Book Review of I Went To See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin

 

Name of Book: I Went to see my Father (Korean: 아버지에게 갔었어) Aboji ege kasseoso

Author: Kyung-sook Shin, Anton Hur (trans)

ISBN: 9781662601378 

Publisher: Astra House

Type of book: South Korean history from 1940s-2010s, family, siblings, secrets, cult, affair, loyalty, farming, traditions, modernity, cycles, writing, books, life, countryside life vs city life 

Year it was published: 2023 (original 2021)

Summary:

An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom; centering on a woman's efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets.

Two years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Hon finally returns to her home in the countryside to take care of her father. At first, her father only appears withdrawn and fragile, an aging man, awkward but kind around his own daughter. Then, after stumbling upon a chest of letters, Hon discovers the truth of her father's past and reconstructs her own family history.

Consumed with her own grief, Hon had been blind to her father's vulnerability and her family's fragility. Unraveling secret after secret and thanks to conversations with loving family and friends, Hon grows closer to her father, who proves to be more complex than she ever gave him credit for. After living through one of the most tumultuous times in Korean history, her father's life was once vibrant and ambitious, but spiraled during the postwar years. Now, after years of emotional isolation, Hon learns the whole truth, from her father's affair and involvement in a cult, to the dynamic lives of her own siblings, to her family's financial hardships.

What Hon uncovers about her father builds towards her understanding of the great scope of his sacrifice and heroism, and of her country as a whole. More than just the portrait of a single man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss, and war. With this long-awaited follow-up to Please Look After Mom--flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator Anton Hur--Kyung-Sook Shin has crafted an ambitious, global, epic, and lasting novel.

Characters:

The two main characters were the narrator, Hon, as well as her father. Hon is a novelist who has recently lost her daughter in an accident and is best described as exacting and a recluse. She is a voyeur who seems to count on her past to create the present. I definitely think she is the self-insert of the author because the novel's characters feel way too real to be fake. The father is atypical and just tried to live/survive whaterver life threw his way. He is dedicated, loyal to his family and friends, hungry for knowledge but tends to be afraid of getting close, at least in my opinion. He is also humble and feels uncertain of why he deserves good things. 

Theme:

Behind ordinary people lurks a depth of memories

Plot:

The story is told in first person narrative from the oldest daughter's point of view, but its best described as stream of consciousness and it takes place in modern times (2010s?) to the earliest of 1940s, although the author does touch on life after Korean War, namely the decades of 1950s and 1960s as well as 1990s. The tale reads more as a memoir rather than a novel and I think there is a strong self assertion. I think I would have liked more attention to the timing, especially when it comes to father's memories because I sincerely doubt that people who know very little about South Korean modern history will understand the story and references, because, yes, there are a lot of references that I didn't understand at all. The story also focuses more on memories rather than personalities. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Associated Names:

* Shin Kyung-sook

* 신경숙

* 申京淑

Kyung-Sook Shin is a South Korean writer. She is the first South Korean and first woman to win the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 for 'Please Look After Mom'.

Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He won a PEN Translates award for Kang Kyeong-ae's The Underground Village. He lives in Seoul.

Opinion:

I make no secret of my love and admiration for Asia, in particular South Korea. While I'm not arrogant enough to think I know everything there is to know, I definitely didn't expect to relearn and feel beauty for the land I strongly admire. What Tolstoy and Dostoevsky have done for Russia and illuminated the so called "Russian soul", Kyung-sook Shin has done for South Korea, taking the readers on a trip through modern history, giving us glimpses of old South Korea versus the modern South Korea, and yes, its a beautiful and heartbreaking picture of a nation that sacrifices the past to continue its relevance in modern times. 

This was given for review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)