“Kim JiYoung is thirty-three years old, or thirty-four in Korean age.”
One review for this book says it’s not really a novel, but a documentary of a kind of life in contemporary Korea. It’s not correct because it’s a novel about woman’s life, and just because there’s parallels to be found with lots of other people in similar experiences, well, I am not sure what else you might call it but a novel.
Kim JiYoung is born in 1982 and one of the first things she learns about her life is that it’s likely her parents actually wanted a boy. We meet her in her mid 30s as she’s facing her husband of a few years, distraught and furious, and he can’t seem to recognize her any more. There’s some implication that she might be experiencing a break, but whether that’s an actual diagnosis or a metaphor (or both) is not clear yet.
We go back to her college days where she initially studies to become an elementary school teacher, a job she doesn’t really want, but is pressured into studying for because of ingrained misogyny. She decides against it ultimately and begins looking for a job that is more in the business world and finds a job writing reports and press releases. She slowly begins to realize that in this job she is not taken seriously, passed over raises and promotions for men in the same or lesser roles than her, and when at one point she gets pressured to get drunk with a client, she begins to become very angry. She is harassed, but not assaulted, but her husband is so mad at her that she can’t contain herself. Later, when she becomes pregnant (not even sure if she wants a child), the pressures continue to grow, as does her marginalization. The novel builds to the moment we began with.
