Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 14, 2020 Ann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Short and packs a punch.
It reminds me of those musicals where they write a story around popular songs. In this one, they wrote a story around gender discrimination statistics in South Korea. I really liked that they cited sources. It wasn't subtle at all but not overtly preachy, just telling things as they are.
Con: there was a part where it seemed like a section was cut out. Not sure if it's a translation thing. ...more

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Jan 21, 2021 Travellinckx rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novel, fiction, asian, terjemahan, feminism

The story is very relevan to woman in general. As a woman, as a wife, as a mother, as a human being, we have layers and layers of duty we sometimes forget who we are, what we want and who we would like to be. And that's devastating. So many wowan have experience burned out, overwhelmed with house chores, peer pressure, endless demands from society and without sistematic support, we are losing ourselves. ...more

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Mar 26, 2021 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-litfic, author-woman, a-reviewed, author-ofcolour, theme-feminist, transl-korean, world-southkorea, z-read-gelesen-2021

Grim feminism from South Korea. The story mixes faux biography with footnotes giving statistics on women's inequalities. Altogether, there is an interesting alternation of summary and scene. The protagonist Kim Jiyoung's life and life choices are used to illustrate larger social frameworks, mainly frameworks that highlight the limitations of a woman's choices. Though set firmly within the South Korean context, the story resonates beyond that. Certainly, the kinds of strictures and pressures expe ...more

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Aug 05, 2020 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: asia, culture, women, feminism

A heartbreaking story of Kim Ji-Yeong, a Korean woman who had to suffer the patriarchal culture in her country. Started from she was a child, until she got married and had a daughter, every aspect of her life has been touched by patriarchy. The injustice of it all made me angry and sad. Especially when I realized that all women are Kim Ji-Yeong, even in this so called modern world and civilization.

The novel itself was written in a combination of semi autobiography, with a bit of facts in researc ...more

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Mar 21, 2021 Deedee rated it did not like it

Shelves: literary-fiction, translation, feminist, locus-debut-novel, world-asia-korea, did-not-finish, book-riot-zodiac, new-york-times-100-notable-2020, read2021x-did-not-finish, asian-literature

Very grim story about a young South Korean woman. There are footnotes referencing sources that prove that the events happening to Kim Jiyoung DID happen to young Korean women 1980-2010 timeframe. I chose to stop reading because (1) very depressing story and (2) reads like a call to action feminist tract rather than a novel.

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