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When Adam Opens His Eyes
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.
126 pages, Paperback
Published November 16, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
October 3, 2017
This book is pretty much just the musings and sexcapades of a dude who failed his university entrance exam. He's not really an interesting person so I figured I wouldn't like this much but I didn't get rubbed the wrong way until the only gay person in the novel was depicted as a pedophile. This was published by a Korean author in 1990 so I expect some ignorance but yeah...1.5 stars
February 13, 2014
Second book read from the Dalkey Archives Korean Literature series, much better than the first one I finished. Punk rock literature in a late 80's Korean context, there's nothing really new in this tale of a disenchanted young man wandering around having sex and ranting about (then) contemporary society and literature, and oddly enough stereo systems, before deciding to become a writer, but the ultra specific details of the summer of 1988 made it somewhat worth reading. And I agree with an earlier reviewer, the fact that these nihilistic supposedly hip characters were totally into ultra mainstream American rock from the 1960's was an unintentionally hilarious detail. I thought the short story that ends the book, which alternates between descriptions of sex and the two lovers quoting reviews of George Bataille at each other, was actually really good!
August 12, 2016
Not exactly sure how to rate this...
This isn't exactly some A-grade writing here (VERY PREACHY - it's probably because of the translation), but Jang does explore some interesting topics. There's a very brief exploration of Freudian (ew) and Goffmanian ideas of "interior" and "exterior" selves in his novel, and some ~punk rock~ themes of promiscuity and hedonism thrown in for good measure.
Maybe I haven't been reading that diversely idk but my mind was kinda blown for the ending - really floored me for a moment there.
This isn't exactly some A-grade writing here (VERY PREACHY - it's probably because of the translation), but Jang does explore some interesting topics. There's a very brief exploration of Freudian (ew) and Goffmanian ideas of "interior" and "exterior" selves in his novel, and some ~punk rock~ themes of promiscuity and hedonism thrown in for good measure.
Maybe I haven't been reading that diversely idk but my mind was kinda blown for the ending - really floored me for a moment there.
February 13, 2014
Jang's eagerness to shock middle-class Korean sensibilities may induce eye-rolling. Sex among the young these days, we find out, includes soulless trysts with multiple, anonymous partners, general anomie, and disquisitions on stereo systems. The last chapter, a sort of "Empire of the Senses" meets Tao Lin, reads like a parody of Bataille. Something by Jang more descriptive and less preachy might succeed better in story-telling than the earnest stridency that sometimes plagues this book.
January 16, 2014
It would have been a perfect little book if he didn't have such awful taste in music.
July 8, 2016
Jang Jung-il’s When Adam Opens His Eyes (translated by Hwang Sun-ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges, review copy courtesy of the publisher) is a year in the life of a young Korean student, a boy like any other of his age around the world:
I was nineteen years old, and the things I most wanted to have were a typewriter, prints of Munch’s paintings and a turntable for playing records. Those things alone were all that I wanted from the world when I was nineteen. But so humble were my desires that, in comparison, my mother’s wish for me to enter Seoul National University, or my younger cousin’s dream of joining the Samsung Lions baseball team when he grew up, seemed even more out of reach.
p.5 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013)
There are some differences, though. Having failed the notoriously competitive national university entrance exam, rather than opting for a lesser institution our friend decides to have another shot at making it into Seoul University – which means a year of keeping his head down at a cram school in the city.
Within a couple of months, though, this idea goes out of the window. Adam (a name he was given by an ex-girlfriend for being her first sexual experience) quickly gets bored with the student-in-purgatory existence, instead roaming the streets of Daegu and reading in the library by day, and watching people dancing in clubs at night. When he meets Hyun-jae, a high-school girl trying to let off some steam, Adam’s year off begins to get more interesting, but the two know full well they’re only hiding from the inevitable. Korea’s brutal society will always get you in the end…
When Adam Opens His Eyes runs to about one-hundred pages, making up one year in the life of its protagonist, twelve months in which he learns a lot about himself and moves towards deciding what it is he wants to do with his life. There’s something very Norwegian Wood about the premise, but while it was written around the same time as Haruki Murakami’s novel, Jang’s story is set much later, running from late 1987 until after the Olympic Games of the following year. For a foreign reader, it helps to know that this was a time of change in South Korea, with a weak form of democracy just around the corner, even if the violent demonstrations of the eighties hadn’t yet died away completely.
