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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
It all starts with a fire, two bodies and an eleven-year old girl. Yi Sangwuk, a fire inspector, is woken from his sleep and joins Sergeant Yu Dongsik of the Seoul Metropolitan Police at the scene of the fire in the Eugam area. Both have been on high alert due to an increase in fires in the area and the odds of five fires in a short time span was highly suspicious.
Seeing the girl, looking lost and clutching a large teddy bear, Sergeant Yu softens and takes it upon himself to find her only surviving family member, after the two people who died in the fire are identified as Hayeong’s grandparents. Yun Jaesong, her father, has no choice but to take the girl home to live with him and his second wife, Seonkyeong.
Full review here: https://wanderingwestswords.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/the-only-child-mi-ae-seo/
Seeing the girl, looking lost and clutching a large teddy bear, Sergeant Yu softens and takes it upon himself to find her only surviving family member, after the two people who died in the fire are identified as Hayeong’s grandparents. Yun Jaesong, her father, has no choice but to take the girl home to live with him and his second wife, Seonkyeong.
Full review here: https://wanderingwestswords.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/the-only-child-mi-ae-seo/
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I received a free advanced reader’s eproof copy of The Only Child from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley!
As Seonkyeong’s first semester teaching criminal psychology at a university comes to an end, she receives an unexpected phone call from the director of the Association of Criminal Psychology. Yi Byeongdo, a notorious serial killer imprisoned for the murder of 13 plus women, personally requests to an interview with Seonkyeong. This comes as a complete shock. For years, Yi Byeongdo has remained silent and refused to discuss his crimes with anybody. So why choose Seonkyeong, a woman who has never crossed paths with Yi Byeongdo . . . or so she thought.
Thus, begins the story The Only Child by Mi-ae Seo. Before reading this novel, I highly recommend not reading the Goodread’s synopsis for this book. I feel it gives away way too much of the story, more than half of the novel in fact, and can make it less enjoyable.
I was thoroughly surprised by this novel and was captivated until the very end. This is the first modern Korean novel I have read, the only other ones being proletarian literature from the early to the middle 20th century, and I was not disappointed.
From this story, I learned more about Korean culture and the criminal justice system that is put in place. I was invested in the characters and found myself getting genuinely concerned or angry when certain things happened. This story is written in the third-person perspective, so we are able to see the point-of-view of many characters in the story and not just our main two characters, Seonkyeong and Byeongdo. Although, I have to say Seonkyeong was my favorite and a strong female lead.
For being a translation, the writing flows well to the point where I was completely immersed and could not tell it was a translation. From working with translating original works in Japanese to English, I know it is incredibly difficult to capture the original atmosphere the author intended. This is from phrases not completely transferring over cultures or the meaning not quite making sense in English. As a translator, translating the work literally causes the writing to feel stiff and robotic. A lot of translators have to do guesswork and add their own interpretation of the text to make a good translation, and I feel the translator did this well. There were a few parts where you could tell something was amiss. For example, the same phrase would be repeated multiple times in a row, just said in a different way. However, this did not happen often and was more towards the first half of the book.
We see a lot of parallels to real-life serial killers which, for the most part, the author acknowledges. Mi-ae Seo makes direct references to Ted Bundy, Yu Yeongcheol, and Mary Bell. In a way, it makes the story feel more realistic when referencing these people as if this story was actually taking place. One unacknowledged connection with a real-life serial killer was the use of the song Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Charles Manson was notorious for using Beatles songs to justify his actions, so this was a little too much, and the author could have chosen a different, more original song to use. However, I feel Yi Byeongdo had enough originalities about him that, for the most part, he did not feel like a copy and paste version of these real-life serial killers.
One negative I have with the story is how predictable some of the plot points were. I was able to realize what was going on when only in the first quarter of the novel. Despite this, I found myself still engaged, and the actual ending was something I had not seen coming. You are left with more questions than answers at the end, so if you are someone who does not like an open ending, you may not enjoy this one.
