Love in the Big City

Young is totally fictional, but he feels so real it's almost like a little miracle.
I loved everything about this book, from the introduction to his zany, rebellious friend Jae-Hee, to the heartbreaking process of holding oneself together after having lost a first love, and again after forcing oneself to letting go of loving Gyu-Ho.

Worth a re-read. Started strong but began to drag towards the end (could just be me). Stunned to find a mention of a Malay Singaporean gay man as that is very rare representation. The ending was poignant but sad. Overall a good insight into the triumphs and challenges of queer men living the big city life, as the title goes.

an interesting yet somber read that i wish i could've loved a little bit more. the auto-fictional story that reads like a memoir follows the life of Young Park, our narrator (note the author's name), while he lives his life as a gay man in a big city in his 20s and 30s and all of the trials and tribulations that come with that as well as his struggle with becoming HIV positive. the story is split into 4 parts and the first part was my favorite following his dynamic between him and a best friend. unfortunately each part was not as great as the last and the last 2 parts were very slow. i think a lot of people can relate to this character, it is a very real and accurate depiction of an average queer person coming of age but it felt very sad at times and not in a way that i love to read. Young never truly finds love in the big city and though he is much older by the end of his story, he fails to become any wiser.

Loved it!! One of my favourite reads this year

I love this book from the start until the end

Update in second paragraph*

I tried to like it and I wanted to like it since I heard so many good reviews on it but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I love the first section of the book where Young explores his friendship with Jaehee and the troubles she has been through after that I lost interest but pushed myself to reach the half way mark and made my decision not to finish.

22/02/23
Above is a review of my first attempt reading the book and two days ago I decided to give the book another try. My opinion has done a 180 and as I went on I fell in love with the book, I just wish Jaehee was in parts 2-4 a lot more.

I wanted to like this more. It's a confident translation and an International Booker nominee highlighting the life of a young gay man in a fiercely conservative country that doesn't yet fully acknowledge LBGTQ rights. Young is irreverent, bold and still deeply conflicted and this I'm sure is an important work taken within the context of the larger culture it is borne from. But I just wasn't interested in the meandering love life of a 20 something millennial playing at Sex in the City: Far East edition.

Just wasn't really for me. Didn't really find it interesting and wasn't at all invested in the story.