Not that Adam himself is too caught up in the political events of the era. He takes advantage of his year off to relax after the hell of high-school study, sleeping around when he can and using his time to read, write, translate and generally experience as much of life as possible. With his brother having fled to the US to study in a more congenial atmosphere (and his mother working all hours cleaning toilets to give her children a future), he is left to his own devices, enjoying his brief moment of freedom.
His experience is mirrored by that of Hyun-jae, to whom he is attracted right from their first encounter. In many ways, she throws herself even more into hedonism than Adam, desperate to relieve the stress of her final year of school. She wanders in and out of Adam’s life, random encounters throughout the city inevitably leading to sex, hoping that she can forget the pressure she’s under, at least temporarily. Sadly, she (like the reader) is only too aware that this is a brief interval of happiness before the crushing weight of Korean society comes down on her again.
While I mentioned Norwegian Wood earlier, When Adam Opens His Eyes is far more reminiscent of the work of Ryū Murakami. There’s a little violence, some self-abuse and a fair amount of sex (in many positions and with a range of partners). In truth, though, it’s far tamer than what you might find in, for example, Almost Transparent Blue, and the blurb’s claim that “…this is a sensational and highly controversial novel…” only goes to show how conservative Korea was in the late eighties.
As a Bildungsroman, it works well enough, though, and Adam’s growth throughout the year towards the decision he makes about his future contrasts with Hyun-jae’s tragic downward spiral:
She told me she believed in reincarnation and that she was very fearful of being reborn as a high-school student in Korea. “Being reborn as an insect because of my many sins would be much better,” she observed. (p.59)
It seems that ‘Hell Choseon’, the view of Korean society as a Dantean underworld, is no new phenomenon. It just remains to be seen how Adam manages to find his own slice of Eden.
*****
But there’s more…
Tacked on to the main show is a short story, ‘The Seventh Day’, and it’s here that the gushing praise of the blurb might be more appropriate. It begins with a couple in bed and a description of a tender coupling, before going back to where the two met – they bump into each other at a bank’s cash machine and notice that they’re reading the same book. How sweet:)
Erm, no. That book happens to be George Bataille’s Eroticism, and over the seven days of Jang’s story, the couple’s antics become ever more disturbing, violent and, let’s say, mindblowing. ‘The Seventh Day’ turns out to be an exercise in pushing the envelope in a way When Adam Opens His Eyes only really hints at; while the novella is interesting enough in its own right, particularly in its look at society, many will see something far more fascinating in this added extra:)
*****
This review originally appeared over at Tony's Reading List
I was nineteen years old, and the things I most wanted to have were a typewriter, prints of Munch’s paintings and a turntable for playing records. Those things alone were all that I wanted from the world when I was nineteen. But so humble were my desires that, in comparison, my mother’s wish for me to enter Seoul National University, or my younger cousin’s dream of joining the Samsung Lions baseball team when he grew up, seemed even more out of reach.
p.5 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013)
There are some differences, though. Having failed the notoriously competitive national university entrance exam, rather than opting for a lesser institution our friend decides to have another shot at making it into Seoul University – which means a year of keeping his head down at a cram school in the city.
Within a couple of months, though, this idea goes out of the window. Adam (a name he was given by an ex-girlfriend for being her first sexual experience) quickly gets bored with the student-in-purgatory existence, instead roaming the streets of Daegu and reading in the library by day, and watching people dancing in clubs at night. When he meets Hyun-jae, a high-school girl trying to let off some steam, Adam’s year off begins to get more interesting, but the two know full well they’re only hiding from the inevitable. Korea’s brutal society will always get you in the end…
When Adam Opens His Eyes runs to about one-hundred pages, making up one year in the life of its protagonist, twelve months in which he learns a lot about himself and moves towards deciding what it is he wants to do with his life. There’s something very Norwegian Wood about the premise, but while it was written around the same time as Haruki Murakami’s novel, Jang’s story is set much later, running from late 1987 until after the Olympic Games of the following year. For a foreign reader, it helps to know that this was a time of change in South Korea, with a weak form of democracy just around the corner, even if the violent demonstrations of the eighties hadn’t yet died away completely.
