'The Martyred' by Richard E. Kim (1964)

It was the grandiose book jacket quotes that prompted me to open the pages of Richard E. Kim's first novel THE MARTYRED, which I came across on the third-floor shelves of John K. King Books in Detroit.

" ... one of the ablest young novelists to appear in any nation, in decades," wrote Maurice Dolbier of the New York Herald Tribune.  I don't know who this Dolbier guy was, but that is some high praise for an author I'd never heard of.

"Mr. Kim's book stands out in the great tradition of Job, Dostoevsky and Albert Camus ..." according to the New York Times. Wow. Dostoevsky? The New York Times compared this book to Dostoevsky? Really? That intrigued me.

Richard E. Kim

And then there was the more reserved and humble blurb that read, "A major achievement in my opinion." But it was by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning novelist Pearl S. Buck, which maybe they felt was an important get because Kim is Korean and Buck wrote about China ... which doesn't really hold up, but still — it's Pearl S. Buck and if in her opinion the book is a major achievement, it deserves consideration.

I was compelled to thumb to the first page. Kim's opening line hooked me: "The war came early one morning in June of 1950, and by the time the North Koreans occupied our capital city, Seoul, we had already left our university, where we were instructors in the History of Human Civilization." The sentence echoed Hemingway's opening line in the short story "In Another Country" where he writes, "In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it anymore."

Hear me read little bit of the beginning of the novel:

I also liked the irony Kim immediately establishes with two academic men who teach history in the abstract poised to become actors in history in the making.

Described on the back as a "modern Christian epic," THE MARTYRED is the story of an intelligence officer's investigation into the execution of 12 Christian ministers by the Communists during their occupation of Pyongyang. Captain Lee quickly learns that 14 ministers were originally arrested and the two who survived are under some suspicion for having either conspired with the Communists or having denounced their faith. In what Lee describes as a "strange coincidence," one of the ministers executed was his best friend Park's father, a devout pastor characterized by his son as a "man of fanatical faith."

Lee's investigation into the happenings surrounding the executed ministers carries far more import than merely discovering the truth. Lee's superior, Col. Chang, is anxious to elevate the ministers to the status of martyrs in order to use their martyrdom for purposes of propaganda and has no interest in learning what actually happened. The surviving ministers are determined to protect their parishioners' faith from any cracks of doubt and are willing to leave the truth clouded. It is Lee alone who continues to believe in truth's efficacy.

In the end, Kim presents the difficult question of who the real martyrs in his tale may be and reveals the power of faith despite whatever seeds of self-deception out of which that faith may have grown.

I found THE MARTYRED to be an engaging and provoking book and agree with Buck that it is a major achievement, particularly for a first novel. The style is sparse and clean and clear. The glimpses into war-torn Korea are fascinating. The ethical dilemmas are compelling. This was a terrific find. It was translated into 14 languages and in Korea was made into a play, an opera and a film.

Kim, who served in the Korean War and emigrated to the United States in 1955, went on to write two more novels — THE INNOCENTS (1968) and LOST NAMES (1970) — but appears to have turned away from writing novels to become more of an essayist, translator and professor of literature. He died in 2009 at the age of 77 in Shutesbury, Massachusetts.

** If you'd like to read THE MARTYRED, send me an email in the message box above. I'll randomly select a reader to send the book to on Sept. 1. Remember, if you want to read the book, that's great, but you have to be willing to send it on to another reader when you've finished. And if you feel the urge to share with me your experience with the book in a comment on this blog, that'd be terrific.