Kim Ronyoung's Clay Walls

A large part of the loveliness of Clay Walls resides in Ronyoung's ability to synthesize the ugliness and beauty which assaulted Korean immigrants who slowly arrived in Los Angeles between 1903 and 1924. Ronyoung's narrative achieves compelling depth precisely because she does not shy away from depicting the horrors or the glories of these immigrants new life in the burgeoning Los Angeles area. It is Ronyoung's style which allows Clay Walls to scale these heights. By relying upon a strong sprinkling of poetic imagery within her loosely strung narrative, Ronyoung enables her readers to experience turn-of-the-century Los Angeles with the same immediacy with which her characters did. Further, by separating Clay Walls into three parts, one which concentrates on Haseu's experiences and the second which highlights Chun's, Ronyoung is able to achieve balance between the male and female perspective. In the third part, where she concentrates on Faye, their daughter, it is as if Ronyoung is offering a synthesis of the parents. It is this balancing of opposites, this willingness to depict the vagaries of Korean immigrant life in early twentieth century Los Angeles, which has shaped Clay Walls as the stunning achievement which it is.

The novel begins with a highly memorable scene. The newly arrived Haseu is attempting to please an impossible boss. She has been lowered to the ranks of cleaning toilets in order to earn a living i