Not that Adam himself is too caught up in the political events of the era. He takes advantage of his year off to relax after the hell of high-school study, sleeping around when he can and using his time to read, write, translate and generally experience as much of life as possible. With his brother having fled to the US to study in a more congenial atmosphere (and his mother working all hours cleaning toilets to give her children a future), he is left to his own devices, enjoying his brief moment of freedom.
His experience is mirrored by that of Hyun-jae, to whom he is attracted right from their first encounter. In many ways, she throws herself even more into hedonism than Adam, desperate to relieve the stress of her final year of school. She wanders in and out of Adam’s life, random encounters throughout the city inevitably leading to sex, hoping that she can forget the pressure she’s under, at least temporarily. Sadly, she (like the reader) is only too aware that this is a brief interval of happiness before the crushing weight of Korean society comes down on her again.
While I mentioned Norwegian Wood earlier, When Adam Opens His Eyes is far more reminiscent of the work of Ryū Murakami. There’s a little violence, some self-abuse and a fair amount of sex (in many positions and with a range of partners). In truth, though, it’s far tamer than what you might find in, for example, Almost Transparent Blue, and the blurb’s claim that “…this is a sensational and highly controversial novel…” only goes to show how conservative Korea was in the late eighties.
As a Bildungsroman, it works well enough, though, and Adam’s growth throughout the year towards the decision he makes about his future contrasts with Hyun-jae’s tragic downward spiral:
She told me she believed in reincarnation and that she was very fearful of being reborn as a high-school student in Korea. “Being reborn as an insect because of my many sins would be much better,” she observed. (p.59)
It seems that ‘Hell Choseon’, the view of Korean society as a Dantean underworld, is no new phenomenon. It just remains to be seen how Adam manages to find his own slice of Eden.
*****
But there’s more…
Tacked on to the main show is a short story, ‘The Seventh Day’, and it’s here that the gushing praise of the blurb might be more appropriate. It begins with a couple in bed and a description of a tender coupling, before going back to where the two met – they bump into each other at a bank’s cash machine and notice that they’re reading the same book. How sweet:)
Erm, no. That book happens to be George Bataille’s Eroticism, and over the seven days of Jang’s story, the couple’s antics become ever more disturbing, violent and, let’s say, mindblowing. ‘The Seventh Day’ turns out to be an exercise in pushing the envelope in a way When Adam Opens His Eyes only really hints at; while the novella is interesting enough in its own right, particularly in its look at society, many will see something far more fascinating in this added extra:)
*****
This review originally appeared over at Tony's Reading List
Read
July 29, 2025Korelilerin de üniversiteye giriş sınavı olduğunu, hatta onların da mezuna kalmak gibi bir deyişleri olduğunu, dershaneye gittiklerini falan öğrenmem şaşkınlığı dışında pek de bir şey elde edemedim bu okumadan.
March 14, 2016
"I was nineteen years old, and the things that I most wanted to have were a typewriter, prints of Munch's paintings and a timetable for playing records. Those things alone were all that I wanted from this world when I was nineteen. But so humble were my desires that, in comparison, my mother's wish for me to enter Seoul National University, or my younger cousin's dream of joining the Samsung Lions baseball team when he grew up, seemed even more out of reach."
아담이 눈뜰 때 by 장정일 (Jang Jung-il) was published in 1990, when the author was 28.
It was translated into English as When Adam Opens His Eyes (a more colloquial translation would be When Adam Awakes) by Hwang Sun-ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges.
