I'll Be Right There by Kyung-sook Shin
Sunday, January 18, 2015
I'll Be Right There by Kyung-sook Shin
Publisher: Other Press
Publication Date: June 3, 2014
Pages: 336
Source: purchased
Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
How friendship, European literature, and a charismatic professor defy war, oppression, and the absurd Set in 1980s South Korea amid the tremors of political revolution, I’ll Be Right There follows Jung Yoon, a highly literate, twenty-something woman, as she recounts her tragic personal history as well as those of her three intimate college friends. When Yoon receives a distressing phone call from her ex-boyfriend after eight years of separation, memories of a tumultuous youth begin to resurface, forcing her to re-live the most intense period of her life. With profound intellectual and emotional insight, she revisits the death of her beloved mother, the strong bond with her now-dying former college professor, the excitement of her first love, and the friendships forged out of a shared sense of isolation and grief. Yoon’s formative experiences, which highlight both the fragility and force of personal connection in an era of absolute uncertainty, become immediately palpable. Shin makes the foreign and esoteric utterly familiar: her use of European literature as an interpreter of emotion and experience bridges any gaps between East and West. Love, friendship, and solitude are the same everywhere, as this book makes poignantly clear.-- Goodreads
In
all honesty, this book review is very difficult to write. This book is something I need to get
out on paper, something that I just need to explain because... feelings. It's the type of book I want to leave behind another book on my shelf, pretend it was
unread so when I return to it, I will relive the same emotions I feel now. I don't know how to explain it but this book has taken me on a rollercoaster and still stuck high in the sky. The book was pure genius, pure awesome-ness (and I don't mean that slang term that
everyone uses- I'm talking actual AWE!).
Let me explain. Continue Reading...
I
cannot explain this book with a mere summary because that simple paragraph
would not suffice. I'll Be Right There
is about life and not just the fictional life of the character, Jung Yoon, but
of my life and of your life, and everyone's life and how we are entwined into
the world's life. For a lack of a better
quote, "We are all in this together" (High School Musical -no one is
ever to old for that).
I
finished this book late at night, when the rest of the house was asleep, and
was surprised to find my cheeks wet with tears.
Seriously, I don't cry while reading or while watching films. I rarely cry at all, in fact. There was something about this book that made
me weep. Something about its
truthfulness that touched me so much so that I cried.
Without
giving too much away, I want to bring your attention to the title.
I'll Be Right There is translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell, who I
had the wonderful chance of meeting while in Korea. The interview I had with her should be posted
soon. Translated work is always similar
and at the same time different. Sora
Kim-Russell did a grand job with this work.
Kyung-sook Shin's voice, best known for Please Look After Mom, also
shined through the translation. The
collaboration between author and translator worked very well to bring together
the English version.
I'll
Be Right There. The outstanding title for the outstanding book. Talk of the title is mentioned briefly in the
novel. With whom can you say the words
of the title to someone and have it be the truth? And as time passes, will that person remain
the same or will there come a time that you saying those words not mean
anything at all? The title itself
personifies the whole book (personifies is not the best word but I'm trying to
explain what Shin has done here so cleverly).
Kyung-sook Shin is telling her readers how gentle life can be, how
powerful and meaningful, and how rough and sad life can be as well.
For
graduating high school students and college students, the go-to book is Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. Seuss
tells us with the title: if you can dream it, you can do it. Instead of getting a graduate that book, gift
them I'll Be Right There. It makes
readers ask the important questions and keep asking, long after the novel is
over.
While
I was in South Korea, I connected with the protagonist as if we were the same
person- that's how close I related to her.
Jung Yoon, a college student, tries to find her path in a sea of roads
that could lead anywhere. Even after the
initial relationship between reader and character, I decided to follow some of
her adventure. In the beginning of the
book, Yoon describes her walks in the city-- I followed her footsteps among
many landmarks around Seoul, South Korea.
Even if you do not have access to Seoul, South Korea (to take walks and
try on Jung Yoon's shoes), the character still proves to be relatable with her
inner thoughts bubbling to the surface of the page.
The
ending was hard to believe. Not that it
was unbelievable, but just that it was difficult to face as truth. I wanted to be a child, stamp my foot, and
swiftly shake my head. I wanted an adult
to nudge my shoulder and say with a sigh, "Well, that's how it is. That's life." I'm still trying to admit that Kyung-sook
Shin left it at that. The ending was not
disappointing. The ending was just how
it was supposed to end. That is how it
is.
I'll
Be Right There by Kyung-sook Shin is a fantastic work of art which immersed me
in its mesmerizing grasp with its poetic writing, life-like characters, and
reality-check plot. It is most
definitely worth picking up.
Cover:
5
Writing
Style: 5
Plot:
4
Characters:
5
Ending:
5
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