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nini23's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Folklorn is a complex intricately constructed story of a Korean American family, author Angela Hur Mi Young calls it her 'true literary/spiritual debut.' I can definitely appreciate the rich overlays, whorls and interlocking elements of Korean folktales, intergenerational trauma, diaspora alienation, mental health, ghosts that Ms Hur has crafted with such detail and skill. Thanks to Erewhon and Netgalley for kindly providing an eARC, apologies for the lateness of the review. While I'm normally a fairly speedy reader, I found it overwhelming to read all in one go. Barbs, hurts and trauma make it a heart-wrenching read.
Elsa Park is a postdoc experimental physicist studying the 'ghost particles' neutrinos invisible to the naked eye and measurable only by their effects post collision. When we encounter her, she's just finished a cool research stint in Antarctica and returning to Sweden. Recently, Elsa has started 'seeing'/hallucinating another invisible ghost from her childhood, a Korean girl dressed in white with a long braid tied with a red ribbon. This childhood imaginary friend is her cryptic guide to the fatalistic Korean folktales that her mother passed on to her, do they prophesize the fate of the Korean women in the family or give a clue to the mysterious 'other girl' that her mother gave birth to in Korea years ago? The Park family members have a difficult relationship. Elsa's father was in the Korean civil war; scarred by that, his father's polygamy and racism in the United States, took it out by physically abusing his wife and son. Elsa's mother had a wooden chest of hanboks that she never wore and has been in a comatose state since Elsa's teen years. Elsa's brother Chris was supposed to be the golden son but suffered from epilepsy and depression, he seems resentful at being under Mr Park's thumb at their autobody business in California and of Elsa's freedom. Then there are the family ghosts, her maternal grandmother and aunt who died during the war, her paternal aunts who were lost in the wartime pandemonium. Are the Korean women doomed to be sacrificed and martyred just like in the folktales and mythology?
The metaphysical elements that make up Folklorn result in a potent mix. The disorienting snow white blindness of Antarctica, the shocking violence that the Parks experienced in the United States, the fairytale fable stone settings of a remote Swedish island, the displacement and alienation that Korean transnational adoptees feel, the surreal appearances of this ghostly Korean girl, the palimpsest Korean folklore, the universal scientific mystery of the neutrinos and anti-neutrinos - in the hands of a less skilled writer, it would all have gone haywire but in Ms Hur's capable hands, it all came together into a satisfying brilliant well-rounded work. Normally, a POC woman in advanced STEM academia plus folklore and mythology would be catnip to me anyway but Folklorn exceeded my expectations.
Highly recommend.
Elsa Park is a postdoc experimental physicist studying the 'ghost particles' neutrinos invisible to the naked eye and measurable only by their effects post collision. When we encounter her, she's just finished a cool research stint in Antarctica and returning to Sweden. Recently, Elsa has started 'seeing'/hallucinating another invisible ghost from her childhood, a Korean girl dressed in white with a long braid tied with a red ribbon. This childhood imaginary friend is her cryptic guide to the fatalistic Korean folktales that her mother passed on to her, do they prophesize the fate of the Korean women in the family or give a clue to the mysterious 'other girl' that her mother gave birth to in Korea years ago? The Park family members have a difficult relationship. Elsa's father was in the Korean civil war; scarred by that, his father's polygamy and racism in the United States, took it out by physically abusing his wife and son. Elsa's mother had a wooden chest of hanboks that she never wore and has been in a comatose state since Elsa's teen years. Elsa's brother Chris was supposed to be the golden son but suffered from epilepsy and depression, he seems resentful at being under Mr Park's thumb at their autobody business in California and of Elsa's freedom. Then there are the family ghosts, her maternal grandmother and aunt who died during the war, her paternal aunts who were lost in the wartime pandemonium. Are the Korean women doomed to be sacrificed and martyred just like in the folktales and mythology?
The metaphysical elements that make up Folklorn result in a potent mix. The disorienting snow white blindness of Antarctica, the shocking violence that the Parks experienced in the United States, the fairytale fable stone settings of a remote Swedish island, the displacement and alienation that Korean transnational adoptees feel, the surreal appearances of this ghostly Korean girl, the palimpsest Korean folklore, the universal scientific mystery of the neutrinos and anti-neutrinos - in the hands of a less skilled writer, it would all have gone haywire but in Ms Hur's capable hands, it all came together into a satisfying brilliant well-rounded work. Normally, a POC woman in advanced STEM academia plus folklore and mythology would be catnip to me anyway but Folklorn exceeded my expectations.
Highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Abortion and War
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