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This got Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature and I'm taking it as a sign I should re-read this.

"My life was making me anxious. I wanted to escape from it, for just a little while at least."

This book allowed me to do just that: scape. Composed of ten feverish nightmares that can’t be pinpoint to a single genre, but stand as delightful treats to imagination, Chung hovers between reality and fiction, and explores the despicability of human existence through her critique of our social conditions.

Two central themes can be perceived across the stories: patriarchy and capitalism (are we tired of it? Yes. Do we need to keep talking about it? Also yes.) Chung exposes patriarchal settings through stories like The Head and The Embodiment, back to back in the English edition, and The Frozen Finger that question the urge to cave in to unbelievable beauty standards, by 'disposing' everything that is not seen as desirable, a woman’s worth and bodily autonomy. Other stories like Ruler of the Winds and Sands, Cursed Bunny and Snare focus more on how capitalism dehumanizes people and turns them into monsters consumed by greed and envy.

"She knew she was not “being clever.� Where these people learned such tricks to being clever, she didn’t know, nor did she want to know. Making as much money as quickly as possible, buying a larger house and more expensive car, sending your children to expensive English-language kindergartens and competitive private schools, and going on expensive family vacations abroad every season may seem like a prosperous life to some. But it wasn’t the life she wanted."

The pressure to perform well and be successful is also very common in Korea and can lead to estrangement, isolation, or worse. For instance the drama SKY Castle offers an accurate, though satirical portrayal of the consequences that following societal expectations and the need to maintain a 'perfect picture life' can bring. What I know about Korean society I’ve gathered from books, music, films, and conversations with friends, so I can’t claim to understand what is like to be living under their conditions, but ultimately these stories feel universal, the words are carefully selected to build up suspense, only revealing what’s necessary at the time. Brilliant, disturbing, fucked-up in the best way, Chung made an unsettling compilation that is impossible to forget and will haunt me forever.

*Anton Hur is a genius. Not once the translation feels awkward, something extremely difficult to achieve, specially between two languages as different as Korean and English.

“Cursing others leads to two graves.� Anyone who curses another person is sure to end up in a grave themselves"