Random House, 2007 Read a typical book which espouses liberal free-trade globalisation and a typical reaction is “Yes, but…” Books such as “Lexus and the Olive Tree” are well written, and carry you along in the sweep of the argument. But you have a niggling sense of unease that something must be wrong with what’s … [Read More]
Category: Book Reviews (page 14)
Tom Coyner and Song-Hyon Jang: Mastering Business in Korea
(Seoul Selection, 2007) With a title like “Mastering Business in Korea” the current book might well turn off the casual reader. But as well as having, as its title suggests, a business angle, it can also be used as a more general cultural guide. And because this is a practical book written by people who … [Read More]
Book review: Kim Hong-joon: Kim Ki-young
Kim Ki-young, Ed Kim Hong-joon KOFIC Korean Film Directors Series Seoul Selection, 2007 KOFIC’s enterprise in bringing out this series is greatly to be welcomed. This current instalment is particularly welcome as English-language materials on Kim Ki-young are few and far between. (Chris Berry’s web project, House of Kim Ki-young, seems to be out of … [Read More]
Chung Sung-ill: Im Kwon-taek
(Seoul Selection, 2007) Together with its sister publication, the work on Kim Ki-young, this book is the fourth and fifth in KOFIC’s series of monographs on individual Korean directors. It’s also the first time that KOFIC has charged for them. The first three were available for free download from the KOFIC website: these are only … [Read More]
Kim Hunggyu: Understanding Korean Literature
ME Sharpe, 1997 Written in 1986 and expertly translated by Robert Fouser ten years later, this is a highly readable basic introduction to the wide variety of Korean literary forms. The scope of the work includes oral literature, literature written in Korean but using Chinese characters, and, perhaps controversially, literature written in classical Chinese, as … [Read More]
Book review: James Church — A Corpse in the Koryo
James Church: A Corpse in the Koryo Thomas Dunne Books, 2006 Inspector O is a maverick. No respecter of authority, he answers back to his boss, he drives the departmental car without permission, and even, horror of horrors, refuses to wear his Kim Il-sung badge. Not another cliché cop, you might groan. Well, he doesn’t … [Read More]
Charlie Crane: Welcome to Pyongyang
Chris Boot, 2007 The new photo book on Pyongyang can be appreciated on a number of levels. Firstly, there’s the literal level: it’s a collection of well-taken photos, with captions provided by the North Korean Tourist Board. But like it or not, whenever you see anything in which the North Koreans have had a hand, … [Read More]
Oh Jung-hee: The Bird
Telegram Books, 2007 Originally published as 새, 2003 Translated by Jenny Wang Medina Another of those enigmatic, slightly depressing modern Korean novels which causes you to have sympathy with the large number of Koreans who are turning to Japanese novels for their entertainment. Set during the mid 90s economic slump, the story chronicles the lives … [Read More]
Lee Young-il and Choe Young-chol: The History of Korean Cinema
Jimdoondang Publishing Co, Seoul, 1988 I’m sure this book has a readership, but I’m not sure what it is. It is so badly written that it encourages skim-reading and thus is not particularly attractive for the general reader, while the index is so poor that its use as an academic reference tool is limited. As … [Read More]
James Salter: The Hunters
Penguin 2007 (originally published 1956) A ripping yarn set among the US fighter pilots in the Korean war. Apart from the passing references to Korean houseboys, and the fact that the dogfights take place over the river Yalu, there’s nothing to distinguish this novel plot-wise from your average Commando war mag. There’s the experienced and … [Read More]
Martin Limón: The Door to Bitterness
Martin Limón’s fourth book in the series featuring George Sueño and Ernie Bascom continues some familiar themes. Our drink-sodden heroes, officers in the CID of the US 8th Army in Seoul in the 1970s, as usual demonstrate their physical strength in tackling villains and their iron constitutions as their bodies are pummelled by alcohol and … [Read More]
Choi In-hun: Reflections on a mask
Two Novellas, Reflections on a Mask and Christmas Carol, by Choi In-hun (최인훈) tr Stephen Moore & Shi Chung Park Moore Homa & Sekey Books, Dumont, New Jersey 2002. Overall: . The novellas are discussed individually below. (1) Reflections on a Mask, first published 1960 By no means an easy book. The subject is a … [Read More]
West, Philip and Suh, Ji-moon: Remembering the “forgotten war”
The Korean War through Literature and Art (M.E. Sharpe, 2001) An interesting and approachable collection of papers addressing how the Korean war is represented in the arts of the different countries involved. Chapters address Korean film, visual arts, and poetry, and also how the war impacted the lives and work of six Korean novelists. For … [Read More]
Kim Young-na: Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea
Kim Young-na: Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea (Hollym, 2005) A brief but action-packed overview of twentieth century Korean art history, which can be read alongside Kim’s other book covering the same period, published by Lawrence King. While her Lawrence King book is a collection of essays focusing on particular subject areas, the Hollym book … [Read More]
Book Review: Patti Kim — A cab called Reliable
Patti Kim: A cab called Reliable St Martins Press, New York, 1997 “A novel about growing up in America” reads the bland strapline to this book’s title. A novel about ironies, about mistaken stereotypes, about the travails of multicultural American and the Korean diaspora, would be more accurate, if less catchy. Presumably semi- if not … [Read More]
Kajiyama Toshiyuki: The Clan Records – Five Stories of Korea
The Clan Records – Five Stories of Korea: The Clan Records | Seeking Life Amidst Death: The Last Day of the War | When the Hibiscus Blooms | The Remembered Shadow of the Yi Dynasty | A Crane on a Dunghill: Seoul in 1936 Kajiyama Toshiyuki, translated by Yoshiko Dykstra (University of Hawaii Press, 1995) … [Read More]