Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

As a junior in her marketing job Jiyoung is asked to write a report about some marketing research. She does it well, too well, and gets told it reads like an article. What she was supposed to supply was the report the journalists use to write their articles. She goes back, reworks it and subsequently receives a career push when her report is successfull and picked up by multiple outlets.
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This is one of those books where its effect and the whole discourse around it elevates it to another level. It's the life story of a stereotypical South Korean woman, from childhood to university to married life and motherhood, told in a detached analytical voice. Scattered throughout all of her life are the cultural norms that place South Korean women below men. The boys who get served their meals before the girls, the university career advisers who never recommend women for jobs, the workplace colleagues who rather share inappropriate photos instead of reporting them, the women who abort instead of having yet another baby girl, and the supportive husbands who are so understanding yet would never give up an ounce of their own freedom in exchange for a family.

I liked how the story wasn't just stereotypical misogyny, but featured strong and able women, that fought against and succeeded within the system, in their ways (Jiyoung's mom!). Yet, the fine and hard-hitting bottom-line is, that even when presented with all the facts and stats (that Cho Nam-Joo referenced in footnotes) of this ‘report', there are still so many people out there, who can't connect the dots.

Esta novela muestra cómo es la vida de las mujeres coreanas, desde la vida de Kim Ji-young, mostrando a las mujeres de su vida, su hermana, su madre, su abuela, sus compañeras de colegio, universidad y trabajo. A veces novela, a veces ensayo con bibliografía, no solo son cuenta la historia de su protagonista, nos cuenta la historia de las mujeres. Todas las mujeres. Porque sin importar la separación geográfica y cultural, nuestros problemas son transversales.

This novel is scheduled to be released in the US in April 2020 but I obtained an advance reading copy at a trade show. I was looking forward to reading another Korean novel in translation, but this was truly disappointing. It can be summarized as follows: Korea is still a terribly sexist country and professional women have an extremely hard time, especially if they are married with children, which is news to no one. The title character suffers this fate and has a breakdown. End of novel. The jacket blurb describes the prose as “eerie,” but I would call it dull, and I doubt this is a translation problem. I had hoped to write and place a review of this book in a magazine or newspaper, but I really have nothing good to say about it.

thích chương đầu và chương cuối,
khoảng giữa gật gù vì những điều tác giả muốn nói và cũng vì... buồn ngủ ._.

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sau khi xem phim thấy truyện hay hơn nửa sao :-?
cái ending của phim thực sự bực mình đấy