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nrshmmii's review
3.0
I love reading the way Minwoo and Soona live their life. It looks like a very normal life we are living but Minwoo went through so much hardships. The story is a little confusing to me because of the pov used isn't stated. Sometimes it was Minwoo's pov, and then went back to Soona without being stated. Because of the confusion, I have a hard time trying to connect the dot of story for this whole book.
gamas_de_azul's review against another edition
4.0
3,5⭐️
Hwang Sok-yong nos atrapa en una historia que nos mantiene atentos no solo sobre los hechos, sino por su forma de narrar. Nos encontramos con un vecindario humilde, y a través de las memorias de los personajes, vemos como esos espacios y su gente van mutando y desapareciendo.
El libro tiene un tinte nostálgico. Provoca añoranza por los años simples de la niñez y adolescencia, aún retratándolo por medio de personajes que no la tuvieron tan fácil. Aún así, no recae en el camino del afortunado que logra cambiar su estatus social, sino que cuestiona ese progreso y nos muestra que no siempre es posible, haciendo que reflexionemos sobre si es realmente necesario para ser felices.
Es un libro con un foco muy fuerte en los espacios urbanos, y habla bastante de construcción, pero no deja de lado lo emotivo de los personajes atravesados por esos temas ♡
Me resultó un poco confusa la narración, porque no identificaba los narradores, pero seguí leyendo y todo se aclaró. Incluso sentí esta falta de explicitud como parte de las intenciones del autor por fomentar que todo quede claro al final.
Hwang Sok-yong nos atrapa en una historia que nos mantiene atentos no solo sobre los hechos, sino por su forma de narrar. Nos encontramos con un vecindario humilde, y a través de las memorias de los personajes, vemos como esos espacios y su gente van mutando y desapareciendo.
El libro tiene un tinte nostálgico. Provoca añoranza por los años simples de la niñez y adolescencia, aún retratándolo por medio de personajes que no la tuvieron tan fácil. Aún así, no recae en el camino del afortunado que logra cambiar su estatus social, sino que cuestiona ese progreso y nos muestra que no siempre es posible, haciendo que reflexionemos sobre si es realmente necesario para ser felices.
Es un libro con un foco muy fuerte en los espacios urbanos, y habla bastante de construcción, pero no deja de lado lo emotivo de los personajes atravesados por esos temas ♡
Me resultó un poco confusa la narración, porque no identificaba los narradores, pero seguí leyendo y todo se aclaró. Incluso sentí esta falta de explicitud como parte de las intenciones del autor por fomentar que todo quede claro al final.
felineliteratuur's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
lisajoan98's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The story is an excellent illustration of how our both our goodness and badness seeps out into the world around us whether we are aware of it or not. My main criticism is that the novel was framed as a man beginning to feel guilty perhaps about the choices he has made in life but there wasn’t much reflection from the main character on this at all. The reader is invited to reflect on his behalf, which is also quite an interesting approach though not exactly as the blurb promised. The translation was stilted here and there but generally very good. I recommend this novel to readers who like reflective life stories.
kcelena's review
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Physical abuse, Death, and Suicide
scribepub's review
At Dusk provides the reader with an excellent picture of Seoul now and several decades ago, with a mournful, nostalgic feel pervading the novel … Hwang is a masterful storyteller, and the final third of the book skilfully brings the disparate stories together, with a clever, and surprising, twist to round matters off.
Tony Malone, Tony’s Reading List
At Dusk is a small but powerful novel from one of South Korea’s most esteemed novelists … The questions At Dusk raises are timeless, and perfect for more serious book-group discussions.
Annie Condon, Readings
[A] beautifully observed tale … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.
Pile by the Bed
What elevates this work, is how the gritty psychological exploration of contemporary Korean society is packaged within a taut and compelling mystery regarding how the two disparate narratives might be connected. At Dusk is another short but impactful novel from Hwang Sok-yon.
Booklover Book Reviews
At Dusk is a book steeped in melancholy – for times gone by, for relationships lost or abandoned, for a world that no longer exists. Hwang delves deeply into the psyche of his characters and in doing so tells universal stories of love, ambition and regret … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.
psnews.com.au
A stirring and quietly moving novel … a sharply perceptive account of the struggle to maintain body and soul, roughly speaking, in the decades before Chun dooh-hwan's military coup of 1980.
FIVE STARS
Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ
At Dusk has Hwang’s customary blend of fragility and brutality, of tenderness and raw pain … At Dusk is a journey through memory and through the necessary potential and duty of architecture; through human spaces and urban topographies of existence and non-being. For Korea, this is a novel that should mark a turning point in its sense of identity; for non-Korean readers, it is a blueprint of the critical elenchus we need to undertake before it is tragically far too late for all our local traditions, cultures and individual lives.
Mika Provata–Carline, Bookanista
[A] solid portrait of changing times and society.
