KoreanAmericanStory.org announces its publication of Paul Cook’s first short story, Without Remedy,
as a fitting work to commemorate the twenty-first anniversary of the
Los Angeles Riots. Set in present day Los Angeles County’s San Gabriel
Valley, Without Remedy chronicles the
escalating tension between two families: one ex-gang Chicano and the
other Korean. Fueled by misunderstandings and resentments, the two
families battle to exert their will and dominance over their tiny plots
of the American Dream.
Telling
the story through multiple perspectives, voices, and even languages,
Cook’s haunting story delves into the fault lines between the two
settled immigrant American families. In doing so, he exposes the very
same complex dynamics of resentment and mistrust that existed between
the Black and Korean communities and erupted into the violent mayhem of
the L.A. Riots.
Cook’s
modern recasting of the classic American family feud also contains a
damning portrayal of a contemporary America, whose broken educational,
social, and judicial systems conspire to create the perfect conditions
for the fostering of violent and even homicidal youth. Paul Cook’s
impressive debut heralds the emergence of a new, important voice in the
evolving narrative of Korean Americans.
Without Remedy
A Chicano family with a gang history of slanging drugs and robbing
houses moved in next to the Korean house. They wanted their smallest
house on the block to mean something. The Korean mother said that their
house was inhabited, though, by evil demons. The previous owner, a
middle-aged-lady of the house, had a heart attack and asked her sons to
call nine-one-one. Instead, they allegedly left and played basketball.
When the teenagers came back, their mother was already dead and cold.
In their front yard, the new Chicano family planted palm trees, which
had grown thick and tall. They felt like they were becoming Egyptian
royalty now. Finally, they could start their lives afresh in the sleepy
San Gabriel Valley, where they believed the mountains would hide and
protect them from their past.
The
Korean family’s relatives too found haven there as well, when Los
Angeles burned. They lived at the dead end of the cul-de-sac in the
valley of the greater Los Angeles region.
The depth of the valley resembled its guardian-Archangel-Saint
Gabriel’s horn, which apparently has an infinite surface area but finite
volume. Thus, the angelic mountain ranges stood as a row of blue, stone
guardians for the grand valley. But because of the smog screen, one
almost never perceives how far away they are.
The
block used to be Filipino dominated, but they flew when the Mexicans
and Chicanos moved in. Now, only one remained. The Korean family
should’ve flown too, but the old lady of the house hated change.
One Saturday,
at the dead-end house, John woke up from his tall, custom-made,
princely bed. He jumped off it. The balls of his feet landed against the
cool, golden, hardwood floor, like a cat springing off the top of a
wall and landing on stone. He always loved the hard and smooth texture
against his bare feet; it felt better to his naked feet than stepping on
cheap plastic laminate or worn carpet.
He
went to urinate in the toilet, the same one he had urinated in since he
was two. His urine was a bright yellow and created a bubbly froth on
the surface of the toilet water. Smells earthy, he thought.
His mother heard him flush the toilet and she screamed, “John! John!
Breakfast is ready.” She screamed because that’s how she always
called for her kids, even when they were close and already fully grown.
She was missing a front tooth and had black wiry hair that showed her
scalp. The latter was probably in her DNA.
She
had a worn face, evidence of the bitter sufferings she went through
from her first life in North Korea, her second one as a refugee in South
Korea, and her third one in America. She survived by telling herself
every morning that life goes on. She even learned to reincarnate her
suffering to her advantage. For instance, her marriage battles with her
then-husband seasoned her in how to raze a man away to nothing with
words...
No comments:
Post a Comment