#koreadathon

Book Review: If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

This was beautiful, and breathtaking, and heartbreaking, and can we get a part two?

"I am glad, then, that I will never love someone again in this way. I would not survive a second time. In America, one of my professors said once that the best art comes from an unbearable life - if you live through it, that is." Miho

Frances Cha's debut novel If I Had Your Face paints the picture of modern-day Seoul, Korea, through the eyes of four women, each trying to survive on their own: Ara, a mute hairstylist with an obsession for boy bands; Kyuri, a girl who spent thousands so she could work in a room salon; Miho, an artist that is head over heels in her work; and Wonna, the unhappily married woman who just wants to hold her baby in her arms.

"But now, I think perhaps that's precisely why he likes me - I am a welcome change because with me he can play the role of the provider. There is no limit to how much Korean men are willing to endure female money, especially if they are wealthy themselves." Miho

The first thing that I feel deserves praise are the characters in a whole: although there were quite a few of them, I didn't find myself being confused or bored while reading about them, their lives and their daily struggles, but rather intrigued, interested, wanting to know more. Step by step, we unravel their pasts and find out how they came to where they are today, fighting unreal expectations set for women, cheating men, and most of all, their perceived role in society.

"You have to grow up with parents whose lives become better as time goes by, so you can learn that you must invest effort for life to improve. But if you grow up around people whose situations become worse as time goes on, then you think that you have to just live for today. And when I ask young people, What about the future? What will you do when tomorrow comes and you have spent everything already? they say they will just die. And that is why Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world."

Out of the four perspectives, I must admit that I enjoyed Kyuri's the most, although Ara comes in a close second. She was so real and fleshed out that I felt like I could almost touch her. Reading about her plastic surgeries, about her family problems, her issues with men, and her job made me tear up quite a bit. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every single perspective: even Wonna's, which felt a bit forced at first, out of place, grew on me as I realized even her perspective was an indispensable part of the story so the author could truly portray the struggles of a modern Korean woman from all possible aspects.

I loved the way the author spoke about the perils of today's world: prostitution, maternity (which we can especially see through Wonna), suicide, plastic surgeries, and much more. Reading books like this really makes you realize how hard the world around us can be, but how soft we can make it to be if we surround ourselves with friends, support, and love - which I personally think is a beautiful message.

"No. No. No. Why should you be paid for not working, when everyone else works twice as hard as you? So that you can play with a baby at home? Women like you are the reason companies do not want to hire women. And that sets back women everywhere. If you were a man, how many days off would you take after having a baby? That's right, none."

Furthermore, the writing really worked with me. Although it was quite simple and understandable, the style fits the content of the book perfectly. It felt as these girls were actually speaking through it, telling about their experiences and their pains.

What bothered me a bit was that certain events were not fleshed out enough, and there were things I would have loved to know more about: what happened to Miho and Hanbin, how exactly did Ara actually lose her voice, if Kyuri ever moved on. Although the ending was symbolically perfect, a lot of things stayed open that I would have loved to know more about.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially those interested about in delicate topics and Korea in general. It was a clear five star read for me and I have no doubt that I'll be rereading it in years to come.

Book Review: The Silence of Bones by June Hur

Although this is the type of book I would never put on my TBR by my own volition, as a choice of a group book for this year's Koreadathon, I decided to pick it up nevertheless - and I surprisingly enjoyed it quite a bit!

June Hur's The Silence of Bones is a historical fiction novel set in 1800s Korea and follows a murder investigation in the capitol's police bureau, where orphaned Seol is indebted and working as a damo - a servant who observes women's corpses when men cannot. Throughout the novel, she goes through not only the struggles of finding herself and her voice in the world, but finding her long-lost brother as well.

Let's start at the beginning: with Seol. I loved her as a character: her personality, her flare, her so-called curiosity which kept getting her in trouble, and in the end, her never-ending loyalty to her family and the truth. She was a well written, realistic woman protagonist; the kind that we need in books nowadays. She did have her mistakes and flaws, but she was learning how to overcome them and become better. More tolerant. It was refreshing to read about a female character like this.

"Everyone dies; what is difficult is a meaningful death."

Not only that, but I loved how great the fact that you do not need a man to be happy was represented here. Although this is a young adult novel, there is no romance, no affairs, no drama, just platonic love, friendship and loyalty. In that aspect, it is definitely a rare book to be found, but a great find nonetheless, and brings up all the right messages and ideas, especially to the young women of today.

However, I do have to admit that on the whole, it was a bit hard to get into, especially at the beginning, and it wasn't until about until 1/2 of the book that it really hooked me in. It felt a bit too descriptive when it needn't have been, and I was a bit confused by the number of characters and trying to perceive the whole story and the mysteries of the police bureau. At moments, it didn't feel entirely fleshed out, which we can see with Seol's backstory and how the whole thing ended. It was just a bit underwhelming after all the pages I've read through, and a bit disappointing.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the premise of this book; even the blurb was intriguing, recommending it for fans of Maniscalco and Ahdieh. Having read books of them both, I liked The Silence of bones a lot better than the other two combined. I think what really did it for me was the absence of a romantic relationship for the protagonist to swoon over, and rather a well built platonic, familial relationship that felt real and worth crying over.

My third book for the Koreadathon is Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee. If I I don't get to read the other selections I have chosen for the readathon, Native Speaker fulfills two prompts, a book with a person on the cover and a book by an author in the Korean diaspora.