Overall, I would give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounding up to 4. I would definitely recommend this to people who love thrillers and crime novels and want to read one from a Korean author.
As Seonkyeong’s first semester teaching criminal psychology at a university comes to an end, she receives an unexpected phone call from the director of the Association of Criminal Psychology. Yi Byeongdo, a notorious serial killer imprisoned for the murder of 13 plus women, personally requests to an interview with Seonkyeong. This comes as a complete shock. For years, Yi Byeongdo has remained silent and refused to discuss his crimes with anybody. So why choose Seonkyeong, a woman who has never crossed paths with Yi Byeongdo . . . or so she thought.
Thus, begins the story The Only Child by Mi-ae Seo. Before reading this novel, I highly recommend not reading the Goodread’s synopsis for this book. I feel it gives away way too much of the story, more than half of the novel in fact, and can make it less enjoyable.
I was thoroughly surprised by this novel and was captivated until the very end. This is the first modern Korean novel I have read, the only other ones being proletarian literature from the early to the middle 20th century, and I was not disappointed.
From this story, I learned more about Korean culture and the criminal justice system that is put in place. I was invested in the characters and found myself getting genuinely concerned or angry when certain things happened. This story is written in the third-person perspective, so we are able to see the point-of-view of many characters in the story and not just our main two characters, Seonkyeong and Byeongdo. Although, I have to say Seonkyeong was my favorite and a strong female lead.
For being a translation, the writing flows well to the point where I was completely immersed and could not tell it was a translation. From working with translating original works in Japanese to English, I know it is incredibly difficult to capture the original atmosphere the author intended. This is from phrases not completely transferring over cultures or the meaning not quite making sense in English. As a translator, translating the work literally causes the writing to feel stiff and robotic. A lot of translators have to do guesswork and add their own interpretation of the text to make a good translation, and I feel the translator did this well. There were a few parts where you could tell something was amiss. For example, the same phrase would be repeated multiple times in a row, just said in a different way. However, this did not happen often and was more towards the first half of the book.
We see a lot of parallels to real-life serial killers which, for the most part, the author acknowledges. Mi-ae Seo makes direct references to Ted Bundy, Yu Yeongcheol, and Mary Bell. In a way, it makes the story feel more realistic when referencing these people as if this story was actually taking place. One unacknowledged connection with a real-life serial killer was the use of the song Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Charles Manson was notorious for using Beatles songs to justify his actions, so this was a little too much, and the author could have chosen a different, more original song to use. However, I feel Yi Byeongdo had enough originalities about him that, for the most part, he did not feel like a copy and paste version of these real-life serial killers.
One negative I have with the story is how predictable some of the plot points were. I was able to realize what was going on when only in the first quarter of the novel. Despite this, I found myself still engaged, and the actual ending was something I had not seen coming. You are left with more questions than answers at the end, so if you are someone who does not like an open ending, you may not enjoy this one.
Overall, I would give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounding up to 4. I would definitely recommend this to people who love thrillers and crime novels and want to read one from a Korean author.
"내가 비밀 한 가지 말해줄까요?"
"Do you want me to tell you a secret?"
The Only Child has been translated by Jung Yewon from 서 미애 (Mi-ae So)'s Korean language original 잘 자요 엄마.
Seonkyeong (선경) is a criminal psychiatrist, who went on a course at the FBI and was thereafter nicknamed Clarice Starling by her students. And in a case of life imitating art, as the novel opens, an infamous serial killer, Yi Byeongdo (이병도), one she has never met, says he will speak about his crimes, but only to her. And it transpires that she reminds him of someone significant in his past.
Yi Byeongdo's first murder was of his abusive mother:
'“What’s the oldest memory in your head?”
That is the first thing I ask when I meet people. Somehow, it seems that the first memory in someone’s head determines his destiny or personality. And it seems that you can tell what kind of person he is based on the memory.
