BOOK REVIEW Robin Ha's graphic novel 'The Fox Maidens' offers fierce tale of gumiho
The cover of "The Fox Maidens" by Robin Ha / Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers
"The Fox Maidens" is an inspired take on one of the most subversive themes in East Asian folktales: that of the female cooptation of the male body in a patriarchal society. Among the most common representations of this theme are the tales involving a nine-tail fox (gumiho) that takes on the form of a comely maiden who seduces a man and thereby deprives him of his psychic energy, or ki. The story begs for visual treatment, and Robin Ha’s graphic novel, the result of three and a half years of creative work and running more than 300 pages, with an average of five panels per page, more than fills the bill.
Kai (Ka-hŭi in Korean), the protagonist, is the daughter of Meorhu, a low-born woman rescued by a gumiho that maintains itself by feeding on the livers of evil men, and Tamjin, orphaned by the murder of his family by a corrupt royal guard but restored to elite status by hunting gumiho.
Early on, Kai distinguishes herself in the martial arts program run by her father, a general of the local Royal Legion. But at puberty, a crisis ensues when her first menstrual flow (the moonblood) is accompanied by the appearance of the first of her nine tails — another inheritance from the gumiho that saved Kai’s mother and enabled the barren woman to conceive.
Now a fox maiden, Kai is given a choice — she can live as a woman by keeping to a full-moon regimen of transforming to a fox, killing an evil man and consuming his liver, or if not, she will forever remain a fox, always hunted and always on the run. Against her will, Kai chooses the former path, but ultimately, the carnage she wreaks comes to the attention of Tamjin, who, as a Royal Legion officer, has committed himself to eradicating any and all agents of wrongdoing. A confrontation between father and daughter is inevitable, and tragedy ensues.
Bereft of her parents and having forsworn killing, Kai remains a fox for three years before deliverance finally arrives in a meeting between gumiho Kai and a young Buddhist nun, who, as a street urchin and pickpocket in her childhood, was rescued by Kai in her capacity as a member of Tamjin’s martial-arts corps.
Like several recent Korean American young-adult novels, "The Fox Maidens" is distinguished by a strong mother-daughter bond — though the relationship between Kai and Tamjin is compelling as well. There is also a strong karmic element to the story, a salutary reminder of the importance of spirituality from the beginning of recorded Korean history, marked not only by a rich tradition of native spirituality but also by a strong presence of Buddhism and, since late in the 1392-1910 Joseon period, the elevation of what is now South Korea to the most Christian of East Asian nations. Equally significant is the same-sex relationship that ends the story. Rare in Korean literature as well until the new millennium, LGBTQ fiction produced in the Korean diaspora offers the potential for greater visibility for groups traditionally marginalized by gender-role expectations, class structure and perceived disabilities.
Prefacing "The Fox Maidens" is a useful explanation of the gumiho myth followed by a two-page outline of Joseon class structure and the role of women, and finally a cast of characters in the novel. The detailing of class structure deserves elaboration. Except for the cheonmin (“the wretched”), who were denied a class affiliation, the people of Joseon belonged to one of four classes: sa (scholars), nong (farmers), kong (artisans) and sang (merchants), in descending order of status. The joongin (“in-between person”) had yet to gain recognition when this novel is set, 400 years ago. The yangban consisted originally of two groups of officials, civil and military, attendant upon the monarch; the term has long since come to refer generally to the elite.
The commentary on the rigid outlook on women that follows is an excellent illustration of what individuals such as Meorhu and Kai had to face in order to thrive, and it is ultimately the triumphal breakthrough in life and love of Kai — a young woman inheriting her mother’s uncertain class status — presented in graphic form with lively dialogue, that will render "The Fox Maidens" an engaging experience for readers regardless of age, gender, class and ethnicity.
Bruce Fulton is the co-translator, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of numerous volumes of modern Korean fiction, most recently the novels "One Left" by Kim Soom (2020) and "Togani" by Gong Ji-young (2023), and editor of "The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories" (2023), the first volume of modern Korean literature among Penguin UK’s 3500-plus World Classics.