The Golden Bridge

A restless, frustrated college professor in contemporary Central California is shamed into returning to Korea by the son of his former wartime houseboy, Mr. Kim. The protagonist, Julian Kline, revisits an environment that decades earlier gave him his worst nightmares and greatest pleasures. During the trip and at the reunion in Seoul, Julian and Mr. Kim tell the son, Han, what really happened back in the early 1950s. In flashbacks, the wartime relationship starts off when Julian mistakenly almost kills Mr. Kim, who ends up in a demeaning job in the American's infantry division. Both men battle prejudices, the Army's and their own, as well as the enemy. Julian falls in love with Soon, the daughter of an aristocratic Korean family and goes AWOL to be with her. However, he voluntarily returns to the action, a pointless battle, to help the endangered Mr. Kim. Both are trapped and seriously wounded, but further risk their lives, eventually saving each other. Julian, in post-recovery haze, is maneuvered into abandoning Soon by his mother and fiancée. Contemporarily, his reunion with Mr. Kim, who has married Soon, is warm, emotional and spectacularly revealing. As a result, Julian and the Kims face life-changing decisions affecting both families.