What do you think?
Rate this book
Manken
Jini, küçük yaşta reklamlarda oynamaya başlayıp ailesinin geçimine katkıda bulunuyor. Erkek kardeşi, kız kardeşi, annesi ve menajeri onun güzelliğini sömüren bir çarkın parçalarına dönüşüyor. Zamanla bu maddi dünyanın değerlerine yabancılaşan Jini, evini, işini, ailesini terk edip manevi bir yolculuğa çıkıyor.
Jini’nin öyküsü onun hiç tanımadığı gizemli bir kahramanınkiyle kesişiyor. Arzularının peşinden giden bir erkeğin ve dünyanın arzularından uzaklaşmaya çalışan bir kızın yolları birleşiyor. Jini evini neden terk ediyor? Neden kimseyle konuşmuyor? Onun sırları su yüzüne çıktıkça, hakikatin karanlığı da etrafındakileri sarmaya başlıyor.
Manken, Güney Kore’nin saygın edebiyat ödüllerine sahip Ch’oe Yun’dan, yas, güzellik, beden, aile gibi evrensel kavramların tartışıldığı derin bir roman.
Jini’nin öyküsü onun hiç tanımadığı gizemli bir kahramanınkiyle kesişiyor. Arzularının peşinden giden bir erkeğin ve dünyanın arzularından uzaklaşmaya çalışan bir kızın yolları birleşiyor. Jini evini neden terk ediyor? Neden kimseyle konuşmuyor? Onun sırları su yüzüne çıktıkça, hakikatin karanlığı da etrafındakileri sarmaya başlıyor.
Manken, Güney Kore’nin saygın edebiyat ödüllerine sahip Ch’oe Yun’dan, yas, güzellik, beden, aile gibi evrensel kavramların tartışıldığı derin bir roman.
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
3 people are currently reading
375 people want to read
About the author
Ch'oe Yun
20 books18 followersCh'oe Hyon-mu (born 1953), better known by her pen name Ch'oe Yun (This is the author's preferred Romanization per LTI Korea) is a South Korean writer and professor of French literature.
Ch'oe's works are varied, but typically founded in particular political contexts. The Gray Snowman is told by a young woman on the edges of the 1980s’ dissident movement, and Father’s Surveillance and A Voiceless Window show the pain of families split by the Korean War and the sundering of the nation. Ch'oe, however, keeps her lens firmly fixed on the interior lives of her characters, even as they are stuck in the larger web of history. Ch'oe's narrative style, following the twisted inner world of her characters, is often non-realist. Ch'oe frequently uses memory as one of her themes, but refuses to indulge in appeals to cheap sentiment.
Many of her works, including There a Petal Silently Falls (1988), Gray Snowman (1991), and Whispers (1993), are semi-autobiographical depictions of the events surrounding the Kwangju Uprising. Her 1994 work The Last of Hanako won the Yi Sang Literary Award.
[excerpted from Wikipedia]
Ch'oe's works are varied, but typically founded in particular political contexts. The Gray Snowman is told by a young woman on the edges of the 1980s’ dissident movement, and Father’s Surveillance and A Voiceless Window show the pain of families split by the Korean War and the sundering of the nation. Ch'oe, however, keeps her lens firmly fixed on the interior lives of her characters, even as they are stuck in the larger web of history. Ch'oe's narrative style, following the twisted inner world of her characters, is often non-realist. Ch'oe frequently uses memory as one of her themes, but refuses to indulge in appeals to cheap sentiment.
Many of her works, including There a Petal Silently Falls (1988), Gray Snowman (1991), and Whispers (1993), are semi-autobiographical depictions of the events surrounding the Kwangju Uprising. Her 1994 work The Last of Hanako won the Yi Sang Literary Award.
[excerpted from Wikipedia]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 14, 2021
Han Kang’dan (Vejetaryen) sonra okuduğum ikinci Koreli yazar oldu Ch’oe Yun. Kitabın konusu hakkında gözüme çarpanlar bana daha farklı, düz bir metinle karşılaşacağım izlenimi vermişti. Oysa karmaşık, gizemli bir roman Manken. Biraz zorlayan bir yapısı var. Farklı bölümlerde, farklı anlatıcılar, isimler yerine lakap kullanımı, ki bu bana pek sempatik gelmedi, işinizi kolaylaştırmıyor. Kitabın üçte ikisini devirdikten sonra dahi bırakmayı düşündüm. Biraz sabırla devam ettim ve sonuç olarak pişman olmadım böyle yaptığıma. İnceden bir kapitalizm eleştirisi var elbette, aşağıya buna örnek bir alıntı koyuyorum. Güzelliğin metalaştırılması, dolayısıyla laneti, insan/aile ilişkilerinde samimiyet, gerçek sevgi eksikliği vurgulanan ana temalar. Yabana atılacak bir roman değil kısaca. Çeviri de, doğrudan Korece’den değil İngilizce’den çevirmiş Burcu Uluçay, rahatsız etmiyor.
“Geceleri ışıl ışıl aydınlanan binalara bir bakın. Dünyayı dolduran bir sürü bina, ticaret yaparken basit oyunlar oynamaktan keyif alan insanlardan patlamak üzere. Kökten bir değişiklik yaşanmadığı sürece bu oyunlar oynanacak, yayılacak ve tüm dünyayı, gecesini, gündüzünü kaplayacak. Tabii dünya çoktan sonunu görmediyse.”
“Geceleri ışıl ışıl aydınlanan binalara bir bakın. Dünyayı dolduran bir sürü bina, ticaret yaparken basit oyunlar oynamaktan keyif alan insanlardan patlamak üzere. Kökten bir değişiklik yaşanmadığı sürece bu oyunlar oynanacak, yayılacak ve tüm dünyayı, gecesini, gündüzünü kaplayacak. Tabii dünya çoktan sonunu görmediyse.”
April 10, 2025
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2025...
“El primer día pasa muy rápido. Nadie la reconoce. Sabe que se reconoce a la gente según la hora. Y además sabe que hay maneras especiales de evitar que la gente la reconozca…”
Buceando en los Dalkey Archives, y en su serie editada sobre literatura coreana, me encuentro con esta novela de una autora muy invisible por lo menos en España, Choe Yun. Me ha llamado la atención sobre todo el hecho de que no sea más conocida pero igual se le pondrá remedio a esta invisibilidad suya ahora que le han dado el Nobel a otra autora coreana. Lo interesante de una novela como Maniquí es la forma en que esta autora aborda a su personaje, Jina Yi, una modelo, que prácticamente vive de cara a la galería desde muy pequeña, expuesta continuamente al ojo público y controlada por una familia de la que es el único sustento: Yun usa a este personaje como excusa para reflexionar sobre el concepto de belleza y sobre todo, la convierte en una especie de estandarte (invisible) en torno al cual girarán el resto de personajes de esta novela y digo lo de invisible porque Jina Yi, a la que llaman Jini, una vez que escapa de esta vida pública, desaparece del mapa para todo el mundo. Convierte la invisibilidad en su bandera...
