The Island of Sea Women

Author: Lisa See 

One-sentence summary: Women on a Korean island are the ones responsible for making a living for their families by free diving deep into the ocean for seafood and this story about two life-long friends shows how they were shaped by political circumstances out of their control that change their lives drastically. 

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 8 

Our favorite thing about it: We absolutely loved learning about the history of the Hysenseo. It was fascinating. 

Our least favorite thing about it: The political history was a little hard to follow from the story. We had to look up a lot of the things that were mentioned to understand what was going on. 

Main Topics of Discussion: Friendship, Gender Politics, History, Honor, Shame, Secrets 

Our favorite quote: “The sea is better than a mother. You can love your mother, and she still might leave you. You can love or hate the sea, but it will always be there. Forever. The sea has been the center of her life. It has nurtured her and stolen from her, but it has never left.” 

Notes: We universally enjoyed this book and the story. We have enjoyed so many of See’s books. She’s just great at characters and story. Along with that, she weaves in history beautifully so that you get a glimpse of what life may have been like for an entirely different culture than your own. And the Hysenseo divers could not lead more different lives than us! We were fascinated at their methods, their determination, their courage, their skills, their resistance to cold…the list goes on. This was just endlessly fascinating. Although we were confused by some of the political backdrop (and needed Google to fill in the blanks) that didn’t really distract from the experience of reading this novel. The commentary on friendship within the context of this particular culture was part of our discussion as well. The ideas of shame and secrecy as it relates to that are in some ways foreign to us – and yet we understood some of it. 

Memorable Meeting Moments: We had our meeting outside on the patio and got in the hot tub after dinner! 

What We Ate: I do not remember! And no photos of the food!