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A review by lizlinguist
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
4.0
I just want to headline this review with my overriding thought, which I'm not seeing expressed in other reviews: this book is not primarily about a book shop. It's about finding yourself and your passions. This is achieved *through* books for several of the characters, but by no means all of them.
This is a really odd book. But it's also a good book. I don't know that I'd rush to recommend it as it's such an eclectic collection of themes and characters that I would struggle to say "fans of X would love this book".
It's at once a very gentle slice-of-life (that's certainly the case for the first few chapters) and a scathing criticism of late-stage capitalism. It evangelizes self-determination and working for what you love, avoiding burnout and having fulfilling hobbies in a way that isn't at all preachy - it's the characters speaking their own minds to the eachother and not the author speaking to the reader.
Each character is well articulated. They have their own struggles and goals and because this book is all about lacking direction and finding oneself what's interesting is often these goals are not well-articulated initially since even the characters themselves don't know what they want. This was a really refreshing and human take that I really appreciated. Most books I read feature some kind of quest, big or small, that the characters are determined to complete. The characters of Hyunam-Dong just want to be happy, and I think that's not only admirable, but it's very clever to have constructed a proper narrative around such a non-traditional arc. It's very satisfying to see each character able to find some small passion or make some decision for themselves. The power of community really shines through in this narrative.
This is a really odd book. But it's also a good book. I don't know that I'd rush to recommend it as it's such an eclectic collection of themes and characters that I would struggle to say "fans of X would love this book".
It's at once a very gentle slice-of-life (that's certainly the case for the first few chapters) and a scathing criticism of late-stage capitalism. It evangelizes self-determination and working for what you love, avoiding burnout and having fulfilling hobbies in a way that isn't at all preachy - it's the characters speaking their own minds to the eachother and not the author speaking to the reader.
Each character is well articulated. They have their own struggles and goals and because this book is all about lacking direction and finding oneself what's interesting is often these goals are not well-articulated initially since even the characters themselves don't know what they want. This was a really refreshing and human take that I really appreciated. Most books I read feature some kind of quest, big or small, that the characters are determined to complete. The characters of Hyunam-Dong just want to be happy, and I think that's not only admirable, but it's very clever to have constructed a proper narrative around such a non-traditional arc. It's very satisfying to see each character able to find some small passion or make some decision for themselves. The power of community really shines through in this narrative.