“Todavía está en la habitación, pero ya no me pertenece. Nunca le ha pertenecido. En este mundo no hay nada que le pertenezca. Nunca ha sido ella misma. No entiende las relaciones familiares. A veces piensa que es muy raro estar relacionada tan íntima e intensamente con esta gente.”
Jini tiene diecisiete años cuando decide escaparse al comienzo de la novela. Ha sido famosa desde que siendo muy pequeña fuera descubierta como modelo y a partir de ese momento su familia ha salido de la pobreza, convertidos en satélites en torno a su figura pública. Llama la atención como la autora aborda esta historia porque lo que le interesa sobre todo destacar, independientemente de la conciencia de sí misma de Jini desde el momento que decide desaparecer, será cómo esto influye en su entorno más cercano, cómo afectará a sus vidas esta ausencia: su madre, sus hermanos y su agente, quién prácticamente dejó de tener una vida propia para dedicarse a Jini y convertirla en la modelo más cotizada de Seúl. A Choe Yun lo que le interesa de verdad es resaltar lo qué se esconde bajo esas apariencias de perfección: mujeres que han perdido completamente su identidad para convertirse en maniquís sin vida, colocadas, zarandeadas y expuestas ante los demás, y para ello, usa el recuerdo recurrente que tiene Jini de un maniquí, usado para sus pruebas de vestuario, un maniquí sin cabeza, un objeto que sirve como catalizador ya que ella se ve reflejada en este objeto sin vida y sin individualidad.
“Lo que le provoca miedo no son las puertas oscuras sino un maniquí sin cabeza que está colocado siempre en un rincón de la sala de estar. Recuerda que vestía al maniquí de escayola con las prendas que correspondían a cada día, según el programa de rodaje. No recuerda cuando desapareció la cabeza, en cuya superficie había dibujado dos lágrimas bien marcadas con lápiz negro.”
La novela está dividida en capítulos narrados en primera persona por los personajes de su familia y su agente en los que cada uno de ellos expondrá cómo afectará a sus vidas la ausencia de quién sostenía a la familia. Estas secciones corales muy faulknerianas, se verán coronadas por las secciones dedicadas a la propia Jini, sin embargo narradas en tercera persona. Estos apartados que llevarán títulos (muy poéticos) de momentos que irá teniendo en su autodescubrimiento “Ella lleva recostada mucho tiempo contra los vientos”, “Las palabras de ella se convierten en una danza”, “Ella coge el tren para ir al mar”, “Ella pulsa las cuerdas de un instrumento musical abandonado”, convierten esta novela en una experiencia casi onírica, secciones que de alguna forma reafirmarán la construcción de la nueva identidad de Jini. Los apartados narrados en primera persona por su familia que irradian realidad y estupor, van intercalándose con los pasajes de Jini, que destilan una atmósfera completamente diferente en la que una mujer parece que estuviera aprendiendo a respirar a los diecisiete años. "Una persona a la que crees conocer puede convertirse en alguien completamente desconocido en un instante. La gente, ante tal extrañeza, trata de huir de la realidad. Enfadarse, romper a llorar, odiar y detestar son formas de huir de la realidad." Los personajes secundarios una vez perdido ese sostén material en el que se apoyaban y que era Jini, sirven de excusa a la autora para resaltar el profundo vacío de sus vidas, un vacío en el que vivía la misma Jini, y sin embargo ella decide liberarse y elegir una vida de anonimato. La ausencia de Jini no solo sirve para que ella recupere su individualidad sino para que estos personajes de su vida vean más allá del concepto de belleza material. La desaparición de Jini los obligará a reajustar no solo sus vidas, sino a reordenar ese concepto de belleza más allá de lo puramente visible. Más que centrada en el argumento o en un posible desenlace, es una novela que valorará sobre todo el viaje de autodescubrimiento, las impresiones que se quedarán impregnadas a medida que Jini vaya cogiendo trenes, estableciendo encuentros o comunicándose solo como ella sabe hacerlo, no verbalmente sino a través de intuiciones, impresiones y miradas. Es una novela extraña y muy poderosa al mismo tiempo sobre todo por la narrativa de Choe Yun. Las novelas corales en las que se van intercambiando las distintas narraciones en primera persona no son precisamente fáciles sobre todo porque el lector necesitará su tiempo para ajustarse a las diferentes perspectivas, y sin embargo admito que también pueden ser las más gratificantes. Maniquí fue publicada en 2003 y aunque de alguna forma exponía la pérdida de individualidad de cotizadas estrellas de la música o de la industria de la moda (y de esto saben mucho los coreanos), se puede decir que lo que cuestionaba Choe Yun se ha extrapolado hasta casi el infinito sobre todo con las redes sociales en las que la exposición pública es constante y la individualidad prácticamente brilla por su ausencia. Una novela muy de estos tiempos porque reafirma una vez más lo necesario de pararse y tener conciencia de uno mismo, cada vez más difícil en los tiempos que corren.
“Lo que había aprendido en su viaje es que ningún encuentro, paisaje o espectáculo, se repetía jamás. Aunque parecía a veces que un incidente y un paisaje eran como los del día anterior, no eran una repetición."
♫♫♫ The Model - Kraftwerk ♫♫♫
November 15, 2021
‘But not all wishes are fulfilled. It isn’t that hard, however, to put such petty desires to rest, and finally, to forget. People say at times that trivial desires have a greater hold on the soul. Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps that’s why many people leave somewhere only to return there for the same reason.’
Between a 3 and a 4, but I’m settling on a 3 for now because the unsettling ambiguity of the story (/stories) left me feeling rather frustrated. Glorious piece of writing, brilliantly translated by one of my favourite translators, Jung Yewon. Consistently bleak atmosphere throughout the whole novel. Seaside ‘gothic’ fiction with a touch of magical realism. Spectacular characterisation. Somewhat reminds me of Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu – poverty, homelessness, death(s). If you’re in the mood for a story with a ‘happy ending’, stay away from these books! RTC.
January 24, 2019
Çevresindeki çıkar ilişkilerine rağmen masumiyetini koruyabilmiş bir karakter olan Jini'nin kaçış ve var oluş öyküsünü farklı karakterlerin bakış açısıyla okuyoruz. Yazar toplumun kusursuz güzellik beklentilerini sorgularken insanların duyarsızlığı, bencilliği ve ikiyüzlülüğü karşısında hissedilen yalnızlığı da çok iyi hissettiriyor. Tüm dayatmalara rağmen kendi benliğinin peşine düşmeyi ve dansı kutsuyor.
May 10, 2018
Mannequin is another in the highly enjoyable, if rather under-promoted Library of Korean Literature from Dalkey Archive and I would hope to see it in contention for this year's Best Translated Book Award.
