Flashlight by Susan Choi

Monday, Sept. 8, 2025--San Antonio

Flashlight by Susan Choi is longlisted for the Booker Prize this year.  It is the best book out of 3 of hers that I have read.  It's not a book one can say, however, "I enjoyed."  It is a book about lives that are frustrating and often lived without adequate love between characters.  The central character is a man of Korean parents who was born in Japan because his parents went there due to job opportunities during WWII.  Because he was very intelligent, he went to a Japanese school where he was a top (if not THE top student).  The family remained in Japan until The Korean War settled into a static situation with the Communist North and the U.S.-sponsored Democratic South.  By that time, Japan wanted to get rid of any of the Koreans that had come there and our main character was finishing school and had been accepted for studies at an Ivy League university in the U.S.  He married an American woman and they had a female child.  He accepted a professorship at a regional American university.  Throughout the years, there are lots of secrets kept from everyone and life has been difficult.  But what I have told is only the first third of the book.  Lots is about to go wrong!  It's a complicated story, but a fascinating book that I couldn't put down.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.