainly without comment and in between the authors recollections of those years of physical estrangement.
She is not forthright with her feelings, but the selected memories hint at her emotions: an intensive language course in Japan at age seventeen unveils a need for belonging as she bonds with her fellow students a story of her family background leads to a questioning of identity finally, her dive into the world of poetry hints at her lingering resentment and feelings of abandonment.


There is a whole shadow self lingering behind the words of this book it only suggests the true pain and longing that the reader can feel in the pit of their stomach.
There is no doubt that a second books pages could be filled with all thats left unsaid here.
The absence of such words gives this book a quiet, melancholic tone, Wounds kept hidden in this book do not interrupt its smooth, elegant prose, though it is the literary equivalent of sweeping matters under the rug.


The void left by the absence of such a discussion leads to the consideration of what the motherdaughter pair may have missed out on during those years.
As a teenager, a girl may push her mother away, but relies upon her like an anchor, leaving a trail of guide rope as the girl pushes herself further and further outward into the world.
The learning of herself comes in the distancing, while knowing she can always come home, For our author, home could not be her mother because her mother was not at home.


Meanwhile, Koh mentions in her introductory passage which doubles as her translators note that her mother, at times in her letters, dips into the thirdperson perspective, referring to herself as “Mommy.
” As the author notices, “Mommy addresses a child, who remains one in her letters, ” She suspects that these moments were her mothers act of parenting, Perhaps the guilt of leaving behind her children and the loss of the maternal role compelled her mother to put to paper these thoughts and pieces of advice as an attempt to reclaim an identity lost with the move.


The harsh reality that the book exposes is that what is gone is truly gone as is true in family connections and in sleep, there is no making up for what was lost.
The motherdaughter clash that the majority of pairs experience, especially in the teenage years, may be brutal, but it hardens the bond between them and cements their love.
As both the author and her mother recognize, she largely raised herself in those years and though she did so admirably, the feeling of floating adrift remains with her as an adult.
The loss, like the letters, lingers,

The Magical Language of Others is a beautiful, sorrowful kind of wandering into the past.
It is the kind of recollection that has spikes, the ones that, despite the passing years, still tear at us when we pull them out of the proverbial, or even literal, closet.
While memoirs are published in the hundreds each year, theres always a few sticking out from the genreforms confinements.
Eun Ji Kohs The Magical Language of Others is one such book, rather reading like poetry along the lines of Han Kangs White Book blending with autobiography and unsung voices, inherited memories, and stories.


Full : sitelink wordpress. com/ 𝑴𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐.

𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆, 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐.

"𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒊 𝒉𝒂𝒗e 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒕𝒐. 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓. 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆, 𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖. "

𝑰𝒇 𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍.


It's a good autobiographical memoir despite the fact that there were bewildering and unclear parts that will make you unable to follow the events of the story.

i love the titlealthough i didn't see the relation between it and the story, She writes the different struggles trauma, eating disorder, the damage of feeling abandoned she faced since her parents left her behind.
Reading her mother's letters made me kinda despise her mother for her selfishness and how she was expecting so much from a fifteenyearold Eun jin.

The most interesting parts for me are when she tells the story of her mother and both of her grandmothers' tragedies, i was so fond of their strength and life stories.
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