Reviews

Table for One: Stories by Yun Ko-eun

seoul0613's review

slow-paced

0.5

nicole_bookmarked's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny relaxing medium-paced

3.0

Table for One is a book that's as weird as it is funny, with nine stories that take you on a wild ride through some really strange places. Yun Ko-eun has a knack for turning everyday scenarios into something completely out there, which makes the book engaging but also a bit of a mixed bag.

The stories range from a woman learning to enjoy eating alone to a guy dealing with a bedbug nightmare, and even a character who wears other people's pajamas to dream their dreams. It's not your typical collection of stories, and while some of them hit the mark and made me think, others were just too out there or fell flat.

Overall, if you like your books to be a bit quirky and don't mind a bit of absurdity, you might get a kick out of this. But if you prefer something a bit more straightforward, this might not be for you.

zeldaspellman's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

hanreadsstuff's review

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What a set of short stories!

Table for one is a set of short stories that explores lonliness and expectation in South Korean culture.

This is a genre bending collection, surreal, horror, speculative fiction. 

Its a short little bset but I had to pause often to reflect on the message the author was giving. 

I also found there to be a lot of autistic coding in the book which I greatly enjoyed. So many of the charectors where exploring special interests in both fulfilling and unfulfilled ways. 

I'll be reading through all of Yun Ko-Yuens work after this introduction. What a talent!

Thankyou Netgalley for this ARC. 

catandherbooks's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

jshawreads's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

michelareads's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Table For One is a collection of indelible short stories by contemporary South Korean author Yun Ko-eun. Her fiction is bursting with images that toe the line between realism and the fantastic, and her characters are quirky, lonely, hopeless, sad, isolated... unique, just like her stories. There are some that I enjoyed reading more than others, the titular one being my absolute favorite, but overall they are all pretty good! I would recommend this book if you enjoy literary translated fiction and characters finding themselves in surreal situations.
4 stars.

* I'd like to thank Yun Ko-eun, Columbia University Press and NetGalley for providing this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

courtenaywrites's review against another edition

For me, the writing was too simplistic. Additionally, the stories feel like excerpts from novels we aren’t privy to. 

sadiaa's review

3.0

First of all, the cover intrigued me; a zebra having a meal, obviously I had to read the description. I find myself attracted to east Asian literature, they have an element of normal, everyday, monotonous life with a surrealist element. This book focuses more on loneliness and obsession.
I found that it was dragging after the first couple of stories, which made it difficult to finish but I persevered.

floatinthevoid's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 

Table for One is a collection short stories that aims to demonstrate contemporary society’s messiness that sometimes difficult to believe that it’s real. Yun Ko Eun managed to play with this blurring realism and fantasy in some of her stories in this book. There is so much to be said about the world we live in today. Right off the bat, the first story will strike one of the biggest concern people have: loneliness, individuality, and solitude; how they differ from each other but intrinsically linked. I enjoyed the first story a lot. To me, it’s a solid start that introduced me to what I’m dealing with. The first story is about a woman office worker that attends a course outside work that she hopes can help her overcome the uneasiness of being excluded. As to not spoil further, this story ends with a deconstruction of the beginning of the story. The world building was established really well along with an engaging narrative from the main character. The main character was also developed nicely. It’s such a neat little story with layers social commentary. 

Unfortunately, after that first story, the book started to drag for quite a while. I understand that the author is trying to write stories where the readers do not think that the curtains were not just blue. If anyone miss the humongous allegories presented in this book, then I’m at a loss of words. You don’t have to understand the true meaning of these stories that uses various symbolism, just that as long as you get the gist of it, this book isn’t so bad. But honestly, I wish the stories weren’t so convoluted with ideas and social commentaries that they lose touch in storytelling. A few of the stories feels like they are made after the author set a box containing the social commentaries she wanted to tell, so the worldbuilding is made to cross match those ideas rather than established to complement the plot and characters. 

I did enjoy some of them more than the others. Like the one where the world commercialized dreams, and the last one with the pov from a kid living in a world of “organic” craze. I noticed that the ones that I like are the ones with well-rounded main characters. Their point of view are interesting enough for me to go on with the story, they have their unique individuality and distinct from other characters in the story. And those are the things to me that made them different from other stories that are more formulaic. I don’t think formulaic stories are always bad, just that I think even with formula there’s gotta be something different about how you presented them. Most of these stories incite grim after thoughts; they’re showing the readers repeatedly, look at our society bro, we’re doomed bro, fr this is the world we live in, ya see? I really don’t mind reading a book that has disheartening tone from start to finish. But to me this book does not have a singular core, like what one specific theme that connected all of these stories, so I am overwhelmed. Because it wants to reach topics as broad as it possibly can while applying a lot of symbolism, it’s a bit of a train wreck.    

With that being said, I appreciate the amount of thoughts that must have been put into making this collection of short stories. After all Yun Ko Eun has created so many unique plots and worlds in this book that me as a reader may not encountered in any other place. The last story is probably one of the most nuanced and profound commentary on the complexities that children in the new generation faced while growing up in today’s world. It’s incredible. Here’s a great quote from that story: 

“I’d realized that there weren’t many opportunities to talk about family at school, since we mostly gossiped about celebrities and clothing trends and dance moves. Kids spent the school day as fellow prisoners, and after class, we passed through the gates together, briefly making sugar candy and eating it before parting ways to our respective after-school tutoring programs. The next day, we’d convene at school and talk once again about celebrities and clothing and dances and teachers and the weird kids. At school and at home, I didn’t have the chance to talk about my dead father.” 

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC to review this book.