Imagine living in a culture where getting out is key. Imagine living in a place that still believes in the American dream. Imagine doing anything to get to America after your own country has been torn apart by war. And I mean anything.

Fox Girl by Nora Okja Keller is set in Korea after the Korean War and is Keller's second novel to explore relations between Korea and America.

Hyun Jin is the "fox girl" and main character. Upon discovering a dark family secret, she is disowned by her family and subsequently revolves her existence around Sookie, her best friend. Sookie is also a teenage prostitute who lives with an American soldier as well as Lobetto, whom we would call a "pimp."

After being thrown out of the comfortable Korean world she once lived in, Hyun Jin is thrown to the "lower class" and forced to do the unthinkable. She struggles even to fit into the world of prostitutes and "whores" because of the large birthmark that deforms the one side of her face. Hyun Jin lives in a world where it is OK to be raped, demeaned, and beaten as long as it gets her to America where she thinks things will be much better.

This book doesn't paint the best picture of American soldiers in Korea, but it paints a realistic portrait of the period and presents an ignored view of what went on in that country after the Korean War.

Keller has a way with words. Her writing is smooth, flows throughout the novel and is full of imagery. She really allows her readers to understand the characters in this book. We see the hearts and souls of Hyun Jin, Sookie and Lobetto. We don't question why they do what they do. We don't judge them. We know that they are forced into the lives that they are living. So we accept them.

And while this is in the fiction genre, it is easy to tell that much of the plot is based on events that really did happen in Korea at this period in time.

Hyun Jin is a strong character whose life is redeemed by a beautiful and inspiring mother-daughter relationship. After being discarded by her family and thrown into a world full of sex without love, she still has the power to love in a world that has the potential to make somebody hard and callous.

Hyun Jin is a real person who is not immune to the pain of the world and adds a lot of dimension to this novel. As we see from the points of view from some other characters, the prostitutes in American Town (in Korea) are like robots.

Nothing bothers them, but Hyun Jin is different. We see in her what is hidden in everybody else and that gives us a different perception of these "kinds" of people.

I recommend this book.

It must be read. It is poetic and haunting and everything that a novel should be. It attacks hidden issues and provides us with a strong central character who can break our heart and then heal it again and again.