Book Description

Chi Sun Rhee’s work of four volumes, The Phantom of Greatness, is a masterpiece of twentieth century epic fiction. It consists of Book One (The Phantom of Greatness), Book Two (The Way to Greatness), Book Three (The Devastation to Greatness), and Book Four (The Triumph to Greatness). The story of the forth volume, The Triumph to Greatness, occurs in America. In her work, three surviving main characters came from Korea after long struggles under the Japanese colony, WWII, and the Korean War. Byunghong, to pursue his statesman’s career, comes to the University of Toledo for his master’s degree in political science. After attaining his M.A. degree, he is going to return to Korea next day. He is in a department store in downtown Toledo and stumbles across Mija, who has been his undying love and thought to be dead six years ago. Of her own volition, Mija agrees to marry Byunghong in three weeks. One day Byunghong goes to the University of Michigan library to collect Asian materials to help the chairman of the political science department. There he unexpectedly has an encounter with Oda Ichiro. Ichiro says he is still living alone without marrying again, thinking of his dead Mija, leaving in his will to bury his body with his wife; now he is working harder than before to give tribute to his wife through his works of research. Byunghong is appalled at hearing of Ichiro’s statement of his immutable love for Mija. Even though Byunghong has every right to marry Mija, he has perfected his sublime love for her as a human being, and giving more than a being can ever possibly give, delivers Mija to her husband’s arms. Mija and Ilyoung reunite with Ichiro. They have fulfilled their dream and greatness: Mija completes her books; Ichiro’s nuclear theory has been expanding triumphantly. Sarah is born. Four years later, the terminal cancer brings Mija to the end stage of life. Giving her crying son the definition of what is greatness, Mija comforts her son, saying that death is another form of life. She adds: “You have your daddy with you and Sarah; he will do all the things to make you great.” The love and greatness between Ichiro and Mija is tightly sealed as a single entity—inseparable. It is supreme love and conviction to greatness beyond the pale of the mortal. Author Chi Sun Rhee is a retired gynecologist/obstetrician. She is the mother of two sons and a daughter and is the author of several acclaimed novels. Her desire to write this unusual history of Korea in a four-part series of books, is a dream she has had for several years. A resident of Toledo Ohio, where she resides with her husband, John, she pursues gardening as her primary avocation. keywords: Korea, History, Culture, Japanese, Invasion, Romance, Fiction, Documentary, Struggle, Education, Family, Youth, War, Korean War