마네킹 (phoenetically Mannequin) was written by 최윤 (Ch'oe Yun - her preferred romanization) and translated into English by Jung Yewon.
It is a story both fascinating and moving, with wonderfully translated, almost ethereal, prose.
Jung Yewon is fast emerging as a star of Korean-English translation, alongside Deborah Smith, having translated Vaseline Buddha, One Hundred Shadows, No One Writes Back and parts of A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories, the latter two also in the Dalkey series. Her translation has a style which I find intriguing but difficult to describe: she both renders the books into excellent English but retains a translated/Korean feel to the phrasing.
It centres on the story of Jini (지니), born as Yi Jina (이 지나) into a poor family but discovered as a baby model aged just 3 months, while her mother was selling chinese characters in a market, and now aged 17 and highly successful, in great demand for her ability to help sell any product with her stunning and haunting beauty and her ability to act different emotions.
Jini's success has lifted the family from poverty into riches and she is essentially the product of a family business. Her brother "Shark" (all the characters have marine nicknames) is her business manager, her sister "Starfish" manages the household, and a lady "Conch" lives with them full-time as Jini's trainer. Her mother "Agar-Agar" is present in body, but largely absent in spirit, and her father dead.
As Conch tells us: Sometimes in my dreams, all of us - Shark, Starfish, Agar-Agar and I - turn into carnivores who feed on Jini's body. But Joni's body doesn't shrink or disappear, so put feeding continues in my dreams.
As the product, Jini must be kept healthy so even as a little girl:
Flowers and grass where thorns or aphids might be hiding, flavoured milk or baby food she kept pestering for, snacks or fruits, a shower of sunshine after a bath when she would squirm around naked, a baby swing that swing back and forth, making her laugh, nails or shards of glass, dirt littered with broken pieces of china wear ... all these things were dangerous and off limits for Jini.
The novel tells what happens when one-day, calmly and with no real trigger other than just feeling it is time, Jini decides to run away from this life:
She looked back with a quiet sadness on her life up to then, not too long, as you do when you've made an unwitting mistake.... Actually, she couldn't understand why she felt sad. She wasn't unhappy, nor was she happy. She'd always had to throw herself into the work that came in incessantly, so she never had the time to thing about things such as happiness or unhappiness. For a long time, in fact, devoting herself to the basic survival of those around her had been the source of her little happiness. But now, she'd done what she could.
She and the individual family members are each left to each find their own destiny in life. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different characters, mostly in the first person but with Agar-Agar and Jini's told in the third-person.
Jini stopped speaking following an incident when she was 9 around which the books spirals, an event which seemed to also cost her father the will to live.
That was it. She lost her words because she came face to face with a world that required no words. It began as a feeling, as if a solid metal sheet were pressing down on we heart. The pain was in her heart, but the two hands that were causing the pain were on her neck. She opened her eyes, but couldn't see anything. What she remembered from that night was the touch of the hands taking turns, squeezing her neck. Her exceptionally long and slender neck bore it for a long time.
Agar Agar is also haunted by this incident, and as her older daughter describes her: she's, what should I say, someone who prays for the peace of all mankind. That's why she climbs mountains so often.
She feels guilt towards Jini (The body of the youngest had always been a fruit for everyone else in the family to feed on.) and after Jini leaves she feels both liberated (she deliberately unlocks the doors of the house each night, almost hoping Jini leaves) but becomes even more frenzied in her mountain retreats and praying.
The mute (and increasingly deaf) Jini communicates with Conch (Kim Chanhee) [given the nickname because her ears looks like conch shells] by writing on each other's palms. Conch lives for Jini:
Jini is the source of all my joy. I have never encountered a body with such expressions, lines and volume as I've found in Jini's ...
I made Jini who she is today, but it would only be fair to say that Jini, too, made me who I am.
Although Jini's account suggests that in part this is because everything else in Conch's life that she has wanted has slipped from her grasp:
When Conch wished for a bright, clear day, it was always cloudy the next day. None of the men Conch wanted reciprocated her feelings. The things Conch wanted were always out of her reach, and because she was adamant, what she wanted could never be hers.
Indeed Conch first met Jini as Conch was recovering from the break-up of a relationship. The 9-10 year old Jini, sensing her hurt, made the comment: "Did someone hurt you? ... Did someone squeeze your neck?", The words I'd dismissed as the meaningless babble of a little girl but whose significance only becomes clear to Conch later on.
Shark [a Korean pun - his name 상호 (Sang-Ho) sounding like the Korean word 상어 (sangeo) for shark - while in his early twenties is a ruthless and highly successful dealmaker, who obsessively works-out, and prone to violence, harbouring some deep-seated hostility within:
"I probably got into the habit of working out while struggling against my hatred for the world that took hold of me abruptly. ... I put my efforts into learning how to destroy successfully, shout effectively, and home in on a vital spot when making an attack."
After Jini leaves he carries on maximising the value of the family estate, towards his ultimate goal, to live out his days (he decides he will not aged past 23) on a tiny island of his own, isolated from the world.
Jini's older sister Starfish (이 정아, Yi Jeong-a) is almost, but crucially not quite, as beautiful as her sister, but overshadowed by her. Even her ceremony to enter elementary school is attended by none of the family as it was also the day they signed Jini's first professional contract as a child model. She has an business-like incestuous relationship with Shark: she occasionally sleeps with him in exchange for shares in Jini's "stock" I increased my share to include Jini's hands, nape and neck.
Another character sucked into Jini's orbit, and the book, is "Lionfish", a oceanography researcher and scuba diving enthusiast. As the book opens, Lionfish is diving off the coast of Jeju Island (in passing, my favourite holiday resort) with his partner (in the lab, the water and romantically) Pink Anemone, on the eve of their wedding. But Jini, in one of her last ever jobs before she runs away, is also filming a commercial for air conditioners underwater. As Lionfish explains:
My prolonged drifting is finally coming to an end, and a life of stability is about to start. The moment I thought that, I saw the most dazzling thing in the world and my life was upended in an instant.
A little goddess, wearing a thin, transparent blue suit, came down to me under the sea, curled up like a fetus in the mother's womb, swaying in the water, eyes peacefully closed.
Obsessed by the brief vision of his little goddess, he loses his wife on their wedding day, and goes hunting for Jini, eventually meeting and teaming up with Conch, towards the same goal.
As for Jini, despite being a major star she managed to journey around Korea unrecognised. This isn't a novel for gritty realism so how she does this, or indeed the logistics of her life on the road, are simply not a concern.
Instead we see her take on a spiritual aspect. Far from recognising her, people seem to see her as a blank slate in which they recognise who they are seeking: she'd met many people who to her for someone else. They spoke to her or followed her, seeing in her a lover, a sister, a lost daughter or granddaughter.
