A review by oddly
City of Ash and Red by Pyun Hye-young
3.0
A contagious disease in an unnamed country is upsetting the balance of society, and our unnamed narrator, who thinks he is moving to this country for a job opportunity instead gets lost in a tangled web of bureaucracy, mountains of trash and the vermin that come with it, and questions about the life he left behind.
Hye-Young Pyun’s novel [b:The Hole|31213272|The Hole|Hye-Young Pyun|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1473929444s/31213272.jpg|51867833], which won the Shirley Jackson award, felt to me an entirely different style of writing from this book. It is actually impressive how different these books are; I wouldn’t have recognized that they came from the same author. While The Hole is an insular and claustrophobic story that leans heavily on the build of dread throughout and the main character’s lack of ability to do anything about his situation, City of Ash and Red has a much larger story to tell.
This book truly owes a great debt to Kafka, whose witty and frustrating satire seems hidden behind many of the books strange hierarchical paths of confusion that seem to swallow the narrator whole. Throughout, he tries to get in touch with the person who supposedly got him the job, but between language barriers, the disease making everyone extra suspicious, the red tape of pointless paperwork that seems to get nothing accomplished, and the fact that point of contact has such a common name that he (or she?) might as well be anyone on the street, he can’t get any information that is useful.
The book is very dark and bleak for the character, but at the same time there is a humorous undercurrent at the pure absurdity of his situation, and it is pure Kafka.
His journey spirals downward rapidly, his daily life dissolving into something that barely resembles living and his mind deteriorating with his isolation from his mother country and any truth that he thought he knew about himself.
Parts of the narrative felt underdeveloped to me and the full impact of the book fell a bit flat, but this has to be one of the more unique and strange apocalyptic narratives I have ever read.
My thanks to Skyhorse Publishing for sending me an advance copy of this book to read and review.
Hye-Young Pyun’s novel [b:The Hole|31213272|The Hole|Hye-Young Pyun|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1473929444s/31213272.jpg|51867833], which won the Shirley Jackson award, felt to me an entirely different style of writing from this book. It is actually impressive how different these books are; I wouldn’t have recognized that they came from the same author. While The Hole is an insular and claustrophobic story that leans heavily on the build of dread throughout and the main character’s lack of ability to do anything about his situation, City of Ash and Red has a much larger story to tell.
This book truly owes a great debt to Kafka, whose witty and frustrating satire seems hidden behind many of the books strange hierarchical paths of confusion that seem to swallow the narrator whole. Throughout, he tries to get in touch with the person who supposedly got him the job, but between language barriers, the disease making everyone extra suspicious, the red tape of pointless paperwork that seems to get nothing accomplished, and the fact that point of contact has such a common name that he (or she?) might as well be anyone on the street, he can’t get any information that is useful.
The book is very dark and bleak for the character, but at the same time there is a humorous undercurrent at the pure absurdity of his situation, and it is pure Kafka.
His journey spirals downward rapidly, his daily life dissolving into something that barely resembles living and his mind deteriorating with his isolation from his mother country and any truth that he thought he knew about himself.
Parts of the narrative felt underdeveloped to me and the full impact of the book fell a bit flat, but this has to be one of the more unique and strange apocalyptic narratives I have ever read.
My thanks to Skyhorse Publishing for sending me an advance copy of this book to read and review.