M.A.Orthofer, The Complete Review
Having been imprisoned for political reasons, Hwang has a restrained, delicate touch, alive to the nuances of memory, the slipperiness of the past, and the difficult choices life forces us to make ... Subtly political, deeply humane, a story about home, loss, and the cost of a country's advancement. STARRED REVIEW
Kirkus Reviews
Here [Sok-yong] scrutinises the quiet disconnect of contemporary relationships through the life of a successful, sixty–something Seoul architect … A piercing modern tale about all we can never know about our loved ones and ourselves. STARRED REVIEW
Terry Hong, Booklist
Celebrated author Hwang Sok-yong explores the human toll of South Korea’s rapid modernisation ... Through the lens of Seoul’s urban housing and architecture, he traces the development of South Korean modernisation and highlights the extremes to which its citizens are pushed, challenging readers in the process to reexamine if the nation’s transformation can truly be considered successful.
International Examiner
Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk is a perfect slice of Koreana; a touching, somewhat depressive narrative full of nostalgia that shows the underbelly of a nation through the life of characters inhabiting society’s bottom rung.
Gabino Iglesias, NPR
These characters illustrate South Korea’s sharp economic divides and explore what is required to improve one’s lot in life — and whether it’s even possible for more than a very few. It captures so much in under 200 pages: economic inequality; gender, class, and educational divides; and the complex relationships individuals and the culture at large have with their own history.
Rebecca Hussey, Bookriot
Tony Malone, Tony’s Reading List
At Dusk is a small but powerful novel from one of South Korea’s most esteemed novelists … The questions At Dusk raises are timeless, and perfect for more serious book-group discussions.
Annie Condon, Readings
[A] beautifully observed tale … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.
Pile by the Bed
What elevates this work, is how the gritty psychological exploration of contemporary Korean society is packaged within a taut and compelling mystery regarding how the two disparate narratives might be connected. At Dusk is another short but impactful novel from Hwang Sok-yon.
Booklover Book Reviews
At Dusk is a book steeped in melancholy – for times gone by, for relationships lost or abandoned, for a world that no longer exists. Hwang delves deeply into the psyche of his characters and in doing so tells universal stories of love, ambition and regret … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.
psnews.com.au
A stirring and quietly moving novel … a sharply perceptive account of the struggle to maintain body and soul, roughly speaking, in the decades before Chun dooh-hwan's military coup of 1980.
FIVE STARS
Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ
At Dusk has Hwang’s customary blend of fragility and brutality, of tenderness and raw pain … At Dusk is a journey through memory and through the necessary potential and duty of architecture; through human spaces and urban topographies of existence and non-being. For Korea, this is a novel that should mark a turning point in its sense of identity; for non-Korean readers, it is a blueprint of the critical elenchus we need to undertake before it is tragically far too late for all our local traditions, cultures and individual lives.
Mika Provata–Carline, Bookanista
[A] solid portrait of changing times and society.
M.A.Orthofer, The Complete Review
Having been imprisoned for political reasons, Hwang has a restrained, delicate touch, alive to the nuances of memory, the slipperiness of the past, and the difficult choices life forces us to make ... Subtly political, deeply humane, a story about home, loss, and the cost of a country's advancement. STARRED REVIEW
Kirkus Reviews
Here [Sok-yong] scrutinises the quiet disconnect of contemporary relationships through the life of a successful, sixty–something Seoul architect … A piercing modern tale about all we can never know about our loved ones and ourselves. STARRED REVIEW
Terry Hong, Booklist
Celebrated author Hwang Sok-yong explores the human toll of South Korea’s rapid modernisation ... Through the lens of Seoul’s urban housing and architecture, he traces the development of South Korean modernisation and highlights the extremes to which its citizens are pushed, challenging readers in the process to reexamine if the nation’s transformation can truly be considered successful.
International Examiner
Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk is a perfect slice of Koreana; a touching, somewhat depressive narrative full of nostalgia that shows the underbelly of a nation through the life of characters inhabiting society’s bottom rung.
Gabino Iglesias, NPR
These characters illustrate South Korea’s sharp economic divides and explore what is required to improve one’s lot in life — and whether it’s even possible for more than a very few. It captures so much in under 200 pages: economic inequality; gender, class, and educational divides; and the complex relationships individuals and the culture at large have with their own history.
Rebecca Hussey, Bookriot
fornia's review
uhhh it's probably good but the lack of dialogue indicators [listen, i might be fine with it if they just wanted to be ~innovative~ and italicize instead of using quote marks, but NO DIALOGUE INDICATORS AT ALL???] made this almost insufferable for me to read and i gave up after two chapters
clagarnach_'s review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape
huskerbee's review
3.0
I'm confused, because I do love the themes that were (I'm guessing) supposed to be the spine of this book - urban renewal, moving away from towns and villages to big cities, demolition, memories. And this comes up in the latter few chapters of the book, but not I thought enough throughout the entire story for me to realise until too late. To the point that I was feeling clever for - which turned out really not to have been the point.
I wish those ideas had been more clearly explored. It comes through a bit early on, but not enough. Still, if you're re-reading it with an understanding of what the author is trying to say, it might be more rewarding.
Spoiler
having guessed halfway through that the younger Minwoo was Cha Soona's sonI wish those ideas had been more clearly explored. It comes through a bit early on