Cover Image: Tell Me the Dream Again

Tell Me the Dream Again

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Member Reviews

Tasha Jun invites us to journey with her as she weaves her tale as a mixed Korean lady alongside the universal want to belong with fierce kindness. Jun expertly reminds us that following in Jesus' footsteps asks us to become more of our God-given selves, not less of them, through beautiful words. And so in the end, we truly begin to represent the goodness and belovedness for which we were formed when we honour the fullness of each of our ethnicities and particularities.

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Author Tasha Jun describes herself as “navigating cultural collisions and liminal space,” and living in rural Maine, I need a voice in my ear with a different story–or, to be more accurate, a story of difference.

Jun’s liminal space has been the intersection of her Korean roots with her American heritage, and the narrative arc of her beautifully written memoir chronicles her process of embracing the whole while thoughtfully examining what it means to grow up and come of age in a biracial body here in the United States.

I was especially intrigued by the way Tell Me the Dream Again mines the life of Moses, a Hebrew raised as an Egyptian, for insight into a bi-cultural life in that time and space. Did his hair easily conform to Egyptian style norms? Was he conscious of the amount of melanin in his skin or the shape of his eyes? Was he lonely in his differences?

And looking into the uniqueness and complexity of Jun’s story, I have been given a fresh set of questions to bring to my own minimal exposure to difference. It’s clear that God loves variety, and in his creation of ethnicity and a glorious color palette of humanity, we learn that God created differences because differences are worth celebrating.

Nowhere in Jun’s story does she describe her journey as easy or suggest she’s arrived. Instead, she invites her readers to join her in the limping, uneven walk that straddles two worlds and two wildly disparate cultures. A more comfortable narrative would not have done her story justice.

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A deeply meaningful story about a multi-cultural woman who finds her full identity in Christ, not by losing the parts that compose her being, but by stealing in to each fully. For someone who knows little about Korean culture, it was such a thrill learning more. Very good!

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Tell Me the Dream Again by Tasha Jun (Tyndale Momentum, 2023) is a brave and beautiful book, telling her story of growing up biracial in America. Her journey of discovering more about herself and her family is full of insight and encouragement for others to explore their own stories more deeply.. I've marked off so many passages in the book like this one:
"It's liberating for me to realize Moses wasn't asked to deny his ethnic and cultural identity to know God and lead others. In fact, it was the opposite. His ability to understand both Hebrews and Egyptians meant he was uniquely qualified to lead a diverse group of people into the future."

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"Tell Me the Dream Again" is a memoir written by a 1/2 Korean girl who spends a lot of the book exploring her identity. It made me cry. This book is like an onion, with many layers. There is the layer of an American girl who moves around a lot. The layer of the 1/2 Asian girl who feels as though she neither belongs to the Koreans nor the Americans. The layer of being a sub-urban Christian during turbulent times. The layer of wondering if your grandparents like you for you or for who your parents are... Itis all there.

It is a well thought out story that should be read by many adults, especially by those who like the author's own father "have never seen a Korean" before. And especially by those who didn't know that Korea had been colonized by Japan.

It was a very beautiful story, yet the melancholy that hangs around the edges negates the spirituality of the piece. For this reason I give it a 3.

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This book was a beautiful read. Tasha Jun shares honestly and openly about her story of growing up in a biracial family, and through beauty and hardship points her story back to Jesus. This book gripped my heart in a really sweet way, and I would highly recommend it to others. The honesty with which she speaks about her own marriage, being Korean-American married to a white man and raising multicultural children, raised important questions for me to process through personally. No matter your background, this book is a gift to the church and makes space for many great (but still sometimes difficult) conversations.
A huge thanks to NetGalley and IVPress for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for this honest review.

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Tell Me The Dream Again by Tasha Jun is a memoir that reflects on the biracial experience. The author grapples with her Asian American identity and explains she is either too Korean in America and not enough Korean in South Korea. Much of her upbringing has been rooted in the idea of assimilation and doing so means to be truly accepted. The memoir unpacks and questions the normalcy of whiteness while also detailing the narrative of shame around an ethnic or cultural identity. Tasha Jun does a wonderful reflection on emotional confusion and addresses generational trauma and “rebuilding” her unique identity. Although the memoir explores these themes it also highlights the process of joy and healing through religion. To be honest, I did not expect the book to be so heavy on the religious aspect (as someone who is non-Christian). Much of the book is rooted in the theology of christianity and Tasha bridges her experiences with her devotion to Jesus and how it has helped her cope with who she is as an Asian American.

