I am grateful to White Pine Press for having published this translation of post-war Korea stories. According to the publisher, the authors of the six stories are all acclaimed in South Korea, having one numerous awards between them.

The stories are domestic. There is little action and there appears - from my untrained eyes - little interest in politics or the recent history of the peninsula. Two of the stories show young urban transplants returning to the rural villages where they grew up, revisiting memories and traditional parents. In another story, a family visits the tomb of their ancestors, and in another, a young man visits a spa.

The stories are quite slow. Perhaps a better description might be to call them "slice of life."

Were I more familiar with Korean literature, I think I could have appreciated some kind of philosophy, theme, or cultural revelation. As it was, I found the stories to be limp and lifeless. ( )