Sok-Yong Hwang

I was so looking forward to this story of Korea under Japanese rule, through WW2, until the separation of north and south--and then into the unions' fights for rights for their workers.

The family parts of this story--home life, food, work, ghosts, Jino on his perch--were fine and interesting.

The union parts were like baseball play-by-play without a color commentator. Very dull. It read like a boring history text, but this is fiction! Way too long, too many meetings and meetings to set up meetings and meetings over soup and walking around to avoid being seen meeting.

Second book from the IB longlist in which train employment is an important part of the story. A very different look at that employment here though.… (más)

"The days of our youth are probably now nothing but photographs in some treasured album, yellowing and fading like memories over time."

Park Minwoo is a successful Seoul architect in his 60's, though he grew up in one of the shantytowns on the hills surrounding the city. As he ages, he begins to look back on his past, and how he got to where he is today. He thinks frequently of his first love, the daughter of the noodle-maker in the shantytown. As teenagers, they bonded over a mutual love of reading and the desire for an education. They have been out of touch for years, when he receives a cryptic message from her.

In sections that alternate with Minwoo's story, we get the story of a young woman struggling to get by in present day Seoul (both sections are in the first person). She works days as a playwright/director/jack-of-all-trades at fringe urban theater (generally unpaid), and then rushes to her all-night job as a convenience store clerk before heading home for a few hours of sleep in a mold-infested basement.

As the sections progress, we wonder how these two lives will intersect.

I liked this quiet introspective novel quite a lot. It seems to give a realistic and detailed look at what life is like for many in present day Seoul. I would like to read more by this author.

3 1/2 stars… (más)