A tale of colonial Korea from the early 1900’s to after World War II, it shows the complex birth of an independent nation through the eyes of some of the people who live there.
It starts in a unique way – telling a story of a hunter and a tiger, and the events in this prologue echo through the entire book. I was pleased that the events I predicted to happen didn’t go exactly as I expected, and that the story was not always happy but ultimately satisfying to me.
The writing style stood out to me – sometimes it felt like an awkward translation, and in this awkward feeling was a more direct description of beauty that would be hard to tell otherwise. This is a saga that spans more than 50 years, so the book has to fast forward now and then, and sometimes that felt jolting. Huge events in people’s lives are glossed over in a few sentences, in order to keep our focus on the feelings of the main characters as they react to the progress of the nation.
One thing that caught my attention was how women were treated in those days – wives were for raising kids, courtesans and whores were there for other (more carnal) pursuits. Just about very man in this book was cheating on their wife, to the point where it seemed like it was part of the culture in those days. Whether it was or not is unclear, but it was a little jarring to read.
Next I am reading The Pariah by Anthony Ryan.