The novel is set in 1987-88, a delicate time in Korea's political evolution. The 1987 June Democracy Movement led to the the 1987 Presidential election being contested by pro-democracy candidates. But the election was won by a military figure, Roh Tae-woo, with only 37% of the vote, after the opposition vote was split ("it was impossible to understand why two candidates from the opposition party, who had fought so tenaciously for democracy, could not decide unanimously on one presidential candidate but, instead, had eventually chosen to run separately for election. They were brutes. If I had the write to vote, I would not have voted for anyone. I would have written 'Eat country pie, you bastards!' on the voting slip"). This was followed by the 1988 Seoul Olympics ("Newspapers and broadcasters were busy every day with stories about the Olympics, but people in my neighbourhood were prohibited from peddling on the streets".)
Both events feature in the background to novel but more as a contribution to the general level of disillusionment felt by the first person narrator "Adam", a nickname bestowed by his first lover (as he was her first man), a high-school graduate, former literary prodigy but who is now cramming to re-sit the annual entrance exam to the highly prestigious Seoul National University. Or rather supposed to be cramming, as instead his life, and the book, features a lot of music, hanging around bars and sex with different acquaintances, but not much love. As one girl tells him:
"'Love?' she asked, 'Isn't it all just ''give and take''? Give and take each other's body for a short time. Sometimes even the heart too. But it is like borrowing each other. I would never give my body or my heart completely. When I need to, I will lend them out for a while, then get them back?"
There is an odd coda added to the novel, based on Georges Bataille's Eroticism and The Story of The Eye which doesn't really gel with the rest of the text, other than the strong sexual theme.
The narrators sense of disillusionment extends to contemporary culture, particularly pop music (his taste runs to the "three J's" - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison) as represented then by Madonna:
"Several hundred million people on earth had lost their souls to this low grade moron who showed her bellybutton, wore her underwear on stage, and gyrated while dangling a cross from her neck."
The novel seems to parody - although it is not clear intentionally - the very post-modern kitsch the narrator claims to despise. The prose is rather overwrought and non-lyrical, albeit I'm unclear how much of this is due to the translation. E.g.:
"My brother's brain might have been a monster not designed for living with people in this country. He always wanted to challenge his abilities. From his hometown to Seoul, from Seoul to New York, in the end, he might fly from the face of the earth to challenge some aliens to an intellectual duel."
Although the translators cope well with one classic translation headache: rendering in English a passage in the Korean original about the choices the narrator faced translating a book from English to Korean.
The novel is perhaps best at capturing the pressure on students in the Korean education system to pass University entrance exams, a phenomenon which still persists today, indeed has intensified, and increasingly seems to be creeping into the UK system.
But much of the novel has dated badly. It was clearly a radical novel at the time and place in which is was published, a time when I was also of a similar age to the narrator, but read in English over 25 years later it feels much less relevant.
A more detailed and more favourable review, but whose sentiments I appreciate: http://literateur.com/when-adam-opens...
아담이 눈뜰 때 by 장정일 (Jang Jung-il) was published in 1990, when the author was 28.
It was translated into English as When Adam Opens His Eyes (a more colloquial translation would be When Adam Awakes) by Hwang Sun-ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges.
The novel is set in 1987-88, a delicate time in Korea's political evolution. The 1987 June Democracy Movement led to the the 1987 Presidential election being contested by pro-democracy candidates. But the election was won by a military figure, Roh Tae-woo, with only 37% of the vote, after the opposition vote was split ("it was impossible to understand why two candidates from the opposition party, who had fought so tenaciously for democracy, could not decide unanimously on one presidential candidate but, instead, had eventually chosen to run separately for election. They were brutes. If I had the write to vote, I would not have voted for anyone. I would have written 'Eat country pie, you bastards!' on the voting slip"). This was followed by the 1988 Seoul Olympics ("Newspapers and broadcasters were busy every day with stories about the Olympics, but people in my neighbourhood were prohibited from peddling on the streets".)