She starts to communicate via dance, spending the days in a town square. As with her apperance, and although her dances are actually simple and repetitive, people "came to see her dance every day, could not skip even a single day, as it seemed to them she whispered the words they most wanted to hear again
And night she lives in a high and almost inaccessible cave, increasingly at peace with the world:
She quietly took in the sky that was spread out before her, the sky far away, and the sky even farther away; the sea that could be seen only during the season when the world of trees could be described as one of straight lines and curves: and the scenery around her that she didn't really need to see
Recommended
See also the reviews from the always excellent:
Tony's reading list: https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.co...
Complete Review: http://www.complete-review.com/review...
마네킹 (phoenetically Mannequin) was written by 최윤 (Ch'oe Yun - her preferred romanization) and translated into English by Jung Yewon.
It is a story both fascinating and moving, with wonderfully translated, almost ethereal, prose.
Jung Yewon is fast emerging as a star of Korean-English translation, alongside Deborah Smith, having translated Vaseline Buddha, One Hundred Shadows, No One Writes Back and parts of A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories, the latter two also in the Dalkey series. Her translation has a style which I find intriguing but difficult to describe: she both renders the books into excellent English but retains a translated/Korean feel to the phrasing.
It centres on the story of Jini (지니), born as Yi Jina (이 지나) into a poor family but discovered as a baby model aged just 3 months, while her mother was selling chinese characters in a market, and now aged 17 and highly successful, in great demand for her ability to help sell any product with her stunning and haunting beauty and her ability to act different emotions.
Jini's success has lifted the family from poverty into riches and she is essentially the product of a family business. Her brother "Shark" (all the characters have marine nicknames) is her business manager, her sister "Starfish" manages the household, and a lady "Conch" lives with them full-time as Jini's trainer. Her mother "Agar-Agar" is present in body, but largely absent in spirit, and her father dead.
As Conch tells us: Sometimes in my dreams, all of us - Shark, Starfish, Agar-Agar and I - turn into carnivores who feed on Jini's body. But Joni's body doesn't shrink or disappear, so put feeding continues in my dreams.
As the product, Jini must be kept healthy so even as a little girl:
Flowers and grass where thorns or aphids might be hiding, flavoured milk or baby food she kept pestering for, snacks or fruits, a shower of sunshine after a bath when she would squirm around naked, a baby swing that swing back and forth, making her laugh, nails or shards of glass, dirt littered with broken pieces of china wear ... all these things were dangerous and off limits for Jini.
The novel tells what happens when one-day, calmly and with no real trigger other than just feeling it is time, Jini decides to run away from this life:
She looked back with a quiet sadness on her life up to then, not too long, as you do when you've made an unwitting mistake.... Actually, she couldn't understand why she felt sad. She wasn't unhappy, nor was she happy. She'd always had to throw herself into the work that came in incessantly, so she never had the time to thing about things such as happiness or unhappiness. For a long time, in fact, devoting herself to the basic survival of those around her had been the source of her little happiness. But now, she'd done what she could.
She and the individual family members are each left to each find their own destiny in life. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different characters, mostly in the first person but with Agar-Agar and Jini's told in the third-person.
Jini stopped speaking following an incident when she was 9 around which the books spirals, an event which seemed to also cost her father the will to live.
That was it. She lost her words because she came face to face with a world that required no words. It began as a feeling, as if a solid metal sheet were pressing down on we heart. The pain was in her heart, but the two hands that were causing the pain were on her neck. She opened her eyes, but couldn't see anything. What she remembered from that night was the touch of the hands taking turns, squeezing her neck. Her exceptionally long and slender neck bore it for a long time.
Agar Agar is also haunted by this incident, and as her older daughter describes her: she's, what should I say, someone who prays for the peace of all mankind. That's why she climbs mountains so often.
She feels guilt towards Jini (The body of the youngest had always been a fruit for everyone else in the family to feed on.) and after Jini leaves she feels both liberated (she deliberately unlocks the doors of the house each night, almost hoping Jini leaves) but becomes even more frenzied in her mountain retreats and praying.
The mute (and increasingly deaf) Jini communicates with Conch (Kim Chanhee) [given the nickname because her ears looks like conch shells] by writing on each other's palms. Conch lives for Jini:
Jini is the source of all my joy. I have never encountered a body with such expressions, lines and volume as I've found in Jini's ...
I made Jini who she is today, but it would only be fair to say that Jini, too, made me who I am.
Although Jini's account suggests that in part this is because everything else in Conch's life that she has wanted has slipped from her grasp:
When Conch wished for a bright, clear day, it was always cloudy the next day. None of the men Conch wanted reciprocated her feelings. The things Conch wanted were always out of her reach, and because she was adamant, what she wanted could never be hers.
Indeed Conch first met Jini as Conch was recovering from the break-up of a relationship. The 9-10 year old Jini, sensing her hurt, made the comment: "Did someone hurt you? ... Did someone squeeze your neck?", The words I'd dismissed as the meaningless babble of a little girl but whose significance only becomes clear to Conch later on.
Shark [a Korean pun - his name 상호 (Sang-Ho) sounding like the Korean word 상어 (sangeo) for shark - while in his early twenties is a ruthless and highly successful dealmaker, who obsessively works-out, and prone to violence, harbouring some deep-seated hostility within:
"I probably got into the habit of working out while struggling against my hatred for the world that took hold of me abruptly. ... I put my efforts into learning how to destroy successfully, shout effectively, and home in on a vital spot when making an attack."
After Jini leaves he carries on maximising the value of the family estate, towards his ultimate goal, to live out his days (he decides he will not aged past 23) on a tiny island of his own, isolated from the world.
Jini's older sister Starfish (이 정아, Yi Jeong-a) is almost, but crucially not quite, as beautiful as her sister, but overshadowed by her. Even her ceremony to enter elementary school is attended by none of the family as it was also the day they signed Jini's first professional contract as a child model. She has an business-like incestuous relationship with Shark: she occasionally sleeps with him in exchange for shares in Jini's "stock" I increased my share to include Jini's hands, nape and neck.
Another character sucked into Jini's orbit, and the book, is "Lionfish", a oceanography researcher and scuba diving enthusiast. As the book opens, Lionfish is diving off the coast of Jeju Island (in passing, my favourite holiday resort) with his partner (in the lab, the water and romantically) Pink Anemone, on the eve of their wedding. But Jini, in one of her last ever jobs before she runs away, is also filming a commercial for air conditioners underwater. As Lionfish explains:
My prolonged drifting is finally coming to an end, and a life of stability is about to start. The moment I thought that, I saw the most dazzling thing in the world and my life was upended in an instant.
A little goddess, wearing a thin, transparent blue suit, came down to me under the sea, curled up like a fetus in the mother's womb, swaying in the water, eyes peacefully closed.
Obsessed by the brief vision of his little goddess, he loses his wife on their wedding day, and goes hunting for Jini, eventually meeting and teaming up with Conch, towards the same goal.
