I N C L U D E S A F F I L I A T E L I N K S
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Title: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982Author: Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang (translator)
Published: 2020
Language: English (translated from Korean)
Pages: 144
Rating: 3/5
Summary:
This is the story of a woman in her thirties plunging into psychosis and we look back at her life as a young girl and woman in South Korea and the way misogyny and a patriarchal society has affected her.
Review:
This was a very interesting book to read! It's quite a short book but it manages to convey a lot in only a few pages, which I like.
This is the kind of book that is a fictional novel, but clearly very heavily bases itself on actual life, so much so that the book has footnotes with references, referring to studies and reports done on the life of women in South Korea. It's an odd mix and I wasn't expecting it, so it took a little while to get used to.
Although we do get to meet several characters, it's clear that the focus on this book is its themes and the characters are just there to present them to you. It feels kind of artsy and weird, but I did really like reading and learning about sexism in this country. I really like that we follow this woman from she was very little, through school and until she has started a career and has had a child, and I feel like by having the story be like that, we can naturally explore the hurdles she faces in each facet of her life.
All that being said though, I almost wish this was just a straight up nonfiction book; I felt like the themes and the exploration of them sort of took over the story and it just... maybe I just wasn't prepared for it and I had a hard time really getting into it. I would've loved to see what actually happened to this main character afterwards and getting to know her character more. Definitely an interesting book though!
You can read more about it on Goodreads
