Biting The Hand by Julia Less

The book is a story of racism and cultural identity told in three parts. In sections titled “Rage,” “Shame” and “Grace,” Lee traces her intellectual evolution through the events of her own life, growing up Korean and struggling to find her place. She admits, she was an angry girl who grew up to be an angry woman, but she was provoked. She demonstrates a knack for meaningful storytelling as she recounts her father’s harrowing escape from North Korea as a child, and her enrollment at a private all-girls school in a wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood while her parents struggled to make ends meet. Let's be real, anger can be traced through it all, it is only that the slant is slightly different each time. She seamlessly blends her own experiences with piercing discussions of identity and racial stratification, serving up conclusions likely to challenge readers across the ideological spectrum. In fact, recognizing the need for constant reexamination in our white-centered society, Lee even challenges her own views. This is not a gentle book, but rather one that is screaming throughout, and you can't help learning something from it.