Memoir crosses cultural borders

By Patricia Ho

Twenty years after being adopted, Katy Robinson returns to Korea in search of her birth parents and attempts to rediscover the Korean roots she was cut off from at the age of seven. She spends a year immersed in what in some ways is a familiar culture, but at the same time a foreign one. Cultural differences play out in a very real way as information is deliberately concealed from Robinson in the interest of group harmony. Her memoir, "A Single Square Picture" details her journey back and her efforts to fill the blank spaces in her identity as a Korean.

Though the narration gets off to an awkward start, Robinson finds her voice soon enough and the rest of the book flows well with her honest and straightforward prose. The tone of Robinson's memoir strikes the perfect balance - the narration never once veers towards melodrama and yet always willingly confronts what are often very complex emotional experiences. For example, she writes matter-of-factly about a tumultuous family life, in the midst of which she "was busy trying to fit in and become a Robinson."

Robinson's story is in many ways more complicated than the average reader's, but she does an excellent job of leading us into her world, even as she is led into new ones herself - without the patronizing tone that all too often accompanies descriptions of "other cultures." In fact, being an amalgamation of two very different cultures, the word "other" loses it's meaning in Robinson's context. She introduces us to the nuances of the hierarchical Korean society as she learns about them herself. She writes, "A person's age and social position dictated everything, down to the manner of speaking and eating. I struggled to balance a respect for Korean culture and the pressure to obey and serve with my own feeling of loss of control."

Though the book is not plot-driven, Robinson's story has an edge to it, as do most "true stories." The reader's interest is piqued by the mystery surrounding her Korean father and brother's evasiveness: what truth could they possibly be hiding?

There are some extraneous details and digressions that could have been left out for a tighter plot, but keeping in mind that this is a memoir and not a work of fiction, such flaws are easy to overlook. For example, while the introduction of Robinson's flamboyant Westernized aunt does not contribute to the progression of the story, it does help to paint a fuller picture of Korean society, a goal the writer most likely had in mind.

Above all, it is probably the accessibility of the book that deserves the highest accolades. Robinson is able to take complicated social and personal issues and give them a simple, human face.