Both events feature in the background to novel but more as a contribution to the general level of disillusionment felt by the first person narrator "Adam", a nickname bestowed by his first lover (as he was her first man), a high-school graduate, former literary prodigy but who is now cramming to re-sit the annual entrance exam to the highly prestigious Seoul National University. Or rather supposed to be cramming, as instead his life, and the book, features a lot of music, hanging around bars and sex with different acquaintances, but not much love. As one girl tells him:
"'Love?' she asked, 'Isn't it all just ''give and take''? Give and take each other's body for a short time. Sometimes even the heart too. But it is like borrowing each other. I would never give my body or my heart completely. When I need to, I will lend them out for a while, then get them back?"
There is an odd coda added to the novel, based on Georges Bataille's Eroticism and The Story of The Eye which doesn't really gel with the rest of the text, other than the strong sexual theme.
The narrators sense of disillusionment extends to contemporary culture, particularly pop music (his taste runs to the "three J's" - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison) as represented then by Madonna:
"Several hundred million people on earth had lost their souls to this low grade moron who showed her bellybutton, wore her underwear on stage, and gyrated while dangling a cross from her neck."
The novel seems to parody - although it is not clear intentionally - the very post-modern kitsch the narrator claims to despise. The prose is rather overwrought and non-lyrical, albeit I'm unclear how much of this is due to the translation. E.g.:
"My brother's brain might have been a monster not designed for living with people in this country. He always wanted to challenge his abilities. From his hometown to Seoul, from Seoul to New York, in the end, he might fly from the face of the earth to challenge some aliens to an intellectual duel."
Although the translators cope well with one classic translation headache: rendering in English a passage in the Korean original about the choices the narrator faced translating a book from English to Korean.
The novel is perhaps best at capturing the pressure on students in the Korean education system to pass University entrance exams, a phenomenon which still persists today, indeed has intensified, and increasingly seems to be creeping into the UK system.
But much of the novel has dated badly. It was clearly a radical novel at the time and place in which is was published, a time when I was also of a similar age to the narrator, but read in English over 25 years later it feels much less relevant.
A more detailed and more favourable review, but whose sentiments I appreciate: http://literateur.com/when-adam-opens...
March 19, 2025
I have mixed feelings about this one. Early on, I rolled my eyes at the teenager narrator's recounting of his sexual experiences (and super cringed when he conflated homosexuality and pedophilia because that was obvious bs even in 1990), but as I pressed on, the novel's female characters started to grow on me and I even warmed to "Adam." Overall, I found the book to be a touching exploration of what it means to come of age during a period of cultural question marks and the ways youth make meaning for themselves. The final chapter, "The Seventh Day," threw me, though, and I wish it had not been included.
November 4, 2015
Alto coming of age, viejo. En una sociedad que avanza furiosa, más información, más estudio, más consumo cultural homogeneizado a nivel mundial (norteamericano), el protagonista decide salirse de la notable "ola de progreso" que empuja Corea del Sur. Sin amigos, con amantes suicidas o locas, con una madre que no pide nada pero que entiende todo.
Es una novela que trata sobre un recambio generacional a fines de los 80'... en lo político (cuando menciona las elecciones democráticas); en lo cultural (la única resistencia nacional de artistas coreanos es en la poesía). Pero sobre todo: la denuncia al hecho que las universidades se han transformado en centros de tortura para los jóvenes, mediante exámenes de ingreso imposibles que literalmente se transforman en crisis existenciales.
Y a pesar de renunciar a la universidad (la única forma de ascender socialmente y satisfacer a su madre), el protagonista no puede renunciar al saber, al estudio compulsivo. Esta tradición confuciana del deber y del valor de la formación intelectual es lo único que une al protagonista con su madre (la vieja generación)...
Es una novela que trata sobre un recambio generacional a fines de los 80'... en lo político (cuando menciona las elecciones democráticas); en lo cultural (la única resistencia nacional de artistas coreanos es en la poesía). Pero sobre todo: la denuncia al hecho que las universidades se han transformado en centros de tortura para los jóvenes, mediante exámenes de ingreso imposibles que literalmente se transforman en crisis existenciales.
Y a pesar de renunciar a la universidad (la única forma de ascender socialmente y satisfacer a su madre), el protagonista no puede renunciar al saber, al estudio compulsivo. Esta tradición confuciana del deber y del valor de la formación intelectual es lo único que une al protagonista con su madre (la vieja generación)...
