Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Kim Čijong — ročník 82

BIG oof. Reading this only a couple days after the 2024 election results was certainly a choice lol.

I find myself, upon finishing the book, recalling so many moments during my korean-american upbringing listening to my mom process how she wished she weren’t Korean, how she forbade me to marry a Korean man, how she never wanted to return to Korea… Some of those sentiments have changed for her since then, though not all, and as a 26yo married woman, fast approaching the time to begin a family, I found this book a really harrowing and brutal memoir of Korean society and patriarchal society at large. Yes, Korea is unique to its own culture and atmosphere—but sadly, even as an American, I could relate to far more than I wanted to be able to.

I can only imagine how many little nuggets of gold were lost in the translation of this book from Korean to English. Still, Nam-joo’s unflinching portrait of misogyny and motherhood is both chilling and humbling. It brings to light questions of progress, how to bring about progress, even who can truly drive progress. And the end is unapologetically realistic. But even then, the thread of hope—of feminine unity—that persists throughout her narrative gives hope. It’s all the women along the way that hold us up, bring us to the light. It’s the women who are afraid, yet still speak, the women who are small, but make themselves big that inspire us. We can be that for each other, and one day, the fight won’t be so hard.

I highly recommend this read to women and men of any background, though unfortunately, the men who need to read it most will probably not bother.

Content Warnings

katndrsn's review against another edition

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dark informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

shaleen64's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A brilliant example of feminist fiction, but one that is based on well referenced facts.

It covers a range of sexism related issues, without brushing over any of them, in very few pages.

Unfortunately, it’s a book all women will in some way relate to and one all men should read to consider the impact of their actions or lack thereof.

Content Warnings

ewwa18's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

rnbhargava's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is as informative as it is engaging and heartbreaking. I’m mostly leaving it at 4.5 rather than a 5 because there’s always another side or opinion to any highly accurate fictional depiction of a certain time period

Content Warnings