Eating Kimchi and Nodding Politely by Alex Clermont
I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
At the beginning of this novella length memoir Alex Clermont found himself in the same position many Americans have themselves in since the economic depression. With the downsizing of the publishing company he was working for causing him to become unemployed Clermont had no choice but to look for a new job in more creative places. And he found one. With no other options in the States, Clermont decides to move to Korea and teach English, and this selection of short stories share a few of the experiences he had there.
I love travel memoirs, especially ones that, rather than being a 400 page anthem about someone’s life over the course of a year in chronological order, are simply a selection of stories about, for lack of a better expression, being a stranger in a strange land and learning how to cope. Clermont’s memoir includes a variety of stories with the potential to be an excellent addition to that category of travel memoir, but unfortunately lacks certain qualities a stronger editor could have fixed.
The main criticism I had with this memoir is cohesiveness. While I understand
Clermont’s desire to keep stories out of chronological order many of these stories lacked the context to really be stories, with some of these entries lasting no longer than a paragraph or two with no real story to explore. Where many authors of this style get bogged down with unnecessary details Clermont doesn’t include enough. Reading a travel memoir should give the reader to experience that foreign land through the eyes of the author, but not once in Clermont’s memoir did it feel like the story was transported off the page and into South Korea. I wanted to see, feel, smell, and taste a place I’ve never had the opportunity to visit, but Clermont’s stories don’t deliver.
There was also a lot more emphasis on relationships (emphasis on sex) than on the teaching aspect of his trip which, as a teacher of English myself, I was looking forward to reading about. These stories of relationships also suffer from a lack of details. While I’d love to read about courting issues of different cultures and making a cross-cultural relationship work (or not) Clermont’s stories simply state things are different and moves on without much substance. In fact, several stories deal with the same woman who is described as a one night stand/easy hook up and a meaningful love-match in the same story but no bridge about how Clermont and this woman got from one point to another.
Clermont has real potential here for an excellent (even full-length) travel memoir, but his stories need some fleshing out before his readers will be able to immerse themselves in his experiences.
