Unveiling Secrets Across Borders: A North Korean Daughter’s Heartbreaking Journey in "The Boat Not Taken"
On a trip to Korea to burn her mother’s clothes in her homeland (a Confucian ritual), the narrator hopes to reconnect with her older brother and to find answers to the long-standing, hurtful and confusing estrangement between mother and son, brother and sister. This aloof, accomplished older brother proves a perfect tour guide, professional and cordial; yet he invites no intimacies. Celebrating his birthday at a karaoke bar, the brother sings a familiar song, “. . . one my mother used to sing, a song in an atonal scale with a melody that was so sad, so haunting . . . “
