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The Foreign Student: A Novel Paperback – September 21, 2004

3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 86 ratings

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"This wonderful hybrid of a novel--a love story, a war story, a novel of manners--introduces a writer of enchanting gifts, a beautiful heart wedded to a beautiful imagination. How else does Susan Choi so fully inhabit characters from disparate backgrounds, with such brilliant wit and insight? The Foreign Student stirs up great and lovely emotions."  — Francisco Goldman, author of The Ordinary Seaman

The Foreign Student is the story of a young Korean man, scarred by war, and the deeply troubled daughter of a wealthy Southern American family. In 1955, a new student arrives at a small college in the Tennessee mountains. Chuck is shy, speaks English haltingly, and on the subject of his earlier life in Korea he will not speak at all. Then he meets Katherine, a beautiful and solitary young woman who, like Chuck, is haunted by some dark episode in her past. Without quite knowing why, these two outsiders are drawn together, each sensing in the other the possibility of salvation. Moving between the American South and South Korea, between an adolescent girl's sexual awakening and a young man's nightmarish memories of war, The Foreign Student is a powerful and emotionally gripping work of fiction.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A novel of secrets that unfold like the leaves on an artichoke. The Foreign Student is a mosaic of betrayal in peace and war that marks the debut of a gifted young novelist wise beyond her years.” — John Gregory Dunne

“A luminous and accomplished first novel . . . that resonates with compassion-turned-ardor and an addictive melancholy vibrating beneath every line.” — Houston Chronicle

“A powerful and involving book....[written in] a style that can accommodate both the broad forces of history and the most intimate of lives.” — Lamar Herrin, author of The Lies Boys Tell

“A young war-shocked Korean man falls for a comely southern belle with secrets of her own in Susan Choi’s elegantly wrought first novel, The Foreign Student.” — Vanity Fair

“An accomplished, perceptive novel, which invites rereading and lingers in the reader’s memory.” — Booklist

“An auspicious debut novel . . . epic in its harrowing accounts of war and intimate in its charged descriptions of the unlikely love affair at its center.” — The New Yorker

“Choi’s descriptions are strange and powerful....The Foreign Student‘s plot is carefully orchestrated and camera-ready. It takes a war, an epistolary betrayal, and a natural disaster to effect a kiss.” — New York magazine

“First-time novelist Susan Choi writes gracefully, insightfully and with striking maturity.” — Time

“Richly detailed. . . . Moving from the present to the past, from America to Korea, Choi brings hundreds of small scenes to life.” — New York Times Book Review

“Susan Choi has written a first novel of extraordinary sensibility and transforming strangeness. Her prose has the feel of a handmade artifact, oddly bumpy at times and startlingly expressive.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Two very unlikely worlds intersect in The Foreign Student, war-ravaged Korea and the genteel culture of Sewanee, Tennessee. In gracious prose, Susan Choi renders their cruelties, their lies, and their beauty.” — Arthur Golden, author of Memories of A Geisha

From the Back Cover

Highly acclaimed by critics, The Foreign Student is the story of a young Korean man, scarred by war, and the deeply troubled daughter of a wealthy Southern American family. In 1955, a new student arrives at a small college in the Tennessee mountains. Chuck is shy, speaks English haltingly, and on the subject of his earlier life in Korea he will not speak at all. Then he meets Katherine, a beautiful and solitary young woman who, like Chuck, is haunted by some dark episode in her past. Without quite knowing why, these two outsiders are drawn together, each sensing in the other the possibility of salvation. Moving between the American South and South Korea, between an adolescent girl's sexual awakening and a young man's nightmarish memories of war, The Foreign Student is a powerful and emotionally gripping work of fiction.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial (September 21, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060929278
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060929275
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 86 ratings

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Susan Choi
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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
86 global ratings

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Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate the clear, cliche-free prose that keeps them hooked from start to finish. The story is described as fascinating, well-told, and spellbinding.

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6 customers mention "Reading value"6 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's reading value. They find the story engaging and well-told.

"...The book's worth reading because her talent is evident, and the subject makes one think." Read more

"Wonderful book. Easy to read. I know the author's father and the book is loosely based on his life." Read more

"Book used for reading .." Read more

"...me a while to get into the writing style but once there, I thoroughly enjoyed the book." Read more

4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They appreciate the clear prose free of cliches. The story is unpredictable and interesting, and the subject makes them think.

