Hailedby critics, <em>Stingray</em> has beendescribed by its author as “a critical biography of my loving mother.” With hisfather having abandoned his family for another woman, Se-young and his motherare forced to subsist on their own in the harsh environment of a small Koreanfarming village in the 1950s. Determined to wait for her husband’s return,Se-young’s mother hangs a dried stingray on the kitchen doorjamb; to her, it’sa reminder of the fact that she still has a husband, and that she must behaveas a married woman would, despite all. Also, she claims, when the family isreunited, the fish will be their first, celebratory meal together. But when abeggar girl, Sam-rae, sneaks into their house during a blizzard, the firstthing she does is eat the stingray, and what follows is a struggle, at oncesentimental and ideological, for the soul of the household.