As for Jini, despite being a major star she managed to journey around Korea unrecognised. This isn't a novel for gritty realism so how she does this, or indeed the logistics of her life on the road, are simply not a concern.
Instead we see her take on a spiritual aspect. Far from recognising her, people seem to see her as a blank slate in which they recognise who they are seeking: she'd met many people who to her for someone else. They spoke to her or followed her, seeing in her a lover, a sister, a lost daughter or granddaughter.
She starts to communicate via dance, spending the days in a town square. As with her apperance, and although her dances are actually simple and repetitive, people "came to see her dance every day, could not skip even a single day, as it seemed to them she whispered the words they most wanted to hear again
And night she lives in a high and almost inaccessible cave, increasingly at peace with the world:
She quietly took in the sky that was spread out before her, the sky far away, and the sky even farther away; the sea that could be seen only during the season when the world of trees could be described as one of straight lines and curves: and the scenery around her that she didn't really need to see
Recommended
See also the reviews from the always excellent:
Tony's reading list: https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.co...
Complete Review: http://www.complete-review.com/review...
January 12, 2019
‘Her şey böyle başladı. Başlangıcı değil, sonu buymuş gibi.’
.
Jini omuzlarındaki yükten değil boynundaki ellerden kaçıyor. Kendi sesini hatırlamak için. Çünkü en son ne zaman kendi iradesiyle konuştuğunu, düşündüğünü ve hissettiğini hatırlamıyor.
.
Çocuk yaşlardan itibaren reklamlarda oynatılan Jini’nin hikayesi olarak görülse de Manken, aslında çok daha fazlası. Annesinin sinmişliği, erkek ve kız kardeşlerinin çıkar savaşı, kendini ikinci anne yerine koyan kadının aslında bir kukla oynatıcısına dönüşmesi.. Mavi kapılı evin ardında yaşanan çok şey var. Ancak Jini artık konuşmuyor, o dans etmeyi seçti..
.
Choe Yun, karakterleri isimsiz bırakıyor ama onun yerine hepsinin bir lakabı var. Hem de denizden gelen lakaplar bunlar. Deniz kulağı, denizyıldızı, akrepbalığı, deniz yosunu, köpekbalığı.. Yazarın bu tercihi ise derinlik katıyor esere. Esere, Jini’yi gördükten sonra hayatı değişen adamın da eklenmesi ise daha da meraklandırıyor okuyucuyu.. Peki Jini ile o adam buluşacak mı sahiden?
.
Choe Yun, Güney Kore’nin sevilen yazarlarından. Bu eserinin çevrilmesi ise beni oldukça mutlu etti. Çeviride (İngilizce edisyonundan) Burcu Uluçay yer almakta ki çok akıcıydı. Korece ve İngilizce versiyonlarının yanında parlayan kapak tasarımında ise Cüneyt Çomoğlu’nu görüyoruz.
.
Jini omuzlarındaki yükten değil boynundaki ellerden kaçıyor. Kendi sesini hatırlamak için. Çünkü en son ne zaman kendi iradesiyle konuştuğunu, düşündüğünü ve hissettiğini hatırlamıyor.
.
Çocuk yaşlardan itibaren reklamlarda oynatılan Jini’nin hikayesi olarak görülse de Manken, aslında çok daha fazlası. Annesinin sinmişliği, erkek ve kız kardeşlerinin çıkar savaşı, kendini ikinci anne yerine koyan kadının aslında bir kukla oynatıcısına dönüşmesi.. Mavi kapılı evin ardında yaşanan çok şey var. Ancak Jini artık konuşmuyor, o dans etmeyi seçti..
.
Choe Yun, karakterleri isimsiz bırakıyor ama onun yerine hepsinin bir lakabı var. Hem de denizden gelen lakaplar bunlar. Deniz kulağı, denizyıldızı, akrepbalığı, deniz yosunu, köpekbalığı.. Yazarın bu tercihi ise derinlik katıyor esere. Esere, Jini’yi gördükten sonra hayatı değişen adamın da eklenmesi ise daha da meraklandırıyor okuyucuyu.. Peki Jini ile o adam buluşacak mı sahiden?
.
Choe Yun, Güney Kore’nin sevilen yazarlarından. Bu eserinin çevrilmesi ise beni oldukça mutlu etti. Çeviride (İngilizce edisyonundan) Burcu Uluçay yer almakta ki çok akıcıydı. Korece ve İngilizce versiyonlarının yanında parlayan kapak tasarımında ise Cüneyt Çomoğlu’nu görüyoruz.
May 10, 2018
Mannequin (translated by Yewon Jung, electronic review copy courtesy of the publisher) introduces us to a couple diving off Jeju island the day before their wedding. The two are just about to surface when a surprising apparition stops them in their tracks:
It was because of a woman, descending from the lightness above, that D and I stopped ascending almost simultaneously. The woman, curled up like a baby in its mother’s womb and wearing an almost transparent suit of blue, nearly indistinguishable from the sea, was coming down towards us. With a gentle expression on her face as if resting, with the sea as her bed, she descended with her eyes closed. The thin fabric shrouding her body waved in the current, making her look like a mysterious goddess surrounded by transparent aquatic plants. A little goddess descending toward none other than myself.
pp.10/11 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2016)
While the encounter lasts a matter of moments, the effect is life-changing. Just a day later, the new bride walks slowly into the sea, never to return.
Another section of the story then takes us to Seoul, where a family waits for news of a missing woman. Jini, a young, fragile, impossibly beautiful model has vanished into thin air, and her sister, brother and mother are all processing the disappearance in different ways. While the family members have slowly started to move on with their lives, the woman’s agent refuses to give up on her, and when she sets out on a quest to track her down, she finds an unlikely ally…
A missing woman making those around her reflect on their empty lives? If that sounds rather familiar, it’s true that Mannequin has much in common with Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mother. Ch’oe’s novel, however, is far more subtle, with little of the brash screaming of Shin’s work. It’s a story that lifts the shiny, K-Pop-enhanced surface of Korean life to see what’s lurking underneath, and (unsurprisingly) it’s not always pretty
The novel is divided into a number of chapters, with most narrated by one of the supporting characters, each of whom has a nickname derived from marine life. Jini’s sister, Starfish, is a young woman who eventually slips into her sister’s (modelling) shoes, and their mother, Agar-Agar, spends most of her time on a mountain top, screaming to the gods, without really knowing why. Then there’s Jini’s brother, Shark, a hyper-aggressive young man and the negotiator of Jini’s many lucrative contracts. Quite apart from his outbursts of anger, most readers will be a little disturbed at how close he is to his remaining sister…
However, it’s Conch, the agent, who drives the story forward. Desperate to find the beauty who lights up her life, she one day crosses paths with Lionfish, the diver who has become obsessed with the vision he saw beneath the waves. Together, they set off on a journey in search of the runaway model, two unlikely companions in a converted four-wheel drive. With little to go on but Conch’s sense that Jini will be somewhere near the coast, all they really have is hope, and the determination to keep looking. You do wonder, though, what they’ll actually do if they ever find the woman they’re following.