The oldest memory I’ve ever heard of was from a man who remembered getting a bowl of seaweed soup on his first birthday. It being his first birthday, it had been exactly a year since he was born into the world. I asked him how he remembered that, and he said that as soon as he got the bowl, he threw up in it. That’s why he never forgot. I had a drink from time to time with this man who never had seaweed soup after that, and I think his habit of throwing up formed on that day.
If such a nauseating memory was my first memory, I would want to throw up, too. Still, his is better than mine.
Once in a while, I picture myself doing something. I’m lying in a comfortable chair, and tracing my memory as the hypnotist tells me to. As you go back in time, you remember your childhood days, even your mother’s womb, they say. Some people see their past lives. I don’t want to find out about my past life, of course. I don’t even believe in such things.
What I’d like to know is what my mom looked like when I came out through darkness into the world. I want to know what kind of look she had on her face at that moment.
Why?
I think it’s because my mom told me that she hated me before I was even born. She said she didn’t look at me after I came out.'
And the first question he, turning the tables in a conscious echo of Hannibal Lecter, even quoting his words, asks Seonkyeong, during their interview, is about her first memory.
The Beatles song Maxwell's Silver Hammer, a song his mother hummed while abusing him, plays a key role in triggering his murders:
'Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer came down upon her head. . . '
which again links to an infamous real-life case in Korea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoo_Young-chul).
'Music had been a major issue after the Yu Yeongcheol murders as well. Yu Yeongcheol said that he had the theme song of the movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise playing while he was in the bathroom taking care of the bodies of the women he had killed. It was unknown whether the song had inspired him, or he had listened to the music simply because he liked it.'
On the same day as she first meets him, her husband's daughter, Hayeong (하영), from his first marriage, comes to live with them. A deeply disturbed child, Hayeong had been living with her maternal grandparents but the previous night they had died in a fire. Except the investigators suspects that this was murder rather than an accident, and there is one possible but shocking suspect.
The stage is then set for something of a Damian meets Hannibal Lecter situation, with a trace of Psycho thrown in, with Seonkyeong caught in the middle.
This isn’t my usual reading fare so I am not best qualified to benchmark this as a psychological thriller.
But a note on the translation, which has received mixed comments from other reviewers. Content-wise this isn’t a particularly Korean book, the setting and characters are relatively generic, but opinions seem to vary on how naturally it reads in English.
This is the 6th translation by Jung Yewon I have read, having previously completed [b:Vaseline Buddha|27135623|Vaseline Buddha|Young-moon Jung|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1457528015l/27135623._SY75_.jpg|47172688] by Jung Young-moon, [b:One Hundred Shadows|30967023|One Hundred Shadows|Hwang Jungeun|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469021712l/30967023._SY75_.jpg|51582202] by by Hwang Jungeun and from the Dalkey Archive Library of Korean Literature [b:Mannequin|29382498|Mannequin|Ch'oe Yun|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1458497606l/29382498._SY75_.jpg|49631150] by Ch'oe Yun, [b:No One Writes Back|17591572|No One Writes Back|Eun-Jin Jang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1379899813l/17591572._SY75_.jpg|24532485] by Eun-Jin Jang, and parts of [b:A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories|17591565|A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories|Young-moon Jung|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1379898439l/17591565._SY75_.jpg|24532478] by Jung Young-moon. She has also translated another Jung Young-moon book, [b:Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River|45726355|Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River|Young-moon Jung|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557684309l/45726355._SY75_.jpg|70514213].
She is one of my favourite Korean-English translators and I have previously commented that her work has a style which I find intriguing but difficult to describe: she both renders the books into excellent English but retains a translated/Korean feel to the phrasing. This works particularly well for the authors above since there isn’t really an equivalent voice in English of say Jung Young-moon’s distinctively style.
