E. J. Koh

A tale of deep bonds to family, place, language--of hard-won selfhood told by a singular, incandescent voice.

A Memoir

The Magical Language of Others

zee ✨️

cee 

Neither happiness nor sadness are ever done with us.

But to ask children to raise themselves feels too cruel 

“If you have no suffering, you have no story to tell—isn’t it true?” 

Is to live with kids to suffer? My mom mentioned to me that having children who don’t give back to them is a waste 

“Jun could not die because she had children, everybody knew.” 

“Lee knew that she loved the city, but he could not be with the children by himself. They belonged to her—not him. He was only their father, who could not love them as he used to or wanted to.” 

“But one night, a man tossed a remark at her. Right there, my father brawled with him and nearly died when the man broke a beer bottle and stabbed my father in the throat, barely missing the jugular. The man had two friends with him. Both joined in the beating of my father. My mother called her brothers to rescue him. After that day, they got married. I was my father’s daughter because there was in me, other than my face, this love for my mother.” 

“Now that you’re older, I have somebody to talk to. I’ve been waiting forever. I’ll tell you everything about my life. When you have a daughter, you’ll think of men and say that’s how it must’ve felt then. But you don’t have to forgive me because you are my daughter. You don’t have to do anything for me, okay? I was born to do everything for you.” 

The Magical Language of Others quotes

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