"...It was delicately written like poetry, each word leaving you thought provoked...." Read more

"...book's worth reading because her talent is evident, and the subject makes one think." Read more

"Wonderful book. Easy to read. I know the author's father and the book is loosely based on his life." Read more

"...and what unfolds is unpredictable and really interesting...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014
    I typically don't want to read books by KA authors, especially when they write about the Korean war. It's hard to simply enjoy because of authenticity. However, this book haunted me, and I found myself completely spellbound. It was delicately written like poetry, each word leaving you thought provoked. I'm writing this review long after reading it, and I still remember the book, still remember feeling so moved. I highly recommend this book.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2008
    This is one of those novels that grabs one's attention from the beginning. I liked Choi's matter-of-fact way of explaining her characters, but I also found I couldn't get overly involved with them. It didn't matter to me which man Katherine ended up with (and it was clear she *was* going to end up with A Man); I was merely curious to find out. The book pulls its reader along almost urgently for about 2/3 of the way. Then, alas, it snags on characters' inner thoughts as Choi tortures language to be as thorough as possible, and, yet, somehow, the characters don't come into any sharper focus. She's got a lot of talent, but perhaps needed an editing hand with some of the later exposition passages in this book. The book's worth reading because her talent is evident, and the subject makes one think.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2018
    I really wanted to like this book, I truly did, but, when I started to read it, I just felt bored, and really out-of-touch with what the author was trying to portray. From what I understood from the book, the author touched on a young Korean man's brush with war in Korea during the 1950s, and the nightmarish memories that haunted him as he moved to the United States after the war was over. During his time in the United States, he met a white woman, that he eventually fell in love with, and ended up telling her of his time in Korea during the war. Although this was the main plotline, there were many other 'subplots' happening at the same time, some that I just didn't understand at all, and had no relation to the Korean man's plight, which most would see as PTSD. I also didn't enjoy the flow of this book, as I felt it jumped quickly from one subplot to the next, often leaving readers wondering what had just happened in the previous chapters. I did understand what the author's intention was in writing this book however, it just didn't come across the way in which it should have. If I had known the book would have been the way it was, I would have given it a miss.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2018
    Wonderful book. Easy to read. I know the author's father and the book is loosely based on his life.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2013
    This book tells the tale of Chang (Chuck), a twenty-five year-old Korean man, who relocates to Sewanee, TN as an exchange student in 1955. The narrative of how Chang (called "Chuck" by his his superior, an American working for the USIS in Seoul) gets to Sewanee is one tale. It is interwoven with that of Katherine, whose family comes to Sewanee from New Orleans to summer. The braiding together of these two stories is unlikely and I felt at sea for about the first quarter of the book. The novel then picks up steam, or gets the wind in its sails (choose your metaphor for forward motion) and what unfolds is unpredictable and really interesting. Chuck and Catherine are both loners, outsiders for different reasons, measured in their assessments of themselves, each other, and the small-college townfolk that surround them. When you finally read of their respective journeys (difficult in such different ways but which each predicate, for me, on the movement of their body through space and time--or history), do you pity them? To be sure, they do not pity each other, and the way they dance away from and around the mores of 1956 Sewanee (and some other, unpredictable locales) is interesting to watch. Choi keeps her characters front and center and sees them clearly. Her prose is similarly clear, admirably free of cliche.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2019
    Book used for reading ..
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2016
    Could not get into this story at all. Didn't make it past the first chapter. Dialogue was juvenile.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2012
    I'm 130 pages in and putting it down. Choi is a good writer and writes some great sentences, but this book is too analytical and detailed. I like the potential dynamic between the two protagonists, but going through the Korean and Katherine-history flashbacks done wore me out. Some of her word choices are just plain awkward too.

    I personally like novels with a little more forward momentum. What's really frustrating is that when I went onto Amazon to look up Choi, I discovered that I had done the *same* thing with another of her books, "A Person of Interest." A good argument for using the Amazon phone app at the bookstore.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Nivedita Dhankhar
    4.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful read!
    Reviewed in India on August 14, 2023
    So, I just finished "The Foreign Student," and damn, it's a ride. Picture this: a Korean student in '50s America, trying to figure out the whole new-country-new-life thing. The author, Susan Choi, paints this crazy clear picture with her words – you're practically living in the story. You get the ups, the downs, the culture clashes, and a whole lotta love. The characters? Legit feel like your buddies. If you're down for a tale that's equal parts heartwarming and mind-bending, grab a copy. Choi's got this way of making you ponder life, love, and the wild journey in between. 📚❤️
  • Amazon Customer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Author explores cultural difficulties faced by Korean immigrant into Southern US society.
    Reviewed in Canada on May 28, 2019
    Interesting topic, one learns much about Korean society and attitudes forged during wartime, although less about the cultural and social difficulties faced by immigrants in US society. In this her first novel she indicates considerable potential as a writer, despite a few stylistic weaknesses (no literary allusions, no ironic touches, little attention to sentence length and rhythm) and a jerky narrative development. Instead of attempting to get into the heads of different characters, always a problem for narrative development, one wishes she had have composed her story solely through the eyes of her protagonist Chang/Chuck (she alternates between the two names confusingly). But it was her first novel, and more recent efforts have proven her talent as a writer.