Where Mannequin is very different to Please Look After Mother is the way it actually includes Jini’s story. Told in the third-person (contrasting with the first-person accounts of the other characters), these sections describe her disappearance and the adventures she has along the way. Having grown up in the spotlight, the young woman has never had the freedom to enjoy her life, so it’s little wonder that she eventually decides to slip out one night, never to return. Once she makes up her mind to leave the city, we see her life on the road, a picture of a child of nature charming all those she comes across.
Mannequin is less about what happens, though, than a critique of contemporary society. A sense of emptiness pervades the book, with each of the main characters having their own overwhelming negative emotion, whether it’s Starfish’s ambivalence, Conch’s numbness or Shark’s frightening anger:
Why can’t you beat and break things when you’re furious, or set fire to something when you’re angry and disappointed, or kill someone when you hate him? Why do these others cling to people they hate, and say goodbye to people they love? I despise people who’ve come up with all these rules. (p.34)
With each of them struggling to make it through everyday life, there’s a need for something to get them through the day. Of course, their drug of choice is beauty, and Jini is its prime example. Although she’s just an ordinary young woman, she has the gift of stopping people dead in their tracks, as Lionfish discovers:
If the others ever trembled while seeing sublime beauty, as I or countless people in the world have, they wouldn’t make such requests. They would probably say,”Beauty makes you open your mouth, and cry, and laugh. Beauty takes people’s breath away, but at the same time, makes them go on living. Beauty makes people ill, but also heals them.”
That’s the kind of beauty I encountered. A woman that beautiful. For a moment. For one minute, at most. After that, most of my time was devoted to finding that woman again. (p.70)
Of course, beauty can be a blessing, and Jini has brought herself (and her family) fame and fortune, lifting them out of poverty and making herself into one of the most recognisable people in the country. Yet Ch’oe makes it clear that it can also be a curse. In exchange for this prosperity, the young woman has had to forfeit her individuality, and has gradually been worn down by the constant exposure (in every sense of the word).
Ch’oe is a wonderful writer, and despite a few clumsy expressions (and a few typos here and there), Jung has done a decent job on the English version of Mannequin. However, I can’t help feeling (not for the first time) that the book would have fared much better if it hadn’t been included in the Library of Korean Literature. A smaller publisher would have brought more care to the project, with more attention to editing and a greater focus on promotion. As it is, buried among the other, equally neglected titles, it seems to have passed by almost unnoticed, with very few other reviews out there (one exception, unsurprisingly, is Michael Orthofer’s positive take on the book over at The Complete Review, and my fellow MBIP Shadow Judge, Paul Fulcher, has also reviewed it over at Goodreads).
Which is a shame, because Mannequin is an excellent look at the soul-crushing boredom of modern life and our need to latch onto something to make life worth living. Jini is the representative face of all those models, pop stars and actors we worship, and Ch’oe shows us the price they pay for our adoration. Given all the pressure, it’s little wonder that they might sometimes just want to disappear for a while – or for good…
It was because of a woman, descending from the lightness above, that D and I stopped ascending almost simultaneously. The woman, curled up like a baby in its mother’s womb and wearing an almost transparent suit of blue, nearly indistinguishable from the sea, was coming down towards us. With a gentle expression on her face as if resting, with the sea as her bed, she descended with her eyes closed. The thin fabric shrouding her body waved in the current, making her look like a mysterious goddess surrounded by transparent aquatic plants. A little goddess descending toward none other than myself.
pp.10/11 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2016)
While the encounter lasts a matter of moments, the effect is life-changing. Just a day later, the new bride walks slowly into the sea, never to return.
Another section of the story then takes us to Seoul, where a family waits for news of a missing woman. Jini, a young, fragile, impossibly beautiful model has vanished into thin air, and her sister, brother and mother are all processing the disappearance in different ways. While the family members have slowly started to move on with their lives, the woman’s agent refuses to give up on her, and when she sets out on a quest to track her down, she finds an unlikely ally…
A missing woman making those around her reflect on their empty lives? If that sounds rather familiar, it’s true that Mannequin has much in common with Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mother. Ch’oe’s novel, however, is far more subtle, with little of the brash screaming of Shin’s work. It’s a story that lifts the shiny, K-Pop-enhanced surface of Korean life to see what’s lurking underneath, and (unsurprisingly) it’s not always pretty
The novel is divided into a number of chapters, with most narrated by one of the supporting characters, each of whom has a nickname derived from marine life. Jini’s sister, Starfish, is a young woman who eventually slips into her sister’s (modelling) shoes, and their mother, Agar-Agar, spends most of her time on a mountain top, screaming to the gods, without really knowing why. Then there’s Jini’s brother, Shark, a hyper-aggressive young man and the negotiator of Jini’s many lucrative contracts. Quite apart from his outbursts of anger, most readers will be a little disturbed at how close he is to his remaining sister…
However, it’s Conch, the agent, who drives the story forward. Desperate to find the beauty who lights up her life, she one day crosses paths with Lionfish, the diver who has become obsessed with the vision he saw beneath the waves. Together, they set off on a journey in search of the runaway model, two unlikely companions in a converted four-wheel drive. With little to go on but Conch’s sense that Jini will be somewhere near the coast, all they really have is hope, and the determination to keep looking. You do wonder, though, what they’ll actually do if they ever find the woman they’re following.
Where Mannequin is very different to Please Look After Mother is the way it actually includes Jini’s story. Told in the third-person (contrasting with the first-person accounts of the other characters), these sections describe her disappearance and the adventures she has along the way. Having grown up in the spotlight, the young woman has never had the freedom to enjoy her life, so it’s little wonder that she eventually decides to slip out one night, never to return. Once she makes up her mind to leave the city, we see her life on the road, a picture of a child of nature charming all those she comes across.
Mannequin is less about what happens, though, than a critique of contemporary society. A sense of emptiness pervades the book, with each of the main characters having their own overwhelming negative emotion, whether it’s Starfish’s ambivalence, Conch’s numbness or Shark’s frightening anger:
Why can’t you beat and break things when you’re furious, or set fire to something when you’re angry and disappointed, or kill someone when you hate him? Why do these others cling to people they hate, and say goodbye to people they love? I despise people who’ve come up with all these rules. (p.34)
With each of them struggling to make it through everyday life, there’s a need for something to get them through the day. Of course, their drug of choice is beauty, and Jini is its prime example. Although she’s just an ordinary young woman, she has the gift of stopping people dead in their tracks, as Lionfish discovers:
If the others ever trembled while seeing sublime beauty, as I or countless people in the world have, they wouldn’t make such requests. They would probably say,”Beauty makes you open your mouth, and cry, and laugh. Beauty takes people’s breath away, but at the same time, makes them go on living. Beauty makes people ill, but also heals them.”
