Micro Review: E. J. Koh's 'The Magical Language of Others'
Debuting a new section: micro reviews by community members
Actor Daniel K. Isaac frequently posts books he reads, and I joked that he must secretly be a member of our book club, given the overlap in books we read. What started as fangirling Instagram DMs then led to this collaboration. Thank you Daniel for your support of literature by Asian/Asian American authors!
The Magical Language of Others is a powerful and aching love story in letters, from mother to daughter. After living in America for over a decade, Eun Ji Koh’s parents return to South Korea for work, leaving fifteen-year-old Eun Ji and her brother behind in California. Overnight, Eun Ji finds herself abandoned and adrift in a world made strange by her mother’s absence. Her mother writes letters in Korean over the years seeking forgiveness and love—letters Eun Ji cannot fully understand until she finds them years later hidden in a box.
Micro Review from Daniel K. Isaac
THE MAGICAL LANGUAGE OF OTHERS is interspersed with ten letters from Koh’s mother, beautifully and carefully translated into English, each followed by a photocopy of the original letter. I challenged myself to read the originals — haltingly and sometimes needing to sound things aloud — and I realized this was the first time I’d read another person’s Korean handwriting that wasn’t my mother’s. My empathy meters flew off the charts. This memoir is epic and searing and stunning and I burst into tears at the end and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
Daniel K. Isaac was born and raised in sunny Southern California. When he was in fifth grade, his mother heard a mortifying story about a preacher who went numb with stage fright and had to be escorted off the stage. Daniel was promptly signed up for Grace Korean Church's theatre troupe and he's been an actor ever since. After receiving his Bachelor's in Theatre from the University of California - San Diego (UCSD), Daniel moved to not-always-sunny New York City where he's been seen on large and small screens and stages. Some Film/TV Credits include: The Drummer opposite Danny Glover, The Dark End Of The Street, Money Monster (dir. Jodie Foster), "The Jim Gaffigan Show" (TV LAND), "Person of Interest" (CBS), Too Big to Fail (HBO), "The Other Two" (Comedy Central) and "Ben Kim" on SHOWTIME’s Billions.