Mina
Author: Sa-gwa Kim
Publisher: Changbi
324 pages | 210*148mm
| Important! Please read before you order! |
| >>>This book is written in Korean. |
About This Book
The first novel by a budding writer, this impressive work vividly and
trenchantly recreates the dark reality of South Korean teenagers, who
are managed and trained by coercive schools and demanding parents.
Enriched overnight thanks to a winning lottery ticket, Mina’s family
lives in a luxury villa. An only child, the protagonist’s friend Sujeong
excels others in everything including looks, grades, and social status
and duly obeys the rules and order established by grownups, coolly
managing herself without “immature” emotional dissipation. Accordingly,
she disdains Mina, both of whom receive private tutoring in essay
writing for the college entrance examinations, for reading works by
philosophers such as Carl Jung and Gilles Deleuze but, at the same time,
envies her friend’s wealth, as symbolized by the lavish chandelier in
Mina’s house. After hearing of the completely unexpected suicide of Bak
Jiye due to bad grades, her best friend back in primary school, however,
Mina is so shocked that she drops out of school. Frustrated and puzzled
in turn by her friend’s reaction, Sujeong kills the stray cat that she
has brought home by throwing it against the wall, then throws it out of
the window. Although in love with Mina yet unable to understand her
friend’s feelings and to distinguish between love and possessiveness,
Sujeong finally visits her friend one early morning and reveals her
feelings, then stabs Mina to death.
With its realistic depiction of the rough language and impulsive actions
of adolescents, bold stance against adults’ corrupt order, and
light-hearted yet provocative and unconventional style, this first novel
by an emerging writer became an instant talk of the town. In addition,
it dispels any remaining myth about the supposed “innocence” of South
Korean teenagers today, who in fact are bedeviled by the cutthroat
competition of what has been termed the “college entrance exam hell.”
Acclaimed for its gripping portrayal of the psychology of isolation and
deprivation, this volume is all the more significant because new
writers’ first published books are rarely full-length novels nowadays.
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