And I have previously contrasted her with another favourite, Sora Kim-Russell, from whom I have read 10 Korean-English translations. I am an equal fan of her work but compared to Jung her translations tend to be towards the reads-naturally-in-English end of the spectrum, which perhaps makes her more suited to thrillers, such as her translations of The Plotters by Un-su Kim, and The Hole by by Hye-Young Pyun, (although her rendition of Bae Suah’s powerful, unique and highly literary, Nowhere to be Found, was stunning.)
And a translation peeve of mine: book titles being changed unnecessarily. Here the Korean title 잘 자요 엄마 could be rendered literally as Sleep Well, Mum/Mother or (less literally) Good Night, Mother - which indeed are the words that closet the novel. The French version manages Bonne nuit maman (albeit the Spanish Hija única mirrors the English).
Overall 2.5 stars. As a fan of literary fiction and Korean culture this is not a type of novel I would read other than in Korean translation, and it was rather less Korean in setting that I had hoped.
"Do you want me to tell you a secret?"
The Only Child has been translated by Jung Yewon from 서 미애 (Mi-ae So)'s Korean language original 잘 자요 엄마.
Seonkyeong (선경) is a criminal psychiatrist, who went on a course at the FBI and was thereafter nicknamed Clarice Starling by her students. And in a case of life imitating art, as the novel opens, an infamous serial killer, Yi Byeongdo (이병도), one she has never met, says he will speak about his crimes, but only to her. And it transpires that she reminds him of someone significant in his past.
Yi Byeongdo's first murder was of his abusive mother:
'“What’s the oldest memory in your head?”
That is the first thing I ask when I meet people. Somehow, it seems that the first memory in someone’s head determines his destiny or personality. And it seems that you can tell what kind of person he is based on the memory.
The oldest memory I’ve ever heard of was from a man who remembered getting a bowl of seaweed soup on his first birthday. It being his first birthday, it had been exactly a year since he was born into the world. I asked him how he remembered that, and he said that as soon as he got the bowl, he threw up in it. That’s why he never forgot. I had a drink from time to time with this man who never had seaweed soup after that, and I think his habit of throwing up formed on that day.
If such a nauseating memory was my first memory, I would want to throw up, too. Still, his is better than mine.
Once in a while, I picture myself doing something. I’m lying in a comfortable chair, and tracing my memory as the hypnotist tells me to. As you go back in time, you remember your childhood days, even your mother’s womb, they say. Some people see their past lives. I don’t want to find out about my past life, of course. I don’t even believe in such things.
What I’d like to know is what my mom looked like when I came out through darkness into the world. I want to know what kind of look she had on her face at that moment.
Why?
I think it’s because my mom told me that she hated me before I was even born. She said she didn’t look at me after I came out.'
And the first question he, turning the tables in a conscious echo of Hannibal Lecter, even quoting his words, asks Seonkyeong, during their interview, is about her first memory.
The Beatles song Maxwell's Silver Hammer, a song his mother hummed while abusing him, plays a key role in triggering his murders:
'Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer came down upon her head. . . '
which again links to an infamous real-life case in Korea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoo_Young-chul).
'Music had been a major issue after the Yu Yeongcheol murders as well. Yu Yeongcheol said that he had the theme song of the movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise playing while he was in the bathroom taking care of the bodies of the women he had killed. It was unknown whether the song had inspired him, or he had listened to the music simply because he liked it.'
On the same day as she first meets him, her husband's daughter, Hayeong (하영), from his first marriage, comes to live with them. A deeply disturbed child, Hayeong had been living with her maternal grandparents but the previous night they had died in a fire. Except the investigators suspects that this was murder rather than an accident, and there is one possible but shocking suspect.
The stage is then set for something of a Damian meets Hannibal Lecter situation, with a trace of Psycho thrown in, with Seonkyeong caught in the middle.
This isn’t my usual reading fare so I am not best qualified to benchmark this as a psychological thriller.
