pickAn unnamed narrator in her 30s, a writer, reflects on her teen years working at a factory in Seoul while attending high school in the evenings. It's a painful period in her life, full of poverty, broken relationships, isolation, fear, and political turmoil. It's the dream of becoming a writer that helps her survive. Now, after years of suppressing this traumatic time in her life, she decides to write about it, but the process is painful. 👇
merelybookish The novel flips back and forth, between the writing of the book and the past she is re-creating. It was powerful to see what she endured and how it shaped her. Also the difficulty and perhaps catharsis in making it public. This is my first novel by a South Korean. There was so much I didn't know about the politics. It was a good story and I feel I learned a lot about another country, which is why reading books in translation is so worthwhile! 5y
merelybookish #witreadathon @mhillis 5y
merelybookish Picture from the NY Times. I don't know if this is an autobiographical novel but the writer Kyung-Sook Shin did work at a factory and attended a high school for industrial workers for a while. 5y
mhillis Great review! I didn‘t know much about the Gwangju Uprising so I found myself looking that up towards the end of the book. I‘m glad I read this too. 5y
