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yellowbitxh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
alen97's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jenneregrette's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
monkeelino's review against another edition
3.0
I probably would not have read this had it not been part of a Booker package offered by Tilted Axis Press. I wanted to try both the press and the 2022 International Booker Prize winner and if you're going to have books shipped overseas you can't just choose one, can you? I mean, that's gotta be bad for the planet or something... (the number of justifications I come up with for purchasing books is countless)...
I thought I might have more to say about this book if I waited to write the review, but I really don't. I liked the energy of it and the way Park seems to capture the uncertainty and yearning of youth. It felt like an important book, by which I mean a book that gives both voice and representation to a Korean gay culture that hasn’t had that sort of exposure and artistic/public acknowledgement in the past (at least, that’s what I’m assuming). It started out as two short stories that Park connected to two more short stories to create something larger, but, presumably because of this, it had a very uneven feel to me. It excels at capturing vulnerability and longing, evokes a kind of nostalgia for coming-of-age hedonism, and does really well to depict the kind of outed closetedness still at play socially. Probably its most memorable aspect is the book's narrative voice which effectively combines insecurity and ascerbic wit. Interestingly, now that I'm reflecting on it, I found Young's relationships with the females in his life (his best friend/roommate and his mother) much more interesting than his romantic ones.
I would say I respected this book more for its cultural/symbolic significance than for its literary merit and entertainment value.
I thought I might have more to say about this book if I waited to write the review, but I really don't. I liked the energy of it and the way Park seems to capture the uncertainty and yearning of youth. It felt like an important book, by which I mean a book that gives both voice and representation to a Korean gay culture that hasn’t had that sort of exposure and artistic/public acknowledgement in the past (at least, that’s what I’m assuming). It started out as two short stories that Park connected to two more short stories to create something larger, but, presumably because of this, it had a very uneven feel to me. It excels at capturing vulnerability and longing, evokes a kind of nostalgia for coming-of-age hedonism, and does really well to depict the kind of outed closetedness still at play socially. Probably its most memorable aspect is the book's narrative voice which effectively combines insecurity and ascerbic wit. Interestingly, now that I'm reflecting on it, I found Young's relationships with the females in his life (his best friend/roommate and his mother) much more interesting than his romantic ones.
I would say I respected this book more for its cultural/symbolic significance than for its literary merit and entertainment value.
vivekisms's review against another edition
5.0
Sang Young Park’s prose along with the translation of Anton Hur did for me what Sally Rooney couldn’t, and I have finally found my closure for not enjoying any of Rooney’s works.
Disclaimer: This is the only time I have brought up Rooney in this review.
Love in the Big City is again one of the International Booker 2022 Long-listed titles that resonated with me like no other, besides Heaven. It is a story of friendship, of love, of lust, and essentially of what it is to navigate all of this in a big city. It is messy, it is loud, and sometimes insufferable as well – the way all love is meant to be, but Sang Young Park and Anton Hur give it another dimension – that of pained realisation and temperaments that constantly hover on the page.
The story is of the narrator, Young, and his coming-of-age – from college to postgraduate life in Seoul. The book is about the loves of his life (some not so much loves as episodes of lust) – his roommate, Jaehee who moves out after marriage, his cancer-stricken mother, his activist ex he calls Hyung, and Gyu-ho, who makes up most of the second half of the novel.
As a middle-aged (I cannot even bring myself to say it but it’s the truth) gay man in India, I could relate to so much of the book. Of the relationship with the mother – constantly mercurial, of the men in his life, and of a woman who is your best friend and most of all the gay identity that runs throughout the book.
Young is complicated. It is not easy to like Young and yet you do, because we see so much of ourselves in Young, at least I did. We lead quiet queer lives, till it isn’t all that quiet anymore. The transformation of the queer life from the 20s to mid-30s is mind-boggling. We go from one extreme to another. We want to be visible and that’s what Young does till he doesn’t want to be unacknowledged.
Relationships are fragile, emotions even more so. The translation by Anton Hur depicts all of this and more, adding a new dimension of his own to the novel. The pride and shame and loneliness of being gay is so apparent and palpable that it scared me as a single gay man in the big city – where everything is big and sometimes all you need is small, tender expressions of love. I search for them. Constantly.
Disclaimer: This is the only time I have brought up Rooney in this review.
Love in the Big City is again one of the International Booker 2022 Long-listed titles that resonated with me like no other, besides Heaven. It is a story of friendship, of love, of lust, and essentially of what it is to navigate all of this in a big city. It is messy, it is loud, and sometimes insufferable as well – the way all love is meant to be, but Sang Young Park and Anton Hur give it another dimension – that of pained realisation and temperaments that constantly hover on the page.
The story is of the narrator, Young, and his coming-of-age – from college to postgraduate life in Seoul. The book is about the loves of his life (some not so much loves as episodes of lust) – his roommate, Jaehee who moves out after marriage, his cancer-stricken mother, his activist ex he calls Hyung, and Gyu-ho, who makes up most of the second half of the novel.
As a middle-aged (I cannot even bring myself to say it but it’s the truth) gay man in India, I could relate to so much of the book. Of the relationship with the mother – constantly mercurial, of the men in his life, and of a woman who is your best friend and most of all the gay identity that runs throughout the book.
Young is complicated. It is not easy to like Young and yet you do, because we see so much of ourselves in Young, at least I did. We lead quiet queer lives, till it isn’t all that quiet anymore. The transformation of the queer life from the 20s to mid-30s is mind-boggling. We go from one extreme to another. We want to be visible and that’s what Young does till he doesn’t want to be unacknowledged.
Relationships are fragile, emotions even more so. The translation by Anton Hur depicts all of this and more, adding a new dimension of his own to the novel. The pride and shame and loneliness of being gay is so apparent and palpable that it scared me as a single gay man in the big city – where everything is big and sometimes all you need is small, tender expressions of love. I search for them. Constantly.
brian_be_reading's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
lexiemeggen's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
sierra_burrous's review against another edition
4.0
This book started off as one that was a little difficult for me to get into. And it could just be because I was on a book hang over from reading something that I do thoroughly enjoyed that I wasn’t really in the headspace for something a little slower and more introspective. But this book really is fantastic. You follow a Gay man through his daily life, his struggles to find a meaningful and loving relationship in Seoul South Korea, and all the barriers that can come with that from what others think, to parents being in denial and more. I think this was a really great read in the end.
ohlizzy's review against another edition
3.0
Anton Hur does an amazing translating Sang Young Park’s humor and ironical tone. The narrator loses the grip on his plot towards the end, but a win for the gays in Korea nonetheless.
xtine197275020's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75