Monday, April 04, 2011
Excellent news -- Please Look After Mom, a Korean novel by Shin Kyung-Sook translated into English, is receiving glowing reviews. The latest one is from the New York Times, which spent not one but two articles praising the book. It was also included in Oprah's book club. Perhaps this could be the start of Korean literature making meaningful inroads with English-language readers.
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I sure hope so. I have already requested this from our local library, which has it on order. Earlier this year I read "Your Republic is Calling You" and quite enjoyed it. I would love to find more and more popular Korean reads translated and readily available here in the US!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information. I'm going to order this book.
ReplyDeleteIda
I read "The Calligrapher's Daughter" by Eugenia Kim and really enjoyed it -- I'd love to hear about other books set in Korea.
ReplyDeleteThis book is also featured as one of Amazon's Best Books of April!
ReplyDeleteI have just finished reading this, upon insistence of my Korean father.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest flaw is the second person narrative is very awkward and gimmicky. (Maybe it isn't so awkward in the original Korean version?) I was able to overlook it, but the novel's impact would not have been diminished if it were in third person and would also be more comfortable to read.
Also the guilt-tripping was getting repetitive so it sounded old by the fourth section.
Translation sounded awkward in some parts, but that is expected when translating, I suppose. Otherwise, it was very good.
Overall, the novel was a brilliant gem of literary work but could've used more polishing.