I heard about it a lot when I was in Seoul. The book came out in 2016 but I never got to read it until recently. I remember some kind of scandal revolving around it — like a female K-pop star was spotted with this book at the airport, and many people turned on her for the reason that I may describe as a willingness to keep the status quo on the subject.
Actually, I found the article now. Yeah, they burned her photos and shit. Only for liking this book.
“She should know that most of her fans are male,” said a male social media user online. “She has virtually come out as a feminist, and I’m no longer her fan.”
Sinister, right? Feminism is about equal rights after all.
I also heard from my friends in Seoul that feminism is not that popular in Korea. And that the whole industry of K-pop has so many dark sides, considering how K-pop stars are treated by their… well basically owners.
Finnaly I got my hands on the book. Thin, compressed. Only 176 pages to narrate about three generations in a family. I wouldn’t even say it is harsh or something — which I expected because of all the media controversy and the reaction of “some male audience”. I wonder if they even read the book at all.
It touches upon the subject of sexual harassment, the loneliness of the author in the hierarchy of society, post-natal depression, and much more. But it is still pretty mild for me, acclimated to Western feminism. I would say it is an attempt to start a conversation.
I was curious about the ending — a bit of professional curiosity — how would an author spin the story to actually end it at something meaningful, or unexpected or… something other than flat. Because the story was like a good article — the journalism that tells us about the facts, the mundane reality — and this is not something that ends in a twist or ends at all.
I was surprised. The ending did have a spin. I liked it.
The movie had a different ending, but I liked that one as well.
The writing itself feels simple, almost like a blog. But I haven’t found it lacking. It might be because the subject is important to me. And I am really happy to see Korean women writing on the subject.
So, there was a movie based on the book(you can see its poster below), and I actually liked it a lot, even though I have already read the book. I think the writing, cast, and storytelling in the movie were great. I am not into Korean drama. Dorama for me is a bit like a cartoon — exaggeration, fairytale, characters that you’d never meet in the real life. But. My views might be outdated. I tried dorama like fifteen years ago.
Whereas this movie is a full blown grown up serious and realistic one. The one that you’d appreciate how exact the director turned out in depicting real life. I cried while watching, which doesn’t happen to me frequently. The atmosphere of loneliness was painted too vividly. But it might be just my own experience that talked to me through this movie…
It’s quite special how the book is so thin, but the emotions it stirred are so strong and abundant. It talks to you no matter your origins. It feels like a girl in any country might find it close to her own experiences. Or a guy — cause the husband struggled there too, mostly in the movie though.
If you are a fan of everything Korean… well, you probably read it already ;)… If you happen to read Korean books like this one, please, give me your book recommendations!
— —
Thank you all for reading this. Clap intensely for the aspiring author). I will reciprocate the support.
Plot twist — it is possible to leave more than one clap. Tens of them actually.
