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The End of August by Yū Miri tr. Morgan Giles (Tilted Axis)

I thought this was an ambitious novel and fascinating in terms of the historical detail but as a narrative it didn't really work for me:

/review/show...

I know I always say this - but this one is too long!

Some interesting choices as well on language/prose as the Korean/Japanese experience is key to the novel, but which don't help make it an easy read.

In particular it is full of Korean words that are Romanized but untranslated. Such as in this extract which also showcases another distinct stylistic feature, characters thinking while running:



The ilbon saram (일본 사람) is presumably reasonably easy to translate from the gloss given, but the non Korean speaking reader will I suspect not know what say “sikkeureopda�� means (literally 'noisy', more colloquially 'shut up' or 'be quiet') and almost anyone who does would likely find it easier to read 시끄럽다 rather than the Romanized version.

The chapters also are titled in English (sometimes translated as on the first example but sometimes only Romanized as in the 2nd example shown - here baegiljanchi is the 100-day celebration for a new baby), Korean and Japanese:





I assume an equivalent approach was followed on the original although presumably playing only between two languages not three, and Giles is to be commended for her translation. Although the text is something of a distraction: to the non-Korean speaker I suspect much will be skipped and as noted to those (like me) with some familiarity it would have been easier to read in 한글.

I think with our two resident K-Lit-Philes very undecided on this - and having sampled some of the book, this will be the one I don’t read. If it were say 200-300 pages I would give it a go.

Paul wrote: "I know I always say this - but this one is too long!

Some interesting choices as well on language/prose as the Korean/Japanese experience is key to the novel, but which don't help make it an easy..."

Agreed.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I think with our two resident K-Lit-Philes very undecided on this - and having sampled some of the book, this will be the one I don’t read. If it were say 200-300 pages I would give it a go."

It's possible that this might be more appealing to people who aren't that familiar with the territory, there's a lot of historical content that might have been more fascinating if it had been new to me.

I know far less about Korean culture and so enjoyed this aspect probably more, especially all the domestic and social detail. But the stylised telling that started off as quite hypnotic got tiresome over 700 or so pages. I ended up thinking this is both fascinating and flawed.

I think it’s the length combined with the many quirks that is off putting for me. I am also pretty sure that it’s the type of book Paul, RC and Alwynne would all appreciate more than me - so seeing 2 or 3 stars all round is not inspiring. Paul automatically adds a star for small presses but deducts one for length so I think his rating is really a 2 star also.

My genes have read the book even if I haven’t and I think that is where I will leave it!

Alwynne mentioned that this book was originally serialized in Korea and I can see that working better as the stylized prose would have been in smaller chunks.

Agreed RC

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne mentioned that this book was originally serialized in Korea and I can see that working better as the stylized prose would have been in smaller chunks."

And in the Japanese original as well I think.

Actually translating this into Korean must have been odd (or easier?) given the use of, I assume, Korean words in the Japanese text.

But yes chunks would have been better - it is repetitive.

I rather liked this one. And for anyone not familiar with Korean, the anglicised script made it much easier to imagine the sounds and rhythms, particularly the songs. It is long, but the breadth of the story is very ambitious, and if anything it got better the longer it went on.

Pleased to hear that

That’s positive Hugh - maybe if this either wins or gets IB shortlisted I will try it.

There's a more important shortlist coming out Monday which is has a 50/50 chance of making!

My message was meant to say if it either wins RoC or gets IB shortlisted.

I liked this book a lot, but am in no position to compare it to the others because this is the only one I've read.