How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
Published by Oneworld Publications, 2019
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
This novel chronicles the life of Wang Di, an elderly woman reflecting on her struggles to survive when she was captured during WWII and forced into sexual slavery. Kept as a so-called ‘comfort woman’, she is one of many who suffered when Singapore was occupied by Japanese forces. Running in parallel, 12-year-old Kevin secretly explores his family’s past following a shocking confession made on his grandmother’s deathbed. Through the weaving together of these two stories and timelines, Jing-Jing Lee tells a powerful story of family, trauma, guilt, and the complex road to recovery.
In some instances, it can feel redundant to directly compare two separate books, but given their strikingly similar core setups, and the fact that both have been longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, it feels almost impossible not to contrast this with Edna O’Brien’s novel, Girl. Put simply, this achieves everything that Girl set out but failed to do. Where O’Brien’s narrative felt flat and lacked resonance, Lee’s is both harrowing and poignant; where Girl felt like a relentless succession of brutal events, How We Disappeared takes time to let its emotional beats land; and where Girl failed to properly explore the long-term mental ramifications of captivity, and the post-war stigma faced by those forced into sexual servitude, this novel explores both with aplomb.
This also lacks the arguably problematic authorship that hindered Girl: where O’Brien is a white, Irish author writing about the experiences of Nigerians from an entirely removed perspective, Lee was born and raised in Singapore, and has drawn in part from her own family history to craft her book’s narrative. While there are undoubtedly upsetting moments throughout, the trauma feels raw, honest, and earned, never dipping into needless exploitation or gratuity. Lee’s prose and pacing also do well to evoke a strong sense of time and place, particularly in the sections detailing Wang Di’s past.
For the vast bulk of the novel, Lee does a great job of bringing disparate characters and timelines increasingly together. It’s a shame then that the novel indulges in a couple of info dumps at the final hour; the finding of historical documents (letters and audio recordings) feeling like an all too convenient device to quickly fill in any gaps in the narrative. It’s for this reason that I docked a star, but I must say I was still satisfied by the skilful way in which the author ultimately brought everything together on a thematic level.
Books documenting the impact of WWII aren’t exactly new, but Lee shines a light on a too-often overlooked aspect of the conflict. By showing the impossible moral decisions people were forced to make in order to survive, the deep-rooted shame felt by those survivors, and the prejudice they had to endure long after the bombs stopped falling, we gain a deeper understanding of why so many people still feel compelled to bury the past. Above all else, she explores the redemption that can come from speaking the truth, allowing yourself to be forgiven, and finding a sense of family.
You can pick up a copy of How We Disappeared from Book Depository by clicking here.
WOMEN’S PRIZE 2020 REVIEWS SO FAR:
1. Girl, Woman, Other | 2. Hamnet | 3. Fleishman Is in Trouble | 4. Girl | 5. A Thousand Ships | 6. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line | 7. Dominicana | 8. The Most Fun We Ever Had | 9. Weather
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Great review, Callum! I liked the comparison with Girl and how it succeeded in drawing out the reader’s emotions and showing the consequences of the war. Not looking forward to the info dump but overall I’m hopeful about getting to read this 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you! 😊 It’s not a perfect book, but the positives definitely won out for me. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
Nicely done review. Sounds like it could be a tough read.
Thank you! It’s definitely upsetting at times, but thankfully I thought the subject matter was handled with due sensitivity.
I 100% agree. (And I love stacking up books against each other).
There are times when it just can’t be helped! 🙂
I’m not usually drawn to war-related books, but this sounds fab and very sympathetically done.
I thought she handled a complex and difficult subject very well.
Great review! Based on all the reviews I’ve seen, I’m really looking forward to this novel. And I like how you compared this to Girl – I was hoping (perhaps naively) that neither would be exploitative, but I’m glad/relieved to hear that at least this one isn’t.
Thank you! I look forward to your thoughts on this one! 😊
You and Laura both did such a good job at comparing these two books – as you know I could not agree more with your conclusions!
Why thank you 💁🏻♂️ It still boggles the mind that they listed both. This makes Girls’ flaws even more apparent.
Great review! This is one of the titles I have left that I’m most hopeful about, so I’m very glad to see you mostly enjoyed it. I also appreciate the comparison to Girl- that book definitely left me wanting more so it’s good to see that this one does a better job of tackling some of the same elements.
Thank you! I’m really looking forward to your thoughts on this one!
This is a book I was so surprised to like as much as I did (especially for being yet another WWII book), but it’s really nice to see it bringing fresh and important things being put on the spotlight, especially with such sensitivity. Your review is really interesting to read! I really liked how you compared it with Girl, and has set my mind at ease about skipping it (no point in reading something you 100% expect to hate, in my opinion). It’s so interesting that every WP seems to have a few books that kind of “pair up”, like Girl & How We Disasppears, and last year’s… well, every book. I wonder if, as we go on reading the longlist, we will find more pairings like those!
I can’t say I’d recommend Girl, sadly. It doesn’t offer anything that this hasn’t already achieved with far greater success.
Yes, it’s really interesting to find pairings like that! I’m intrigued to look back once I’ve finished the list to see if any more stand out 👀
I’m excited to read this one! Great review!
Thank you! I’d definitely be interested to know your thoughts on it!
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Thanks for this excellent review! Feel like I need to add this to my list. ^-^
Reading this also reminded me a bit of “Women of the Silk”, by Gail Tsukiyama. If you haven’t read it before, you might enjoy it.
My pleasure! And thank you for the recommendation! I’ll be sure to look it up 😊
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