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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
slow-paced
'How do you know when a story is done?'
Kerrand came closer to the desk.
'My character reaches a point when I know he has a life of his own. I can let him go.’
Winter in Sokcho is the kind of book that leaves you with more of a feeling than a hardened thought, its story unfolding through mundane routines and atmospheric subtleties. Its themes of identity and physicality (through body image, plastic surgery, and intimacy) emerge like a butterfly from a chrysalis, slow yet beautiful.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There's much to love about this novel. In some ways, it's sort of an inverted Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.
The way it deals with identity and especially social ostracization due to racist Korean attitudes is very subtle but also powerful. I imagine this is something easy to miss if you've never spent any time in Korea, but the narrator is biracial, which is viewed sometimes rather unpleasantly by Koreans. Along with that, her mother isn't married, which is another layer of degradation to many Koreans.
But, yes, a sometimes frustrating work with the flat affect of many current American novels that I find so unpleasant. But, even so, there's much to love here. A delicate beauty and sorrow.
The way it deals with identity and especially social ostracization due to racist Korean attitudes is very subtle but also powerful. I imagine this is something easy to miss if you've never spent any time in Korea, but the narrator is biracial, which is viewed sometimes rather unpleasantly by Koreans. Along with that, her mother isn't married, which is another layer of degradation to many Koreans.
But, yes, a sometimes frustrating work with the flat affect of many current American novels that I find so unpleasant. But, even so, there's much to love here. A delicate beauty and sorrow.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed the mundane descriptions and the strong feelings of loneliness and desire for belonging from the FMC. It felt a bit too disjointed at times.
a pretty much perfect novel about loneliness, alienation, desire for connection, and fear of vulnerability