That’s the kind of beauty I encountered. A woman that beautiful. For a moment. For one minute, at most. After that, most of my time was devoted to finding that woman again. (p.70)
Of course, beauty can be a blessing, and Jini has brought herself (and her family) fame and fortune, lifting them out of poverty and making herself into one of the most recognisable people in the country. Yet Ch’oe makes it clear that it can also be a curse. In exchange for this prosperity, the young woman has had to forfeit her individuality, and has gradually been worn down by the constant exposure (in every sense of the word).
Ch’oe is a wonderful writer, and despite a few clumsy expressions (and a few typos here and there), Jung has done a decent job on the English version of Mannequin. However, I can’t help feeling (not for the first time) that the book would have fared much better if it hadn’t been included in the Library of Korean Literature. A smaller publisher would have brought more care to the project, with more attention to editing and a greater focus on promotion. As it is, buried among the other, equally neglected titles, it seems to have passed by almost unnoticed, with very few other reviews out there (one exception, unsurprisingly, is Michael Orthofer’s positive take on the book over at The Complete Review, and my fellow MBIP Shadow Judge, Paul Fulcher, has also reviewed it over at Goodreads).
Which is a shame, because Mannequin is an excellent look at the soul-crushing boredom of modern life and our need to latch onto something to make life worth living. Jini is the representative face of all those models, pop stars and actors we worship, and Ch’oe shows us the price they pay for our adoration. Given all the pressure, it’s little wonder that they might sometimes just want to disappear for a while – or for good…
September 19, 2023
ma simt prea proasta pentru cartea asta
April 19, 2017
Very beautifully told story of a young woman, Jini, who is unable to speak and has been used by others as an advertising prop due to her unique beauty. She lives with her mother, sister, brother and a woman who acts as a sort of agent. She seems to float through life doing as she is told with no obvious rebellion. A man about to be married briefly sees her float beneath the ocean while he is on a scuba diving excursion and she is filming some sort of ad. Shortly after his wife, who he reluctantly wed, having been so taken by his brief view of Jini, drowns. The ocean is an important feature of the book and all the characters aside from Jini have nicknames associated with sea life. Jini soon after this episode floats out of her home and disappears with no plan or agenda. She meets people who variously help or harm her and both these outcomes seem to give her no real pleasure or pain. She begins doing an improvised dance reminiscent of the ways the man who becomes obsessed with her and his betrothed were communicating underwater when they briefly crossed paths. Felt very portentous and full of meaning but allowed the reader to find a message with sparing language. Really loved it.
September 7, 2024
hadi abicim hadi ööff
dünya güzeli dilsiz UNDERAGE jini ve bunu bir kere görüp aşkından mecnun gibi yollara düşen karısı ölmüş YETİŞKİN bir adamın hikayesi.
jini o kadar güzel ki mesela bir köye gidiyor, köy meydanında her gün kendi kendine dönerek dans ediyor, bütün köy halkı da her gün oturup bunu izleyip HUZUR doluyor falan. derdi olanın derdi çözülüyor o derece.
kitapla ilgili her şey çok sıkıcı. nefret ettim. sayfa sayfa kızın güzelliğini ve diğer karakterin çocuk yaşta bir kız peşinde koşmasını okuyorsunuz. bitiremedim, sonunda ne olduğunu söyleyin pliz.
dünya güzeli dilsiz UNDERAGE jini ve bunu bir kere görüp aşkından mecnun gibi yollara düşen karısı ölmüş YETİŞKİN bir adamın hikayesi.
jini o kadar güzel ki mesela bir köye gidiyor, köy meydanında her gün kendi kendine dönerek dans ediyor, bütün köy halkı da her gün oturup bunu izleyip HUZUR doluyor falan. derdi olanın derdi çözülüyor o derece.
kitapla ilgili her şey çok sıkıcı. nefret ettim. sayfa sayfa kızın güzelliğini ve diğer karakterin çocuk yaşta bir kız peşinde koşmasını okuyorsunuz. bitiremedim, sonunda ne olduğunu söyleyin pliz.
March 16, 2020
No puedo decir que sea un mal libro, sólo puedo decir que no es para mí.
En algunas cosas me ha recordado a Murakami, por lo que creo que es un poco la esencia asiática lo que me impide no conectar del todo con este tipo de novelas. No está mal escrita, pero no me ha interesado, no he conectado con sus personajes y no he pillado la trama.
Nos encontramos ante un personaje femenino que te describen desde mil puntos, pero que no llegas a conocer. Hay mucha crítica a la sociedad y al comportamiento, al machismo, pero es tan velada y tan superficial que conforme avanzas la historia te das cuenta de que tampoco es que suceda nada. Me falta argumento. Me falta introducción. Me falta un desenlace. Quizá soy demasiado clásica y no abro del todo mis miras para entender estas diferencias, pero realmente es que era como leer algo bonito pero vacío. Me parece que es un libro que tiene una prosa un tanto recargada y poética, que analizada con tranquilidad, puede resultar muy intensa y genial. Pero como de alguna manera pretende decir el libro -o eso pone en la contraportada, porque yo tras leerlo no he visto esta crítica tan clara en sus hojas- se queda en algo superficial. La historia va de una chica a la que tratán como un maniquí, como mercancía, como algo que vale solo por lo bonito. Y a mí me ha parecido con las hojas que aunque la prosa era bonita, el contenido era nulo. No había historia. No estaba bien estructurada y los personajes no aportaban nada.
Soy consciente de que quizá es que el libro no es para mí y que otros quizá puedan ver lo que yo no he sido capaz. Pero de poco sirve que diga lo que otros opinan o sienten, ya que la magia de los libros está en que nos hagan sentir cosas diferentes a cada uno.
En algunas cosas me ha recordado a Murakami, por lo que creo que es un poco la esencia asiática lo que me impide no conectar del todo con este tipo de novelas. No está mal escrita, pero no me ha interesado, no he conectado con sus personajes y no he pillado la trama.
Nos encontramos ante un personaje femenino que te describen desde mil puntos, pero que no llegas a conocer. Hay mucha crítica a la sociedad y al comportamiento, al machismo, pero es tan velada y tan superficial que conforme avanzas la historia te das cuenta de que tampoco es que suceda nada. Me falta argumento. Me falta introducción. Me falta un desenlace. Quizá soy demasiado clásica y no abro del todo mis miras para entender estas diferencias, pero realmente es que era como leer algo bonito pero vacío. Me parece que es un libro que tiene una prosa un tanto recargada y poética, que analizada con tranquilidad, puede resultar muy intensa y genial. Pero como de alguna manera pretende decir el libro -o eso pone en la contraportada, porque yo tras leerlo no he visto esta crítica tan clara en sus hojas- se queda en algo superficial. La historia va de una chica a la que tratán como un maniquí, como mercancía, como algo que vale solo por lo bonito. Y a mí me ha parecido con las hojas que aunque la prosa era bonita, el contenido era nulo. No había historia. No estaba bien estructurada y los personajes no aportaban nada.
