Listen to a sample
Docile
- Author
- Hyeseung Song
- Narrator
- Hyeseung Song
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date
- 24 April 2025
- Run Time
- 7 hours 16 minutes
- Format
- x-book®
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
From Texas sugar cane fields, Ivy League halls to Hyeseung Song's homeland of South Korea and back again, this memoir is a journey through identity crises, mental health struggles and the quest for selfhood.
Born to Korean immigrant parents, Hyeseung spends her early years in the sugar cane fields of Texas, caught between her father's "get rich quick schemes" and her beautiful, domineering mother who is skeptical of Western idealism.
With her parents constantly at odds, Hyeseung learns more Korean words for hatred than for love. When the family's fake Gucci business lands them in bankruptcy, Hyeseung starts at a new school where she's immediately singled out with the question, "Can you speak English?"
Growing up, Hyeseung internalizes Western expectations of the "model" Asian-American, striving for approval and getting into an Ivy League school. Yet, she resents the other high-achieving Asian students she meets and clings to her "token" status among her white peers.
In an attempt to reconcile her identity, she takes a trip to Korea, facing an even greater crisis of self, and after a series of shocking events, she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and ultimately attempts suicide. Marriage to a doting white physicist and a new career as a painter seem to offer refuge—until they don’t.
Unflinching and lyrical, Docile is one woman’s story of subverting the model minority myth, contending with mental illness, and finding her self-worth by looking within.
Critics Review
-
“DOCILE is the rarest of things: a scorchingly honest, beautiful, hugely evocative memoir that’s also a proper page-turner. I read it breathlessly in a single sitting, transported and deeply moved. It's at one and the same time the story of a life and a meditation on identity, family, trauma, illness, and the nature of love, art, and success. It’s wonderful.” – Helen MacDonald, author of H is for Hawk
-
“A work of extraordinary tenderness and depth, DOCILE chronicles an immigrant family’s dreams, losses, and love through Hyeseung Song’s clear-eyed and poetic storytelling. Ultimately a book about the call of art, the bane of mental illness, and inheritances both welcome and not, DOCILE offers a gorgeous glimpse of one seeker’s earnest journey toward selfhood.” – Rachel Yoder, author of Night Bitch
-
"A savagely beautiful memoir. Skillfully crafted and achingly heartfelt, Docile creates worlds through richly-observed details, told with a powerful narrative drive. Eloquent, often funny, and always unflinchingly honest, Song has created a Portrait of the Artist as a Young AAPI Woman which will be read and cherished for generations to come." — David Henry Hwang, author of M. Butterfly
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Hyeseung Song
- Narrator
- Hyeseung Song
- Duration
- 7 hours 16 minutes
- Release Date
- 24 April 2025
- ISBN
- 9780008733407
- Format
- x-book®
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Genre
- Memoirs, Racism and racial discrimination / Anti-racism, Cross-cultural / Intercultural studies and topics, Social groups, communities and identities, Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Sociology: family, kinship and relationships
Synopsis
From Texas sugar cane fields, Ivy League halls to Hyeseung Song's homeland of South Korea and back again, this memoir is a journey through identity crises, mental health struggles and the quest for selfhood. Born to Korean immigrant parents, Hyeseung spends her early years in the sugar cane fields of Texas, caught between her father's "get rich quick schemes" and her beautiful, domineering mother who is skeptical of Western idealism. With her parents constantly at odds, Hyeseung learns more Korean words for hatred than for love. When the family's fake Gucci business lands them in bankruptcy, Hyeseung starts at a new school where she's immediately singled out with the question, "Can you speak English?" Growing up, Hyeseung internalizes Western expectations of the "model" Asian-American, striving for approval and getting into an Ivy League school. Yet, she resents the other high-achieving Asian students she meets and clings to her "token" status among her white peers. In an attempt to reconcile her identity, she takes a trip to Korea, facing an even greater crisis of self, and after a series of shocking events, she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and ultimately attempts suicide. Marriage to a doting white physicist and a new career as a painter seem to offer refuge—until they don’t. Unflinching and lyrical, Docile is one woman’s story of subverting the model minority myth, contending with mental illness, and finding her self-worth by looking within.
About xigxag and the x-book®
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
Our x-book® format is the only fully integrated listen-and-read experience available. See the text on screen as you listen, look up words, take notes, search within the book, and share quotes. It is especially useful for accessibility, language learning, and getting more from non-fiction. Look for the purple x-book® ribbon on the cover, or filter your search by "x-book" to find them.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.