Deep in the night, I awoke screaming, sat up, and sobbed. Fearful of the neon flowing from my eyes, I wiped them, then smelt and tasted the tears, but they had no smell or taste. Just regular tears. Relieved, I finally cried without restraint, sobbing, like Adam opening his eyes to a fake paradise. My Eve was a prostitute. My room was always dark and wet. If I sometimes opened the window to let out the foul smell of books, I saw the world under the neon crosses befouled with greater darkness and corruption than was in my room. Because the fake paradise to which my eyes had opened was so frightening, I sobbed loudly. My mother was awakened and came upstairs to my attic room.
“I’m sorry, Mother.”
My mother patted my shoulder for a long time.
“I’ll really start studying now.”
February 13, 2016
I read the main title story (I did not realize there is a second story included until I finished the first one which takes up most of the book) which is basically a novella or a novelette of around 100 pages in length. I did not finish reading the last story (which is about 20 pages long) just because it seemed to be quite graphic and violent in nature compared to the title story and therefore, not really to my taste. "When Adam Opens His Eyes" also features sexual content of a frank and occasionally shocking manner, but I never felt it overwhelmed the narrative and I was still able to enjoy the main content of the story enough to give it 4 stars (probably closer to 3.5 actually), and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to read some Korean fiction that is set in the more recent past (1988 just before, during and after the Seoul Olympics). If you like Murakami, you'll probably enjoy this - the author makes frequent references to music and art, and although it wasn't completely satisfying (I wish it had been longer, for one thing), it definitely was a breath of fresh air in terms of what I'm used to reading from Korean authors. I hope more of this writer's works might be translated in the near future.
February 7, 2025
This was an odd read. The first (and main) part of the book is the main story, "When Adam Opens His Eyes". It is an excellent read. I could see how this may have been quite radical when it was written, but it is still pleasurable and very interesting. It isn't as depressing as most Korean literature from this time period (at least the literature I have read thus far), while still not being cheery. It smacks more of a dose of someone's life, uncensored.
The last 20 pages or so are a completely different story called "The seventh day", which has nothing to do with the narrative and which, quite frankly, ruined the book for me. It is erotic, gory, and somewhat gratuitous in trying to be x-rated.
5 stars for the first part. 1 star for the final part. I still want to read more by this author.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
The last 20 pages or so are a completely different story called "The seventh day", which has nothing to do with the narrative and which, quite frankly, ruined the book for me. It is erotic, gory, and somewhat gratuitous in trying to be x-rated.
5 stars for the first part. 1 star for the final part. I still want to read more by this author.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
May 25, 2014
One of the types of 'industrial' literature like Almost Transparent Blue or Tao Lin's Taipei but rather than sink itself in deep lyrical monotony provides instead substantial Marxist analyses and satirical black humor.
December 8, 2024
Just.. not my cup of tea.
I think it's definitely an interesting way of looking at Korea though. And I guess in terms of quality and literature and just.. pushing the mold, it deserves a lot of stars.
But for ME and MY tastes?
it was just okay.
I think it's definitely an interesting way of looking at Korea though. And I guess in terms of quality and literature and just.. pushing the mold, it deserves a lot of stars.
But for ME and MY tastes?
it was just okay.
November 30, 2017
Another book about anomie in contemporary South Korea. There's lots of sex, most of it cynical and loveless. The end is a bizarre epilogue that combines sex and violence and makes the novel unteachable.
June 20, 2023
A bit of a disclaimer on my rating: This book is not quite like anything else I’ve ever read, and the language, even in translation is beautiful.
I’m not necessarily endorsing the views it contains (I can’t even tell if the author does or not).
I’m not necessarily endorsing the views it contains (I can’t even tell if the author does or not).
Want to read
August 27, 2013Reviewed by The Complete Review
February 4, 2016
The second half made the first half worth it.
August 13, 2016
This book made me realize what love with philosophy is...
April 13, 2025
Watch my review on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1n8V...
