Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 spans three and a half decades of Korean women's history through the vehicle of Jiyoung, first as a young girl, sister, and daughter, then as a young woman, student, and eventual wife and mother. Cho Nam-Joo blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction in a fascinating way by citing real-world studies and journals that parallel the experiences in our fictional protagonist's life. The grounds all of Jiyoung's experiences in a way that makes them feel more pressing, more urgent. From start to finish, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 narrows in on the ways in which Jiyoung and all of the women in her life are subjugated for their womanhood. The short novel turns history into a story in a way that makes it so easy to connect to, while making it clear that nothing within these pages is truly fictive; everything that happens to Jiyoung is really happening to real Korean women.

Suffocating. Emotional. Bleak. Simple in a good way. Jiyoung's life is so average, so when her mental health declines, it is jarring, because it forces you to confront that womanhood itself, or rather, the socially-constructed requisites of womanhood, can be traumatic.

Content Warnings

kellyinbookland's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

toofondofbooks_'s review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.0

Goodreads describes this book as "The runaway bestseller that helped launch Korea's new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman's psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny." I cannot think of a better description. This book is short, but it packs a punch. It had me angry from beginning to end. There are heavy themes of misogyny throughout the whole book as our main character, Jiyoung, simply cannot catch a break. The narrative of her life, while brief, illustrates perfectly how living under an oppressive patriarchy in Korean culture has messed with this woman's mental health and development. Though this book is specifically about a typical woman from modern day South Korea, I think there are things that happen within it that most women from various cultures can relate to, which horrifies me. I don't feel like I'm super qualified to review a book this important. I'm just a girl who likes books, but I really liked this book and what it had to say about feminism, motherhood, and being an average woman in general. The only thing I think I would change would be that I would've liked it to be longer and to have gone deeper into the psychological aspect of it.

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