Book review of Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 by Cho Nam -Joo (trans Jamie Chang)
Name of Book: Kim Jiyoung, born 1982Author: Cho Nam-Joo (trans Jamie Chang)
ISBN: 978-1-63149-867-1
Publisher: Live right
Type of book: South Korea 1982-2016, girlhood, womanhood, motherhood, working life, marriage, societal expectations and failures, economy, finances, demands, survival
Year it was published: 2016 (2021)
Summary:
A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.
Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old “millennial everywoman,” she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.
In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.
Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning” birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?
Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance
Main character is Kim Jiyoung, a second daughter who has an older sister and a younger brother. From early age Kim Jiyoung experienced the sacrificial life a girl/woman has to assume from an early age as well as parts where her feelings don't matter. She grows up being shaped by events from economy, conflicting messages by Eastern and western demands and so forth. While there were quite a few secondary characters, the main focus is on Kim Jiyoung.
Theme:
How universal being a girl/woman is
Plot:
The story is written in third person narrative, as what reads like notes/files, and it takes readers from 1982 up until 2016, covering different periods of Kim Jiyoungs life from childhood to motherhood. There is definitely something banal yet familiar and heartbreaking about her story, yet it's a story that is experienced by women all over the world. What I think was shocking for me was the end of the novel, which i will not reveal in this review.
Author Information:
(From goodreads)
Associated Names:
* 조남주 (Korean)
* Cho Nam-Joo (English)
* 趙南柱 (Chinese)
* โชนัมจู (Thai)
* チョ・ナムジュ (Japanese)
Cho Nam-joo is a former television scriptwriter. In the writing of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 she drew partly on her own experience as a woman who quit her job to stay at home after giving birth to a child.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is her third novel. It has had a profound impact on gender inequality and discrimination in Korean society, and has been translated into 18 languages.
I am definitely excited to review this novel! First of all, if you are the type to read few books a year, I would highly recommend making this book one of them. Second of all, if there is a book that captures the universality of girlhood/womanhood no matter what nation, religion, race or class, this novel is such a universal story to transcend boundaries, and for those who seek to learn about South Korea in a deeper way, this will also fit the bill. I was born about 3 years later than Kim Jiyoung, in 1985 in former Soviet Union, and while there is a lot that is different, I definitely felt an immediate familiarity with her history: worrying about boys/men and what they will do, complexities with womanhood and the tasks it entails, then yeah lack of acknowledgement/celebration to mark one into womanhood.
This was given for review
5 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.)
Comments
Post a Comment