Read
March 2, 2021A raffish sincerity. the novella that ends the thing is fucking mayhem, very cinematic
June 4, 2021
Hipster Gen X angst.
April 10, 2024
Not my cup of tea, AT ALL. Even though I leave the overly erotic (nauseatingly so) out of picture, its nonsense rant than a story at best.
August 8, 2025
Unha novela espectacular. Un traballo de análise histórico e como afecta ao biográfico e íntimo tan salvaxe, destructor e desenfadado como deberían ser as obras de xente nova sufrindo seu presente. Pode que sexa porque apela a unha sensibilidade compartida en como vivo o mundo¹, pero penso que é un libro interesantísimo no contexto coreano —dos meus favoritos do país, con total honestidade—.
Dos tópicos máis expandidos de Corea do Sur penso que son o do alto ratio de suicidios, así como a esaxerada presión escolar que senten seus estudantes —algo, por outro lado, nada estraño dentro do contexto das culturas confuncianas, se cadra só hiperbolizado—. Penso que a meirande parte de historias que tratan estes temas tenden a violencias moralizantes, pero aquí o desapego co munso é moi empático, nada salvador, nin psicoloxista, sen máis reproducindo a apatía e confusión que sente polo mundo.
Lémbrame a moitas obras xaponesas pola relación tan tensa que se establece entre os valores e a cultura tradicional coas influencias occidentais, o cal sorprendeme non ter visto máis en Corea dando por feito que un dos seus grandes éxitos artísticos dos últimos anos, é dicir, o K-Pop, é particularmente interesante por como presenta unha intesificación dos procesos da globalización ligados a intereses gubernamentais. Nese sentido a apatía é política dunha forma directamente ligada as formas de goberno, tanto pola presión do sistema de exames, como polas tendencias de apoio cultural que se van levar a cabo dende a transición da dictadura ata a actualidade.
Pode ser demasiado herdeira da mocidade misóxina en crise do maio do 68 —todo é sexo, entendido como valor de cambio, como economía libidinal, e citas a outros autores, obsesión co capital cultural e desapego polo mundo—, pero penso que reducilo a iso non capta as particularidades históricas e socioculturais que ofrece os procesos que está vivindo a propia Corea. Sorprendíame non ver unha obra así, nin no cinema, nin na literatura, pero evidentemente tiña que existir.
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¹Ten moito de sadboy, moito de actualización do protagonista existencialista francés obsesionado coa morte, o amor e a arte; pero tamén o interese polo suxeito que se concibe dentro dun proceso histórico polo que el só é arrastrado, perdendo gran parte da súa axencia. Non é un narcisismo, tampouco unha apatía que implique falta de intensidade. De feito, todo o contrario. É un sentir demasiado, un pensar demasiado que xera confusión e enrarecemento do mundo. Un estar tan dentro do mundo que agobia, que te perde, unha inclusión tan forte na vida que te anula.
Dos tópicos máis expandidos de Corea do Sur penso que son o do alto ratio de suicidios, así como a esaxerada presión escolar que senten seus estudantes —algo, por outro lado, nada estraño dentro do contexto das culturas confuncianas, se cadra só hiperbolizado—. Penso que a meirande parte de historias que tratan estes temas tenden a violencias moralizantes, pero aquí o desapego co munso é moi empático, nada salvador, nin psicoloxista, sen máis reproducindo a apatía e confusión que sente polo mundo.
Lémbrame a moitas obras xaponesas pola relación tan tensa que se establece entre os valores e a cultura tradicional coas influencias occidentais, o cal sorprendeme non ter visto máis en Corea dando por feito que un dos seus grandes éxitos artísticos dos últimos anos, é dicir, o K-Pop, é particularmente interesante por como presenta unha intesificación dos procesos da globalización ligados a intereses gubernamentais. Nese sentido a apatía é política dunha forma directamente ligada as formas de goberno, tanto pola presión do sistema de exames, como polas tendencias de apoio cultural que se van levar a cabo dende a transición da dictadura ata a actualidade.
