“Ten Thousand Sorrows” is a nonfiction account of a Korean girl who was born to an unmarried mother. The social stigma this birth brought to the family was incredible. The mother was forced to live on the outskirts of town, far away from the other villagers, and while working in the rice paddies, she was virtually ignored. No one would associate with “that kind of woman,” and she was treated like a leper.
Despite this treatment, she did everything in her power to raise her daughter with joy and love. Elizabeth remembers a small town made of cardboard boxes and peopled with paper dolls. She would play with these homemade toys for hours, her mother often joining in the play. Her mother was still very much a child herself, having missed out on a lot of her childhood by making an unfortunate mistake. But she never let Elizabeth take the brunt of her circumstances. Elizabeth didn’t even know they were poor, their solitary home was so full of love.
But then one day, Elizabeth’s grandfather and uncle came to the home to “punish” her mother for her misdeeds. I wasn’t able to figure out why they waited for so long after the pregnancy to come talk to her, but nevertheless, that’s how it happened. Elizabeth’s mother told her to hide in a basket in the corner of the room, and not to come out, no matter what. Elizabeth cowered in the corner and watched as her grandfather and uncle hung her mother from the rafters of their hut, doing what they felt they had to in order to restore honor to the family name.
Elizabeth couldn’t hide any longer, and darted out to try and save her mother. But she was the evidence of her mother’s sin, and received some punishment as well, and was then sent to live in an orphanage, where she was caged up like an animal.
She eventually made her way to America, where she was adopted by a religious family. Unfortunately, the demands placed on her were high, and she wasn’t able to live up to them. She spent the next several years of her life trying to prove that she was a person of worth, that she had value as a human being, and that she did not deserve to be treated with the contempt she had been shown her whole life. Glimmering in the back of her memory was the image of her mother, who loved her, and she knew that’s how it was supposed to be.
The themes of this book are hard. I wouldn’t recommend it to a young reader. I’ve chosen to review it here today for the beautiful portrayal of a mother’s love and devotion, the glimpse into the culture of Korea thirty and forty years ago, and to show how Elizabeth overcame the trials she was given. It’s not a warm, cuddly story, but you will gain an appreciation for the strength of the human spirit while you read it.
(This book was published by Doubleday in 2000.)