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The author was very forth coming in her experiences in life. I did enjoy that she was raw in her experiences and emotions. It does give a perspective that is unique and not often heard from. However, the writing style was confusing for me. I did have a hard time following the timeline of the author's childhood into adulthood. There were times, in my opinion, when I felt scripture was used out of context. Overall it was ok, and I'd rate it a 2.5 stars,

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A tapestry of stories. A love letter to her mother. A journey of holy curiosity. An invitation to embrace the voice you’ve been given and the belonging that is yours. (Do not miss the epilogue.)

A few quotes:

“True unity requires whole people, full of their colors—and hard, holy, humbling work.”

“When Jesus revealed his resurrected self to the disciples on that melancholy morning, he did it not only by miraculously feeding them but also by reminding them that he was with them in every part of their humanity. Despite the shock and awe of his death-conquering deity, he made a meal.”

“We are not the saviors of our families, nor are we the ones meant to carry the full weight of their broken branches. We are those whose desperation for Jesus in the midst of our families’ brokenness creates paths of healing.”

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Capturing the essence and basis of this book has been well done, I believe. It has been so helpful, and I believe it will be a boon for couples with inter-racial marriages and for their children. There is much that is the same for any married couple and their children, but oh, the vastness of the 'different', which is addressed in this book.

This story of how one Korean - American child coped through it all right into her adult years has long been coming. What relief will be found for a reader in similar circumstances. At last, there is someone who understands. At last, there is license to be who I am and not have to hide ones' identity as a minority ethnicity in an overwhelming ocean of another. On top of this, I really appreciated how the author brought in her faith and dependance on God as part of her equation for living.

I give 5-Star praise for author Tasha Jun who's been inspired to tell her story, like it was, and like it is. I believe her story will help many people feel and find their own way 'home,' and able to "dream again."

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

January 2023

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinionn based on the complimentary review copy send by NetGalley and the publisher.

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I made the silly little mistake of not noticing this book was published by a Christian publisher, and as a non-Christian who was just excited to read a book about Asian American identity, I was not expected a bible story at the beginning and end of each chapter. Bible stories aside, this was a really interesting book about Tasha Jun's experiences. I think it's definitely a little bit of false advertising to claim this is a story about the "asian american experience" because it is really just about Tasha Jun's experience. Overall, I enjoyed the book but it was not what I expected to read at all.

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Growing up in the US, Tasha Jun felt the requirement to play up her American-ness and to hide her Korean-ness. This split identity caused her great pain as she felt she could never fully be known by her US friends - she always had something to hide - which led to loneliness. Jun traces this back, in part, to the racist US laws prohibiting mixed race marriages (only repealed in the 1960s). In Korea, visiting family, things weren’t any better: she couldn’t speak Korean, her mum always had to explain that she was her daughter and she was even spat on by some local kids for being bi-racial.

Jun’s cri-de-coeur is that we recognise cultural differences and celebrate these different cultures rather than asking the minority to erase themselves. Someone shouldn’t be ashamed that they eat, e.g. kimchi, or that, in their culture, families share a bath together. Yet that was Jun’s experience and, with her own children in the US, she’s determined that these mistakes won’t be repeated. They’re learning Korean together and Jun’s grappling with Korean cooking having spent years refusing to eat Korean food.

Jun’s process of healing and becoming whole explicitly comes from her Christian faith and wrestling with the gap between God’s love of diversity and the church’s imperfect living out of that theology. In her journey to wholeness, finding fellow travellers also wrestling with how to be both Asian and American has been a great help and encouragement.

As someone who’s part of her country’s ethnic majority, this book has challenged me to think how I encourage my friends from different backgrounds to share their lives with me and how important it is to affirm (wherever possible) that these different approaches/foods are good.

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