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Уйти и не вернуться
"Уйти и не вернуться" - это проникновенные рассказы о послевоенном времени в Корее 1950-х годов писателя Ли Хочхоля, лично прошедшего войну и отразившего свои переживания через короткие истории. Каждая история расскажет о жизни людей, переживающих нелегкое послевоенное время: здесь сплетается обыденность и трагедию, быт и войну, смерть и жизнь, суеверия и прагматику. Люди, вынужденные жить в новой стране, разделенной по 38-й параллели, проживают это время каждый по-своему, находя утешение в воспоминаниях, суевериях и быту. Каждый рассказ сборника представляет историю одного или нескольких человеческих судеб. Рассказывая о них, писатель с будничной искренностью передает ощущение новой реальности целого народа, волею войны разделенного надвое. Здесь и болезненное ожидание родных с фронта, и любовь к брату, и забота о ближнем, и страх неизвестности, и одиночество, и вина. Но каждый непременно найдет свой путь в этой новой реальности, свое утешение и свою надежду на мир.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2022
2 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
Lee Ho-cheol
8 books소설가 이호철
Lee Ho-cheol (Hangul: 이호철), born in 1932 in North Korea, is a South Korean writer who has won several awards.
Lee Ho-cheol was born on March 15, 1932 in Wonsan, Hamgyeongnam-do, North Korea and lived through the tragedy of the ideological conflict in Korea. His father refused to cooperate with Northern communists and his family had their property confiscated and were chased out of their hometown. During the war, Lee Hocheol was drafted into the North Korean army and sent to the front in the South. He eventually rejoined his family in his native town, but ultimately decided to move to South Korea by himself. A prolific writer as well as an activist, he participated in the democracy movement against the dictatorial regime of President Park Chung-hee and spent most of the 1970s in the prison. In the 1980s, after the army general Chun Doo-hwan gained power through a coup d’etat, Lee Ho-cheol continued to battle against military dictatorship despite government persecution, and became actively involved in organizations such as the Association of Writers for Literature of Freedom and Practice (Jayu silcheon munin hyeobuihoe).
Lee Cho-heol made his debut in 1955 with the story Leaving Home, and was known as a writer who directly confronted and described reality. His early stories explored the emotional toll of the Korean War on individuals and illuminated the conflict between those who benefited from the war and those who were ruined by it. National Division also became one of his themes and “Panmunjeom” (Panmunjeom, 1961), a story of a South Korean reporter’s visit to the DMZ and his brief but warm encounter with a female reporter from the North, is one of his most famous stories. Northerners, Southerners, similarly, focused on issues of the split from the perspective of a young Korean soldier. Lee was also interested in the effects of economic success, sometimes writing about the petit bourgeoisie becoming hardened by hollow values and pursuit of money.
(from Wikipedia)
Lee Ho-cheol (Hangul: 이호철), born in 1932 in North Korea, is a South Korean writer who has won several awards.
Lee Ho-cheol was born on March 15, 1932 in Wonsan, Hamgyeongnam-do, North Korea and lived through the tragedy of the ideological conflict in Korea. His father refused to cooperate with Northern communists and his family had their property confiscated and were chased out of their hometown. During the war, Lee Hocheol was drafted into the North Korean army and sent to the front in the South. He eventually rejoined his family in his native town, but ultimately decided to move to South Korea by himself. A prolific writer as well as an activist, he participated in the democracy movement against the dictatorial regime of President Park Chung-hee and spent most of the 1970s in the prison. In the 1980s, after the army general Chun Doo-hwan gained power through a coup d’etat, Lee Ho-cheol continued to battle against military dictatorship despite government persecution, and became actively involved in organizations such as the Association of Writers for Literature of Freedom and Practice (Jayu silcheon munin hyeobuihoe).
Lee Cho-heol made his debut in 1955 with the story Leaving Home, and was known as a writer who directly confronted and described reality. His early stories explored the emotional toll of the Korean War on individuals and illuminated the conflict between those who benefited from the war and those who were ruined by it. National Division also became one of his themes and “Panmunjeom” (Panmunjeom, 1961), a story of a South Korean reporter’s visit to the DMZ and his brief but warm encounter with a female reporter from the North, is one of his most famous stories. Northerners, Southerners, similarly, focused on issues of the split from the perspective of a young Korean soldier. Lee was also interested in the effects of economic success, sometimes writing about the petit bourgeoisie becoming hardened by hollow values and pursuit of money.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 14, 2025
Lee Hocheol’s short stories about Kwanseok and Tucheol (hope that I have transliterated them right) touched me in a sense for they represent different personalities trying to adapt to their circumstances they believed to be temporary — Kwanseok was trying to become “one of them”, while Tucheol experienced some sort of disillusionment and self-confinement in relation with others, going as far as to become a thief to prove his “independence”.
While I’m not a migrant myself, I understand what it is like to move around the country — you either try to become an „insider” or go to do what you believe is best to preserve your identity or the rituals, rites you hold dear. This, in a sense, invoked my childhood memories where I tried to avoid becoming one of them (in the new city). (탈향 and 만조)
나상 relates a story of two brothers — the older sibling was sincere, rather naive and somewhat “dumb”, while the younger was a complete opposite, so the younger did feel some certain shame for having this brother and held him in no regard. However, as they were both captive in the Korean War, the younger learned of his brother’s care and love and came to appreciate him… Unfortunately, the older brother lost (probably due to some unspoken violence) his naivety and started to shun his younger. This particular short story made me feel somewhat sad as well: I realised that, while one may be smart, if they lack kindness and humility, desire to care for others (qualities that make us human)…
In the other story, titled “The Lifeless House,” the characters follow a ritual of gathering in the living room—waiting for the sister who left the country during the war. This story of an upper-class family in decline, marked by desperate hope for her return, makes you question the value of clinging to the past and how attachment can affect one’s ability to move on. It helped me to learn to “let go” and “move on” so that I continued to live and glow rather than be in this depressive, slowly-killing state.
His short stories helped me to reconcile my identity and feel sorry for Koreans on both sides of the Korean Peninsula.
While I’m not a migrant myself, I understand what it is like to move around the country — you either try to become an „insider” or go to do what you believe is best to preserve your identity or the rituals, rites you hold dear. This, in a sense, invoked my childhood memories where I tried to avoid becoming one of them (in the new city). (탈향 and 만조)
나상 relates a story of two brothers — the older sibling was sincere, rather naive and somewhat “dumb”, while the younger was a complete opposite, so the younger did feel some certain shame for having this brother and held him in no regard. However, as they were both captive in the Korean War, the younger learned of his brother’s care and love and came to appreciate him… Unfortunately, the older brother lost (probably due to some unspoken violence) his naivety and started to shun his younger. This particular short story made me feel somewhat sad as well: I realised that, while one may be smart, if they lack kindness and humility, desire to care for others (qualities that make us human)…
In the other story, titled “The Lifeless House,” the characters follow a ritual of gathering in the living room—waiting for the sister who left the country during the war. This story of an upper-class family in decline, marked by desperate hope for her return, makes you question the value of clinging to the past and how attachment can affect one’s ability to move on. It helped me to learn to “let go” and “move on” so that I continued to live and glow rather than be in this depressive, slowly-killing state.
His short stories helped me to reconcile my identity and feel sorry for Koreans on both sides of the Korean Peninsula.
Displaying 1 of 1 review