Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? A novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived.
The novella is about the life of kim ji young , the typical life of a Korean Child, Girl , Women , Wife and mother , the book is devised in several chapters each discusses a stage of Kim ji young’s life in a society that has its own way in treating females that is not really different than the society I live among ;
My opinion :
The writing style :
one of the things I like about the Korean cultural work that is the calm vibes it radiates , this book is a sample of that , you will go with Ji young nim through some difficulties that aren’t easy to pass without a storm of rage , tension and emotional expressions Yet the writer explains the scene for you with few words about how jiyoung felt , and leaves the rest to you , it’s up to you to put yourself in her shoes , the writer make sure she talks less to make YOU talk more about it with yourself , a way to digest the idea better
One thing I didn’t like : the narrator sometimes changed randomly and it confuses me to know who’s talking ,
The plot :
I mentioned previously how the book were devised , and that’s a basic way to narrate which gives the vibes of a biography , and here is another special thing about this novella : generally we tell stories about the unique and the uncommon , but here ! it’s about an ordinary girl that we can bring thousands of other girls who went through the same , and that’s the thing , thanks to the writer who used her pen to Speak up about the misogyny , mistreatment , micro-aggression females face in Korea as a pixel of the big picture ( the world )
To make it clear : i don’t care whether you’ll call me feminist or not but I do care about women’s right and I do see what’s going wrong in my society and what I hate most is the invisible underestimation ; the little words that can break women’s dream , motivation , and being told how she should feel , blaming the victim if it’s a SHE .. here is an example from the book ( not quotes ) :
-When the mother told jiyoung sister that : “ you shouldn’t pursue your dream job or go to your dream college because you won’t be able to take care of your husband and kids in the future “ said that to an 18yo unmarried girl who’s life is just about to start
-When the teacher told the little kid jiyoung that the boy who was picking on her and bullying her , actually likes her !
-When jiyoung was blamed for smiling outside and being cheerful and not lowering down her skirt which is school uniform because she was followed by a freak and low-key sexually harassed
These are few scenes that were stuck up in my head but the book is full of this frustrating moments that you maybe laughed at if you make a big fuss about it ! and for this exact reason I’d love to recommend this book not only to females who feel bad for themselves for the treatment they get , but also to everyone who can’t see where the problem is , and maybe who are part of the problem, maybe reading this book makes you give more attention to the words you use and gives you a little tour in the opposite angle to see things differently .
Let me not forget to mention that there were sometimes where I couldn’t relate to jiyoung and I didn’t see myself in her , sometimes where I don’t fully agree with her .
It took me a while to warp up what i want to say about this book , one thing i can assure you , as a medical student is that i passed through it and i will never forget how it made me feel
“There is a moment, a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living. We are never so wise as when we live in this moment.”
it took me so long to decide how to talk about this subject , i didn’t want to really review it , because i don’t really care about how the book is well written or not more than how the Story did effect me , so let’s just call it a ‘review ‘ for the moment ;
So first of all , you should know that i’m a beginner in english too ; and it comes some times when i stop reading a book because it’s way to hard for me .. but i don’t stop looking , till i find the one , and this is what i would like to give you as an advice too : Do not underestimate your capacities , there must be a book which you can read and understand fully ; even tho i don’t understand every part of the book too because we are growing anyways right ? ..
Misscpecial 