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anne_seebach's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
『저기 소리없이 한 점 꽃잎이 지고』 (« Là-bas sans bruit tombe un pétale »), trois récits traduits par Patrick Maurus, est l'œuvre la plus connue de Choe Yun (최윤). Publié en 1998, le recueil s'inspire du massacre de Gwangju de 1980, au cours duquel 2 000 civils ont été tués pour avoir protesté contre le régime militaire du gouvernement coréen. La première nouvelle raconte les pérégrinations d'une jeune fille traumatisée par le meurtre de sa mère et illustre l'injustice de la violence contre les femmes sanctionnée par l'État. La deuxième nouvelle de ce recueil est une satire qui dépeint le dur traitement des intellectuels de gauche pendant les années de division nationale coréenne ; et la troisième nouvelle raconte l'histoire d'une fille qui fait pousser une fleur parfumée, dont la beauté exotique devient la source de conflits et de tragédies. Élégamment conçus et stylés, les récits de Ch'oe Yun sont parmi les plus belles œuvres pour examiner la réalité psychologique et spirituelle de la Corée de l'après-Seconde Guerre mondiale.
vcods's review against another edition
4.0
This book was quite a dense read and I would recommend it if you are partial to long beautiful metaphors.
Of the three short stories, I liked Whisper Yet the best. The mother and daughter dynamic interspersed with the story of Ajebi was really interesting.
As Choe uses extended metaphor, much of the background information is unexplained and a knowledge of modern korean history is needed to fully comprehend the intentions behind the works.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the various stories in Korean.
Of the three short stories, I liked Whisper Yet the best. The mother and daughter dynamic interspersed with the story of Ajebi was really interesting.
As Choe uses extended metaphor, much of the background information is unexplained and a knowledge of modern korean history is needed to fully comprehend the intentions behind the works.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the various stories in Korean.
kamila79's review against another edition
5.0
Ch’oe Yun wrote her debut collection of three novellas “There a Petal Silently Falls” at the age of 40 and soon after became recognised as one of the most important and influential South Korean authors. I am not surprised as these stories are spellbinding. The title first one, exploring the violence of the Gwangju Uprising and the resulting trauma, and told from three perspectives, is a very mature, heart-wrenching piece of literature. Having recently read “Human Acts” by Han Kang I cannot shake off the feeling that Han Kang must have been strongly influenced by Ch’oe Yun. “Whisper Yet” is a gorgeously, poetically written story about a leftist intellectual tending to an apple orchard. “The Thirteen-Scent Flower” tells a deeply moving story of a couple creating a new kind of chrysanthemum with unique scents, thus developing an unhealthy demand for it and the competition among academics to write papers about the flower.
Ch’oe’s stories, always with a political background, are also sharp commentaries and criticisms on Korean patriarchal society (though I read only these stories and can’t yet tell whether her writing could be called ‘feminist’), consumerism, fragile social fabric and the difficulty of developing intimacy and trust between people. She never fails to highlight the pressure existing in the Korean society to not stand out, yet it is clear, knowing a little about the political turmoil of the second half of the 20th century, that a lot of people stood out against their will. What enchants me so much in her writing is the tenderness she feels towards her characters and the gentleness with which she creates their personae, which reminds me a bit of the style of Kyung-sook Shin. Reading this collection, however, I was thinking more in cinematic terms. The topics of violence, broken human relationships, and the notion of a moral compass brought films by Lee Chang-dong to mind, especially when it comes to the lyricism of the way the stories are told.
I understand well why Ch’oe Yun is so revered and I wish more of her books were translated into English.
Ch’oe’s stories, always with a political background, are also sharp commentaries and criticisms on Korean patriarchal society (though I read only these stories and can’t yet tell whether her writing could be called ‘feminist’), consumerism, fragile social fabric and the difficulty of developing intimacy and trust between people. She never fails to highlight the pressure existing in the Korean society to not stand out, yet it is clear, knowing a little about the political turmoil of the second half of the 20th century, that a lot of people stood out against their will. What enchants me so much in her writing is the tenderness she feels towards her characters and the gentleness with which she creates their personae, which reminds me a bit of the style of Kyung-sook Shin. Reading this collection, however, I was thinking more in cinematic terms. The topics of violence, broken human relationships, and the notion of a moral compass brought films by Lee Chang-dong to mind, especially when it comes to the lyricism of the way the stories are told.
I understand well why Ch’oe Yun is so revered and I wish more of her books were translated into English.
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