Pode ser demasiado herdeira da mocidade misóxina en crise do maio do 68 —todo é sexo, entendido como valor de cambio, como economía libidinal, e citas a outros autores, obsesión co capital cultural e desapego polo mundo—, pero penso que reducilo a iso non capta as particularidades históricas e socioculturais que ofrece os procesos que está vivindo a propia Corea. Sorprendíame non ver unha obra así, nin no cinema, nin na literatura, pero evidentemente tiña que existir.
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¹Ten moito de sadboy, moito de actualización do protagonista existencialista francés obsesionado coa morte, o amor e a arte; pero tamén o interese polo suxeito que se concibe dentro dun proceso histórico polo que el só é arrastrado, perdendo gran parte da súa axencia. Non é un narcisismo, tampouco unha apatía que implique falta de intensidade. De feito, todo o contrario. É un sentir demasiado, un pensar demasiado que xera confusión e enrarecemento do mundo. Un estar tan dentro do mundo que agobia, que te perde, unha inclusión tan forte na vida que te anula.
July 2, 2023
Although our desires were different, the difference was not so great — I wanted to forget myself. I wanted to forget Seoul. Dripping with sweat, I tried to move my hips, but my consciousness became clearer, and Seoul became bigger. I could not come.
Political in the most general sense of the word, and smutty (in a way that is complementary/relevant to the plot and the characters’ political views and explorations; and not just presenting itself as some kind of random poetic, sexual odyssey). Are my feelings biased because prior to reading this I have been well exposed to Bataille’s writings (which the protagonist, and presumably the writer are obsessed with) used in Jang’s novel?
Could any country be better? They’re all made by humans. — Let me put it another way. Humans prefer to choose their hell if they’re going to have to suffer in it. Do you understand? I am trying to go someplace where my constitution can endure things even slightly more easily.
Jang’s novel carries enough substance to deserve a place above subpar-at-best pools of novels akin to Norwegian Wood. Surprisingly to me, I don’t find Jang’s novel off-putting. But it is very obvious (as have been mentioned by other readers) that a new translation of Jang’s book is desperately needed for a better experience of his work. This ‘translation’ absolutely did not age well. It’s not so awful that it would not make you feel inclined to shelve it as ‘DNF’, but it will definitely make you ‘cringe’ on and off.
People now talk about sex as if talking about the scores from the previous evening’s baseball game. Of course, the dialogue of the two characters will become more sophisticated due to the nature of the book that brought them together.
Before reading the novel, I fully expected it to be like the writings of the two Murakamis, but having read it, I know now that it would be a massive insult to Jang if a comparison of that sort is to be made. I think Jang has a far more superior literary taste; or at least to me he seems to be more ‘well-read’, and in general a more ‘sensitive’ and self-conscious writer. 3.5* rounded down, but I am a little tempted to round it off to a 4* instead? A better RTC at some point, maybe?
Misreading is the fate of an author and the right of every reader. And the author of this book was born with more of this fate than any other author. However you read the book, it is dedicated to your inner experience.
September 6, 2025
I'm at a point in my life where this type of sexual awakening stuff doesn't excite me anymore, especially written from a semi-rebellious cisgender heterosexual male pov. It doesn't help that the almost the whole thing reads like a raunchy diary written by a high-schooler with pretensions to great taste. In my opinion, the tone needs to be a bit more explosive and 'elevated'. This novella doesn't have much going for it, unfortunately.
The last chapter though was quite powerful (Also, I had a hunch that the author was going to drop the inevitable Bataille reference at one point)
The last chapter though was quite powerful (Also, I had a hunch that the author was going to drop the inevitable Bataille reference at one point)
August 18, 2025
A sexist teenage boy who failed his university exam wastes the next year pursuing books and sex. He meets a racist teenage girl he's physically attracted to, learns she's not like other girls because she likes classic rock, specifically Jim Morrison.
Don't know what happens next because I quit this horrible book. The writing is not terrible but everything else is. Dnf.
Don't know what happens next because I quit this horrible book. The writing is not terrible but everything else is. Dnf.
December 18, 2025
Needs a reread, for sure…
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