Author: Hwang Sok-yong
Translated by: Chun Kyung-ja
Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 2014
Original title: 무기의 그늘, 1985
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The Shadow Of Arms examines the phenomenon of an intrinsically capitalist war: looking to expand their imperialistic market control to include the rest of Southeast Asia, America’s ‘Vietnamese intervention’ was considered to be the quickest, most efficient means of achieving this end. In essence, the war itself was a kind of business being conducted on a rather grandiose scale. As such, The Shadow Of Arms uses the back alley black markets of the Vietnam War as its stage, a market that turns into a setting more fitting than any jungle to discover the core of the war.
(This translation was originally published in 1994 in the Cornell East Asia Series)
LKL says:
A fascinating and highly readable alternative take on Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
LKL rating: 
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