Svetlana's Reads and Views

General Information: Name of Book: When Adam Opens His Eyes (Adam i nun ttul ttae) ISBN: 978 1 56478 914 3 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Year it was published: 2013 (original 1990) Summary: First published in 1990, this is a sensational and highly controversial novel by one of Korea's most electrifying contemporary authors. A preposterous coming-of-age story, melding sex, death, and high school in a manner reminiscent of some perverse collision between Georges Bataille and Beverly Cleary, the narrator of this book plows through contemporaneous Korean mores with aplomb, bound for destruction, or maturity--whichever comes first. Author: Jang Jung-Il (Translated by Hwang Sun-Ae, Horace Jeffery Hodges) About the Author: (From the book) Jang Jung-Il was born in 1962. Once he began his career as an author, the self-educated Jang's wide-ranging tastes led him to try his hand at various genres. Jang Jung-il is infamous-and has even been jailed-for his erotic and vio...

Name of Book: Huk/The Soil Author: Yi Kwang-Su (Hwang Sun-Ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges were translators) ISBN: 978-1-56478-911-2 Publisher: The Dalkey Archive Type of book: classes, 1920s? Korea, occupation of Japan, modern medicine, city life versus country life, selfishness, greed, helping, class divides, marriage, loyalty, fidelity, death, miscarriage, birth Year it was published: 2013 (originally 1932-1933) Summary: A major, never before translated novel by the author of "Mujong / The Heartless"--often called the first modern Korean novel--"The Soil" tells the story of an idealist dedicating his life to helping the inhabitants of the rural community in which he was raised. Striving to influence the poor farmers of the time to improve their lots, become self-reliant, and thus indirectly change the reality of colonial life on the Korean peninsula, "The Soil" was vitally important to the social movements of the time, echoing the effe...