Untold Night and Day
Ratings16
Average rating3.5
I went in not knowing what this book is about and I'm glad I did because I also went out not knowing what it was about haha
This book feels and reads like a fever dream. At one point, I didn't know where I was, what was happening and if this is all really true (within the novel, of course) or not. There are certain things that are constant throughout the book but holding onto them really didn't help.
I was completely immersed and was a little bit disoriented when I finished it. It was quite a unique experience and I enjoyed that a lot. Will have to reread this one day to see if it still has the same effect on me now that I know what's going to happen and if I can maybe make more connections and figure out what it's about.
Atmospheric, interconnected looping stories glazed over with mystery in an extraordinary dream-like journey make this book both weird and brilliant. Whether it's the translation or just Bae Suah's writing, the ‘voice' takes a bit to get used to, but once you push through that first disorienting feeling, you'll be well rewarded with an exceptional reading experience. I love books that manage to wrap you up in the environment so thoroughly that you can feel, touch and smell it all. Bae Suah's descriptive language makes you feel sticky with the humid heat of a summer in Seoul, smell it's putrid aromas and visually put yourself in the spaces and places. Clocking in at 152 pages, it's stunning how much she crams into this book. I feel it deserves multiple readings to really take in all the interconnection taking place and to muse on what she's trying to convey. Reading this book is an experience as much as it is a story. I really enjoyed it!
A mesmerizing dream-like journey through the retired actress, Ayami's senses. The reader is unsure what is happening and it continues to be challenging by the end. The language is suffocating, descriptive, awe-inspiring. A perfect book to read on a sweltering summer day.
Dialog-heavy, thought-provoking, quick-paced.
An understanding of Korean culture and its other references can make a difference while reading. There are a lot of references to people in all sorts of art mediums, but also this book is connected to the author's Korean identity.
This was an extremely strange and disorienting book. I liked the writing style and catching the recursive references but in the end I'm not really one hundred percent sure what happened.
‘'By the time the heatwave came to an end, nothing remained of the people but ash. They became fused into panes of glass: grey and opaque.''
Five people search the streets of Seoul for something to grasp at. An actress, an aspiring poet, a teacher, a director, a novelist from abroad. A group of individuals linked by a personal story of loneliness, unfulfillment and the fear of the unknown. But who are they? Why are they wandering in a city smothered by an absurd heatwave? There is no wind, no bird songs, no colours in the sky. A radio switches on and off by itself, blindness and haziness walk hand-in-hand with surreal dreams, apparitions, faces with scars and blood-stained clothes.
A day and a night in a loop where each character is merged into the other, events are seen as if from the window of a car driving in the night, the city lights coming alive and fading away. It is a dinner in a blackout restaurant, a visit to a gallery, the reading of a poem, the performance of an audio theatre. It is life depicted in black-and-white photographs, phone calls with no caller or recipient. It is a drop of sweat, a pianist in the park, a cry of fear in the face of the absolute void...
The Translator's Note by Deborah Smith is as beautiful and haunting as the novel itself. Her translation elevates the novel to an other realm.
‘'Don't go far away, even for just one day, becauseBecause... a day is long, andI will wait for you.''
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Deborah Smith again translates with florid language, evoking a surreal landscape where phrases echo word for word throughout the novel. Stories overlap and intersect. Episodes overlay each other as if written on diaphanous paper filling out and filling in the larger narrative as each page is laid on top of the other.
You have to be in the mood for this. It's so contemplatively weird, intent on pushing you off balance and messing with your equilibrium. A hazy fever dream in the liminal space between waking and sleep. Honestly, how many more cliches can I jot down here. I enjoyed the experience, I'm just ill equipped to really talk about it without resorting to all this folderol.