SOURCE: A review of The Foreign Student, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LXVI, July 1, 1998, p. 913.

[The following review provides a synopsis of The Foreign Student and a brief evaluation of the novel's strengths.]

[The Foreign Student is] an uneven first novel that elegantly details the love story of two young people, a Korean student and a southern beauty, whose earlier lives have been shaped by war and obsession. Like so many current debut novels, the writing here is stronger than plot or character, but Choi, in giving her male protagonist a Korean background, especially one shaped by a less familiar war, the Korean War, adds a refreshingly unusual dimension to her tale. Set in the mid-1950s, and taking place mostly at Sewanee, the University of the South, the story begins when Chuck Ahn, formerly Chang, meets Katherine Monroe. Now in her late 20s, Katherine, living at Sewanee in...