Cold War

Finished reading: "But in Her Heart a Cold December" by The Angst Guy

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There is going to be a very brief summary of the story, in much less detail. The reason will be explained below.

The story begins at the end of "Fizz Ed" -- after Principal Angela Li has been hauled away to the hospital after her caffeine-induced mental breakdown. As Angela Li recovers, we learn some fascinating facts about Ms. Li's life through a process of inner monologue.

As it turns out, Ms. Li is actually about six or so years older than her documents claim to be. She was a young girl growing up in (South) Korea when the North Koreans invaded. Her family suffered greatly, and her wartime experiences instilled a hatred of communism. After the war, the dictatorial South Korean government extends a dragnet to imprison/kill/nullify any communist influence (or anti-government influence) in South Korea. A young Li, working as a bar assistant, hears some young university radicals talking up action against the government. One thing leads to another, and Li ends up working for the KCIA, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.

Her job is not to cross the border into North Korea, but to take menial jobs in universities and other places. Eavesdropping, gathering trash, she points out possible communists to the KCIA...what happens to those people afterwards, she doesn't care. However, Ms. Li is unhappy as the KCIA widens its searches. She's interested in communists being punished, but not loudmouthed all-talk-no-action radicals, or anti-government curmudgeons.

Li emigrates to the United States. Hanging around universities has sparked an idea that she can be a teacher -- her first contact with the KCIA was an former teacher of hers. Fifteen years as a teacher, several after that as a principal...and we have the Ms. Li of today.

(* * *)

My first comment is that "show, don't tell" has a corollary: if you decide to tell, and not show, you'd better be damned good at it.

The Angst Guy takes up the burden of writing a story that is mostly first-person -- we are privy to Angela Li's thoughts, and hear her own story in her (TAG's) words. The Angela Li of this story is an excellent storyteller. The first person language is not merely a recounting of motives or wished, but illustrative: "The Americans were big and pink-faced and sharp-nosed and had loud voices."

Part of the problem that many fan fiction writers have with writing in first-person is that they dwell too much on the narrator's own thoughts. They forget that even in the first-person, you have to provide all the sort of background that you'd provide in third person -- setting the scene, establishing characterization and motivation, moving the plot along. An additional difficulty is that you have to make the narrator compelling, in effect the narrator has to become an interesting character in her own story. (I suggest you read the works of Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler to understand how this works in hard-boiled detective fiction, where use of the first-person narrator is common.)

The Angst Guy obviously has no problem in using this form. There is always the problem of the "unreliable narrator", that the narrator will be biased -- and Angela Li undoubtedly is biased. However, a good writer will make use of that bias to strengthen the story. The Angst Guy has no problem with the technique.

The other comment is that we get a sense of Angela Li's "foreignness". Li is not a Korean-American, she is Korean in The Angst Guy's tale. A lesser writer would have beat the reader over the head with the fact; The Angst Guy knows how to keep reminding you of the fact without it dominating the story. We learn of the Korean veneration of parents, about Korean food, etc. without it sounding like a reading from Wikipedia. My only thought was "I wonder how many first person stories TAG had to write to get it this right."

I only found one minor flaw, namely that The Angst Guy had to end the story with a little bit of angst. It seemed too coincidental -- remember that in melodrama, "coincidence drives the plot" and I thought the story was strong enough not to need coincidence. But then again, he's The Angst Guy, so maybe he felt the necessary need to throw some angst in to slake his unquenchable penguin lust.

In conclusion, I can definitely recommend this story. After slagging on stories over and over again, it's good to read one that is more of an illustrator than one that has to be made an example, in the bad sense of the term. I swear, however, I'll find a story of his to tear apart one day! He has to have one hidden out there on the internet. If I only look hard enough...!