Wandering in the DMZ

(If incomplete, please see cover letter. (Total 1948 words) Draft for Website version Suh/Siberian Labor Camps in America. This book is a collection of short stories and essays, a memoir of a fictional figure Dick. He is an immigrant from Korea and was a country doctor in rural North East. Dick says the US was like Siberian Labor Camps in Siberia: They forced him to work like a slave, 24/7, made him a workaholic, a caffeine addict, and tortured him with sleep deprivation. He writes on uphill battles to adapt to new culture, difficulties in settling down in a small town, hectic rural solo medical practice, small-town medical politics, bored country doctor’s wife, problem raising kids, some mundane events in retirements, and also on some foreign affairs that conjure up his old memories. In Preface Dick’s seat mate on the way to Vladivostok was a Korean descendant who was now living in Australia. Dick meets a North Korean defector from Siberian logging camp run by North Korean Government. His plights were similar to Dick’s earlier US days 30 years before when he was an intern. He had to work 36 hours straight with 12 hours off, with paltry pay but large amount of debts. In Uphill battles, Dick encounters various culture shocks. He gets homesick. He later ventures out but an FBI agent questions him frightening him. He stays in dorm rest of the year watching TV learning American customs. In Small Town Medical Politics hospital CEO’s wield absolute power. One handsome CEO even sleeps with Chairwoman of the Board. Country doctors are nice but territorial and quarrel all the time but they unite to lynch Blacks or foreigners. In A Near Miss Dick courts Amy in college, through tumultuous social and political chaos and personal tragedies but Dick abruptly comes to the US by bribing a colonel over ox-tail soup. They meet last briefly in New York City. After dumping him, Amy suddenly comes to him two years later on the eve of getting engaged to a billionaire’s son, demanding to elope to Canada. After three years in Canada Dick comes back to the US but his research dreams dry out. He is totally burnt out and now wants to go to a smallest town to avoid cut-throat academic competition. He goes for an interview to Company Town in snowstorm. Policeman blocks all the traffic and tells him to go back but later he sneaks through. In settling down, Dick sees racism galore. In Yellow Peril Dr. Kim is married to an Italian lady. His neighbor harasses Kims to chase them off. When they don’t, they take him to court for planting his hedge one inch inside his huge property. But when their only daughter marries a Black high school sweetheart, they get heartbroken. In Reverse Racism, Koreans are not exception. A senior Korean physician in town tells Dr. Kim to hide some money under the mattress in case his wife runs away. Later he gets heartsick when his own daughter marries her college sweetheart, a Black. In Siberian Labor Camps Dick starts his solo practice in a Company Town of 1,200 souls with one traffic light and one cop. The personnel director is the mayor of the town, and a Vice President of the Company is the Chairman of the Board of the 28-bed hospital. When he is on freeway on his way for family vacation to Florida, the cop stops him trying to send him back to ICU. Charlie is a Physician’s Assistant, who wanted to be a doctor all his life. He was once arrested for impersonating a doctor but he is now accepted to a medical school in Caribbean at the age of 46. One mother had all her five girls marry to a doctor. People are eager to marry a doctor. One nurse with two sets of twins lands a resident physician and celebrates being a doctor’s wife by drinking a glass of champagne every day. Many parents want to send their kids to medicine except the primary care physicians. They work hard yet working environment is hostile with worsening malpractice mess and medicine is changing to socialized medicine with HMO’s. A Blonde is a middle aged gay lady dying of terminal cancer. In her final days she savors wine and food before she dies. While in a Christian mission Dick meets Manchu Writer, who is writing a love story in Communist China. In Country Doctor’s Wife Amy is having a hard time adjusting to a rural society in spite of being a Country Club member, and she goes back to school first, then works part time in office but stirs up the patients and staff. In Late US Life Amy is Ski Mom as well as Suzuki Mom. His girl wants cello lessons but there is no cello teacher within 30 miles, but her boarding school has. In “LAX” Dick’s elderly parents get lost on their way to visit Dick. In New York City he describes two of his old friends. One runs a liquor store and he is virtual prisoner in Siberian Camp. He cannot go vacation on Christmas or any weekends because they are the prime business time. Another friend is retired to New York area after a divorce Korean style. His wife had him arrested for adultery. The Korean restaurants in New York area look like sports bars, and they are oases for the wandering expats and soju is elixir of life, and help ameliorate nostalgias and immigration stresses. In Chevette Dick’s children refuse to ride it unless they have to. When he goes to see his son in a boarding school and he is surprised when big limousines dwarf his car. In The 9/11 he reflects how he and his family reacted to the attack. Family in Korea thinks they are under the attack. Amy refuses to fly after 9/11. In Good Ol’ Days he looks back to his high school and college days. In Rev. Billy Graham many of Dick’s young friends convert to Christianity soon after listening to Rev. Graham’s sermons. They later go missionary work and preach like Rev. Graham. In Train Ride, Leaky Shoe and Cave Dwelling Dick reminisces good old college days when things were primitive and uncomplicated. In Pubic Bathhouse, young Dick has to bathe with all kind of people and that’s when he begins to notice friends’ and others’ genitals. In Student Revolution he joins student riot that toppled President Rhee. He gets soaked up with tear gases and run with the herd and feels “herd instinct”. He suffers from stampede phobia even 50 years later. He remembers social chaos that following the fall of Dr. Rhee. In Tear Gases incessant street demonstrations and indiscriminate use of tear gases make Korea the nation of tear gases and nation of mobocracy, until young colonels take over the country for law and order in Coup d’état. General Park, the junta leader wears darkest sunglasses day and night and never smiles in public for 17 years. In War Story, some of the old University hospital beds have bullet holes from North Korean submachine guns when they overrun the hospital and take no prisoners. Dr. Lee tries to stop the rampage but he is captured and forced to work for North Korean Army but later he escapes and serves South Korean Army. Having lived all his life in snow-belt in North America, Dick has many snowstorm stories but people do not believe some of his stories. In A Penguin Walk he gets stranded in a remote Newfoundland on the way home from a minor surgery. In All Quiet in Western Highway, they get caught in a sudden late spring storm in mountainous interstate. The Retirement Life shows glimpses of his adventure in retirement. In Public Swimming pool he sees interesting segment of society in an urban swimming pool including a guy reading bible in hot tub. In Heart Attack and in Rehab he recounts his unsuspected heart attack and rehab episodes. He also shows mundane things confronting an elderly retiree in Dog Sitting, Wallet and Goodbye My Best Friend. In St. Peter’s Mandate, Dick finds out why everyone is writing after retirement: St. Peter has required everyone to bring a confession, except for golfers. Golfers have a special back door to the Heaven and the only thing they need is a score card. That’s reason why everyone is golfing after retirement.