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thenthememoriesfade's review
3.0
"And I believed our love to be a very commonplace love. Yes, I was a woman who loved a woman, but aside from that fact our love wasn't different from anyone else's. That was my first illusion. I shouldn't have elided the fact that I loved a woman. I should have recognised that my love was special. Not only because I happened to love a woman, which meant I had to stand my ground in the face of the world's prejudices. But because all love can falter and fray with time and, therefore, any form of love, while it lasts, is extraordinary - something I didn't understand until much later. I was so intent on proving how my love wasn't different from everyone else's that I didn't have the energy to consider how rare it was, I should have realised the truth much sooner."
spacestationtrustfund's review
3.0
『다섯 게의 프렐류드, 그리고 푸가』: "Five Preludes and a Fugue" by Cheon Huilan (천희란). Translation by Emily Yae Won.
qomareads's review
4.0
Beautiful writing. The ending got me.
Things better said in a form of words instead of words of speech I guess.
Things better said in a form of words instead of words of speech I guess.
jayme's review
emotional
mysterious
sad
5.0
Loved this! The story is framed through letters between a young woman and her adoptive mother discussing the suicide of her biological mother. But it's hard to talk about without mild I really thought this was going to be a pretty standard slice of life short story. What I was not expecting was for this to turn into an unreliable/unlikeable narrator situation. It was so impressive the way it kept unfolding until, by the end, you can't even be sure of what the truth of her mother's death really was. I also love the clever beauty of the title.
So excited to continue in this chapbook series! Strangers Press is definitely a new favourite. They publish these beautiful chapbook series in sets of eight with each series focused on a different country. They currently have Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands. All of them are beautifully published and if this first story is any indication, then they've succeeded in their efforts to highlight great new voices. I hope they continue with this project. https://www.strangers.press/
So excited to continue in this chapbook series! Strangers Press is definitely a new favourite. They publish these beautiful chapbook series in sets of eight with each series focused on a different country. They currently have Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands. All of them are beautifully published and if this first story is any indication, then they've succeeded in their efforts to highlight great new voices. I hope they continue with this project. https://www.strangers.press/
arirang's review
4.0
Part of the Yeoyu (여유) series from Strangers Press, eight chapbooks, each featuring a translated short story of around 30 pages, showcasing the best writing from the current generation of Korean authors. For my review of the overall series see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365043
다섯 게의 프렐류드, 그리고 푸가 by 천희란 (Cheon Heerahn) has been translated as Five Preludes & a Fugue by Emily Yae Won (이 예원)
Cheon Heerahn is, I think, previously untranslated into English and certainly a new author for me.
Emily Yae Won I have previously encountered via her rendition of [b:I’ll Go On|42759589|I’ll Go On|Hwang Jungeun|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1542023978s/42759589.jpg|53083277] into English. She also translates bidirectionally, and her translations into Korean include books by Joanna Walsh, Ali Smith and Deborah Levy, so she is ideally suited to the intensity of this text.
The story is in the form of a series of letters between two women. The elder, now living in Switzerland, acted as a ward to the younger (who refers to her as 선생님 - seonsaengnim or teacher) after she was the sole witness to the suicide of her mother.
By letter the two women discuss topics that were too difficult to discuss face-to-face in their years together, and the 5 initial exchanges are preludes to a revelation in an extended final testament. Both are authors and two key sources - a novel by the older woman and a story the younger woman writes about the older (and which triggers the final exchange) - remain unseen by the reader of this story, an effective device.
This is an psychologically intense novel, which indirectly explores social mores in Korean society, and relative unusual in the Yeoyu collection in building to an climatic and unexpected ending.
4.5 stars
다섯 게의 프렐류드, 그리고 푸가 by 천희란 (Cheon Heerahn) has been translated as Five Preludes & a Fugue by Emily Yae Won (이 예원)
Cheon Heerahn is, I think, previously untranslated into English and certainly a new author for me.
Emily Yae Won I have previously encountered via her rendition of [b:I’ll Go On|42759589|I’ll Go On|Hwang Jungeun|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1542023978s/42759589.jpg|53083277] into English. She also translates bidirectionally, and her translations into Korean include books by Joanna Walsh, Ali Smith and Deborah Levy, so she is ideally suited to the intensity of this text.
The story is in the form of a series of letters between two women. The elder, now living in Switzerland, acted as a ward to the younger (who refers to her as 선생님 - seonsaengnim or teacher) after she was the sole witness to the suicide of her mother.
By letter the two women discuss topics that were too difficult to discuss face-to-face in their years together, and the 5 initial exchanges are preludes to a revelation in an extended final testament. Both are authors and two key sources - a novel by the older woman and a story the younger woman writes about the older (and which triggers the final exchange) - remain unseen by the reader of this story, an effective device.
This is an psychologically intense novel, which indirectly explores social mores in Korean society, and relative unusual in the Yeoyu collection in building to an climatic and unexpected ending.
4.5 stars
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