But a note on the translation, which has received mixed comments from other reviewers. Content-wise this isn’t a particularly Korean book, the setting and characters are relatively generic, but opinions seem to vary on how naturally it reads in English.
This is the 6th translation by Jung Yewon I have read, having previously completed [b:Vaseline Buddha|27135623|Vaseline Buddha|Young-moon Jung|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1457528015l/27135623._SY75_.jpg|47172688] by Jung Young-moon, [b:One Hundred Shadows|30967023|One Hundred Shadows|Hwang Jungeun|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469021712l/30967023._SY75_.jpg|51582202] by by Hwang Jungeun and from the Dalkey Archive Library of Korean Literature [b:Mannequin|29382498|Mannequin|Ch'oe Yun|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1458497606l/29382498._SY75_.jpg|49631150] by Ch'oe Yun, [b:No One Writes Back|17591572|No One Writes Back|Eun-Jin Jang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1379899813l/17591572._SY75_.jpg|24532485] by Eun-Jin Jang, and parts of [b:A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories|17591565|A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories|Young-moon Jung|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1379898439l/17591565._SY75_.jpg|24532478] by Jung Young-moon. She has also translated another Jung Young-moon book, [b:Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River|45726355|Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River|Young-moon Jung|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557684309l/45726355._SY75_.jpg|70514213].
She is one of my favourite Korean-English translators and I have previously commented that her work has a style which I find intriguing but difficult to describe: she both renders the books into excellent English but retains a translated/Korean feel to the phrasing. This works particularly well for the authors above since there isn’t really an equivalent voice in English of say Jung Young-moon’s distinctively style.
And I have previously contrasted her with another favourite, Sora Kim-Russell, from whom I have read 10 Korean-English translations. I am an equal fan of her work but compared to Jung her translations tend to be towards the reads-naturally-in-English end of the spectrum, which perhaps makes her more suited to thrillers, such as her translations of The Plotters by Un-su Kim, and The Hole by by Hye-Young Pyun, (although her rendition of Bae Suah’s powerful, unique and highly literary, Nowhere to be Found, was stunning.)
And a translation peeve of mine: book titles being changed unnecessarily. Here the Korean title 잘 자요 엄마 could be rendered literally as Sleep Well, Mum/Mother or (less literally) Good Night, Mother - which indeed are the words that closet the novel. The French version manages Bonne nuit maman (albeit the Spanish Hija única mirrors the English).
Overall 2.5 stars. As a fan of literary fiction and Korean culture this is not a type of novel I would read other than in Korean translation, and it was rather less Korean in setting that I had hoped.
An extremely terrifying and page-turning book for sure. I was disappointed with the English title but I guess they just don't want to spoil the story if they properly translate the original title, although I love the original one better, it gives you more creep. I love that this book isn't awkwardly translated, props to the translator
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I only finished this because it was short. Might have been the translation, but the twists weren’t surprising and I didn’t form an attachment to any of the characters. If this were ever adapted I’d watch the movie, but I won’t be reading the sequel.
3.5 stars
I was very excited to read this book! It’s another one that I’d heard lots about, so I was eager to get a copy from the library as soon as I could.
I found this a bit slow to start, but then I really got into it. Overall I didn’t love this one, but I liked it. I thought the pacing was kind of off-kilter throughout, and for a short book, there were several moments where nothing seemed to be happening.
But the premise certainly drew me in, and I liked the way things came together in the end. But I’m glad this was one I picked up through the library rather than one I purchased.
I was very excited to read this book! It’s another one that I’d heard lots about, so I was eager to get a copy from the library as soon as I could.
I found this a bit slow to start, but then I really got into it. Overall I didn’t love this one, but I liked it. I thought the pacing was kind of off-kilter throughout, and for a short book, there were several moments where nothing seemed to be happening.
But the premise certainly drew me in, and I liked the way things came together in the end. But I’m glad this was one I picked up through the library rather than one I purchased.