Soy consciente de que quizá es que el libro no es para mí y que otros quizá puedan ver lo que yo no he sido capaz. Pero de poco sirve que diga lo que otros opinan o sienten, ya que la magia de los libros está en que nos hagan sentir cosas diferentes a cada uno.
June 24, 2024
Çok mu anlam yükledim bu kitaba bilmiyorum ama bana çok derin, çok farklı geldi. Çok derin düşünmemeli miyim diye düşündüm okurken ve son sayfayı bitirdiğimde ama derin düşünmek istediğimi fark ettim. Belki de böyle düşünmeye ihtiyacım vardı.
Herkesin sevebileceği, hatta bitirebileceği bir kitap asla değil. Mola tesislerinde kitap alma alışkanlığım olmasa benim de bulup okuyacağım bir kitap değildi. Ama kader işte, o zaman diliminde okumam gereken kitapların beni bir şekilde bulduğuna inanırım hep. Bu kitap da onlardan biriydi. Bir var oluş, hayatı anlamlandırma, yaratıldığımız ve içinde yaşadığımız doğayı tanıma hikayesi. Ve bir de hayatta herkesin kendi Jini’sini aradığını görmek.
Herkesin sevebileceği, hatta bitirebileceği bir kitap asla değil. Mola tesislerinde kitap alma alışkanlığım olmasa benim de bulup okuyacağım bir kitap değildi. Ama kader işte, o zaman diliminde okumam gereken kitapların beni bir şekilde bulduğuna inanırım hep. Bu kitap da onlardan biriydi. Bir var oluş, hayatı anlamlandırma, yaratıldığımız ve içinde yaşadığımız doğayı tanıma hikayesi. Ve bir de hayatta herkesin kendi Jini’sini aradığını görmek.
January 22, 2021
I was ready to give up on this book after around 50 pages, but several reviews by people whose opinions I value pushed me to continue. I can't say I'm happy I did.
I'm sure there is value in the book, but it's rife with the type of symbolism I usually don't catch, or, if I do, it does nothing for me. A lady of almost supernatural beauty is completely used by her family. She runs away, and other strangers find her beautiful, but rather than recognize her, she comes to symbolize things that are missing or wrong in their lives (I think). In the meantime there are other parts, dealing with her family members, with Conch, a diver who quickly forgot his wife (who died on their wedding night) and decided to chase after the beautiful "goddess", and with a very very young mother with a baby whose section I really didn't get.
I think I appreciate stories that stand more firmly in reality. Too bad, I really enjoyed the other book I read by Ch'oe Yun, "The Last of Hanako".
I'm sure there is value in the book, but it's rife with the type of symbolism I usually don't catch, or, if I do, it does nothing for me. A lady of almost supernatural beauty is completely used by her family. She runs away, and other strangers find her beautiful, but rather than recognize her, she comes to symbolize things that are missing or wrong in their lives (I think). In the meantime there are other parts, dealing with her family members, with Conch, a diver who quickly forgot his wife (who died on their wedding night) and decided to chase after the beautiful "goddess", and with a very very young mother with a baby whose section I really didn't get.
I think I appreciate stories that stand more firmly in reality. Too bad, I really enjoyed the other book I read by Ch'oe Yun, "The Last of Hanako".
May 26, 2024
Hem beğendim hem beğenmedim. Arka kapağında yazan konusu sonrasında bedenin, ailenin ve yasın daha detaylı daha düşündürücü şekilde işlenmesini bekledim sanırım. Kötü değildi ama aradığım derinliğe de maalesef sahip değildi.
November 22, 2022
lo hubiera disfrutado más si no fuera una lectura del máster
May 31, 2025
hiçbir şey anlatmayan bir kitap, zaman israfı
September 21, 2025
Yıllar önce artık rutin haline gelmiş kitap alışverişlerimden birini yaparken karşıma çıktı Manken. Nasıl olsa bir gün mutlaka okurum deyip aldım, kitaplığıma yerleştirdim kitabı. Aradan yıllar geçti, o gün nihayet geldi ve kitabı kitaplığımdaki yerinden alıp okumaya başladım. Kitap biraz elimde süründü doğru, benimle oraya buraya gitti, iki gün okuduysam beş gün okumadım, karakterleri, olayları oturtana kadar sayfaların arasında dönüp durdum, en sonunda haydi artık bitsin de gidelim modunda okudum kitabı. Okuması zor, dili ağır değil ama tuhaf, karakterleri çok değil ama karışık, olayları bitmek bilmeyen türden değil ama sonuçsuz, kısacası acayip bir kitaptı Manken. Tamam şimdi ne olacak, bir okuyayım da bakayım diyordunuz ama hiçbir şey olmuyordu. Kapitalizm, güzellik standartları, tüketim toplumu, ruh sağlığı bozuk insanlar gibi pek çok kez işlenmiş konuları ele alan yazar sürükleyici ve farklı bir kitap yazayım diye düşünmüş belli ki fakat üzgünüm soğuk ve anlamsız bir kitap olmuş.
Her neyse, sonuç da yazana da yazılana da saygı duyuyor, kitap okuma yolculuğunun hayat boyu sürecek bir yol olduğunu ve bu yolda bazen böyle duraklarda da durulduğunu bildiğimden kitap ilgili yorumumu burada sonlandırıyor, bu kitabı okuyacak olanlara sabır diliyorum.
Her neyse, sonuç da yazana da yazılana da saygı duyuyor, kitap okuma yolculuğunun hayat boyu sürecek bir yol olduğunu ve bu yolda bazen böyle duraklarda da durulduğunu bildiğimden kitap ilgili yorumumu burada sonlandırıyor, bu kitabı okuyacak olanlara sabır diliyorum.
December 26, 2014
Qué bodrio, por favor.
Bastante, bastante malo.
Le doy una estrellita cuando debería darle 0 estrellas, pero no quiero que parezca que me olvidé de evaluarla. Quiero que quede claro que es malo.
Advertencia: NO LEER.
Bastante, bastante malo.
Le doy una estrellita cuando debería darle 0 estrellas, pero no quiero que parezca que me olvidé de evaluarla. Quiero que quede claro que es malo.
Advertencia: NO LEER.
October 8, 2021
Very atmospheric! The whole build up is fascinating, a tale of a young girl adored for her modeling specialness, the hype of which her whole family believes with differing personal responses. In the end something must give.. with a touch of Korean surrealness this is a rather different book.
June 29, 2022
Guney Kore edebiyatindan okudugum ilk kitap. Cok fazla sey kacirdigimi dusundurttu. Degindigi guzellik, aile vb konularda beni dusunmeye sevk etti. En ufak dikkat dagitmadan sizi hikayenin icine alan, basarili bir yazar.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews