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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
"oozing winter and fish, Sokcho waited. that was Sokcho, always waiting, for tourists, boats, men, spring."
this book is a fever dream. wandering and wandering. she's looking at the same things, but she can't get any closer. she's stuck, but she's not. she can't get it right. there's always something else. she'll never get it. she stands and waits. the only things that are transient are the people at the guesthouse. they don't see sokcho for the place it really is.
"'our beaches are still waiting for the end of a war that's been going on for so long people have stopped believing it's real. they build hotels, put up neon signs, but it's all fake, we're on a knife-edge, it could all give way any moment. we're living in limbo. in a winter that never ends.'"
melancholic, dreary, a deep, cold breath
this book is a fever dream. wandering and wandering. she's looking at the same things, but she can't get any closer. she's stuck, but she's not. she can't get it right. there's always something else. she'll never get it. she stands and waits. the only things that are transient are the people at the guesthouse. they don't see sokcho for the place it really is.
"'our beaches are still waiting for the end of a war that's been going on for so long people have stopped believing it's real. they build hotels, put up neon signs, but it's all fake, we're on a knife-edge, it could all give way any moment. we're living in limbo. in a winter that never ends.'"
melancholic, dreary, a deep, cold breath
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
I quickly felt immersed in this story. I wish there was an 'atmospheric' mood option as that's the exact catergory I would put this book. This book feels like winter. It's sparse and cold. I thought Dusapin used the negative space of this book with incredible skill, in the same way she describes the illustrator's art. I can't wait to read more of her works.
slow-paced
Edit: second time reading this and I still adored it. I will read anything Elisa writes and anything Aneesa translates.
"Sometimes I think I'll never be able to convey what I really want to say."
I thought for a moment.
"Maybe it's better that way."
He'd never understand what Sokcho was like. You had to be born here, live through the winters. The smells, the octopus. The isolation.
A quietly painful and atmospheric novel, the writing was beautiful and sad. At surface-level, it looks like it will be a short, strange romance novel, but it exceeds far beyond that - the book is steeped in navigating sexual and cultural identities, gender roles and expectations, and an undertone of tension presides over the whole story with continual references to Sokcho's proximity to the North Korean border and the history of conflict acting as a parallel to the uncertain, tense relationship between the narrator and her house guest.
I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, I never wanted the story to end. Interested to read more of Dusapin's writing, her other books have not been translated into English yet, they are only in French, but it would be good practice for me to start remembering French again...
"Sometimes I think I'll never be able to convey what I really want to say."
I thought for a moment.
"Maybe it's better that way."
He'd never understand what Sokcho was like. You had to be born here, live through the winters. The smells, the octopus. The isolation.
A quietly painful and atmospheric novel, the writing was beautiful and sad. At surface-level, it looks like it will be a short, strange romance novel, but it exceeds far beyond that - the book is steeped in navigating sexual and cultural identities, gender roles and expectations, and an undertone of tension presides over the whole story with continual references to Sokcho's proximity to the North Korean border and the history of conflict acting as a parallel to the uncertain, tense relationship between the narrator and her house guest.
I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, I never wanted the story to end. Interested to read more of Dusapin's writing, her other books have not been translated into English yet, they are only in French, but it would be good practice for me to start remembering French again...
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked it, especially the first half of the book. The end was a bit sudden and I missed some closure.
I wouldn’t call this a “great book” in the traditional sense.
It’s not here to dazzle.
It doesn’t build to anything big.
And yet, I felt it.
This book is more mood than plot, more sensation than story.
Atmospheric in a subtle way: the cold air, the stillness, the uneaten food, the rooms that never quite warm.
It lives in the space between: between intimacy and distance, between Korean and French identity, between being seen and staying hidden.
The silences are heavy.
The writing is restrained but textured.
You can feel the cold, the fish, the loneliness, the tension of things that never quite get said.
I didn’t walk away with a strong opinion.
I walked away with a temperature shift.
Something in me was quieter.
More attuned.
Like I’d brushed up against something tender and unsettling, and wasn’t supposed to name it…just feel it.
It’s not here to dazzle.
It doesn’t build to anything big.
And yet, I felt it.
This book is more mood than plot, more sensation than story.
Atmospheric in a subtle way: the cold air, the stillness, the uneaten food, the rooms that never quite warm.
It lives in the space between: between intimacy and distance, between Korean and French identity, between being seen and staying hidden.
The silences are heavy.
The writing is restrained but textured.
You can feel the cold, the fish, the loneliness, the tension of things that never quite get said.
I didn’t walk away with a strong opinion.
I walked away with a temperature shift.
Something in me was quieter.
More attuned.
Like I’d brushed up against something tender and unsettling, and wasn’t supposed to name it…just feel it.
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
