As the son of a Korean family of substance the author of this autobiographical sketch grew up, in the early years of the century, among unsettling influences from east and west. Europe, known as "West of the Ocean," supplied modern education to replace the old classics of China and Korea. From the east came Japanese troops to annex the country in a bloodless war. Mirok Li, a perceptive and receptive schoolboy, saw this political scene in terms of his day-to-day experience. The remarkable thing is that he continued to see it with the same clarity, truth and detail when came to write the story many years later in Europe, using a simple German that his translator may perhaps have improved on Mr. Hammlmann's English version, at least, is lucent calm and fully expressive of the closely felt Korean scene that stirs the reader by its blend of intimacy and remoteness.