The Starlet and the Spy: A Novel
By Ji-min Lee
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
“This story of the unlikely meeting of two vulnerable women is a beautifully woven page turner. The battle-weary woman and the pin-up girl who meet, connect, separate: each changed by the brief union.” --Heather Morris, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz
A dazzling work of historical fiction, based on true events, about two women who seem the most unlikely to ever meet: Alice, a Korean war survivor and translator for the American forces in Seoul and Marilyn Monroe, who is visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour.
February 1954. Although the Korean War armistice was signed a year ago, most citizens of Seoul still battle to return to some semblance of normalcy. Conditions are dismal. Children beg for food, and orphanages are teeming. Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator and typist for the American forces still sanctioned in the city, yearns for the life she used to live before her country was torn apart.
Then Alice’s boss makes an announcement—the American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job—what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable.
As Marilyn’s visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.
Ji-min Lee
Ji-min Lee is a screenwriter in Korea and the author of several novels.
Related to The Starlet and the Spy
Related ebooks
The Interpreter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Than Perfect Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dragon Springs Road: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fallen Architect: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Burns My Heart: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Court Dancer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Asian: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5One Year of Ugly: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Name Is Leon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl on Trial Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Woman in Moscow: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Ate Up All the Shinga?: An Autobiographical Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No One Is Coming to Save Us: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An Unlikely Spy: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfume Collector: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Have You Met Nora? Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spirit of a Hummingbird: Memories from a Childhood on the Run Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrangers in the Night: A Novel of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wangs Vs. The World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A River in Darkness: by Masaji Ishikawa | Conversation Starters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLauren in the Limelight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTranslations of Beauty: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Vintage Contemporaries: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Painted Hands: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope and Glory: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Korean Americans in Chicago Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Historical Fiction For You
Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rules of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hallowe'en Party: Inspiration for the 20th Century Studios Major Motion Picture A Haunting in Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Hour: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellow Wife: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Tender Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House Is on Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island of Sea Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kitchen House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Journals of Sacajewea: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Euphoria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That Bonesetter Woman: the new feelgood novel from the author of The Smallest Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quiet American Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls in the Stilt House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Clockmaker's Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Starlet and the Spy
17 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51954, the war in Korea is over but there are still some soldiers waiting to see their big star come for a short visit: Marilyn Monroe. Alice J. Kim, working as a translator for the Americans, is one of the few Koreans fluent in both languages and who could accompany the blond film star on her tour. But with the arrival of Marilyn also comes somebody else Alice had almost forgotten: Joseph, her former lover who turned out not to be a missionary but an American spy. Alice thought she could leave her past behind, like the war, just bury it all under the ruins and build a new life. But now, it all comes up again.Other than the title suggests, the novel is not really about Marilyn Monroe and her visit to Korea. She appears as a character, yes, and I found she was nicely depicted, a sensitive woman lacking all kind of allures one might assume. However, first and foremost, it is a novel about Alice and the two loves she had: first, Min-hwan, a married man working for the government, and second, the American Joseph. None is the loves is meant to last and the political developments in the country add their part to these unfulfilled loves.What I found interesting was the insight in the possible life of a Korean woman at the time of the war. I have never read about it and this part of history is not something I know much about. Nevertheless, the book could not really catch me. Somehow I had the impression that the two stories – Alice’s one the one hand and Marilyn’s visit on the other - did not really fit together and especially the last seemed more a feature to make the story a bit more interesting by adding a big name. „These sleeping pills are a better friend than diamonds for those of us who want to forget their past.“ Parallels between Marilyn and Alice are evoked: a past they want to forget, well-known lovers who in the end always decide against the affair and for their wife, the change of name to start anew - but the link is too weak to work for me. Unfortunately, Alice also remains a bit too distant, too hard to grasp and to really feel sympathy for her and her fate.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a short novel, set over a few days in which Marilyn Monroe visits the troops in South Korea after the end of the Korean War. The novel is narrated by Alice Kim, a Korean woman who works as a typists for the American military and who serves as a translator during Marilyn's visit. reaAlice has a complicated and tragic past, including an affair with a married man, a relationship with an American spy, and the weight of her actions during the war. As the story unfolds, Alice confronts her past as people she thought long gone reappear and she struggles to reconcile with her own guilt. The Korean War is a conflict I feel I should know more about and while this novel hardly explains the war, it does provide a window into the destruction that conflict entailed.
1 person found this helpful