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anaiira 's review for:
The Plotters
by Un-su Kim
I'm highly ambivalent about this novel, and I suspect it might be something to do with expectations and the amount of time I want to spend puzzling out tenuous connections.
On one hand this book has some vivid prose. Gorgeous isn't how I'd describe it, none of it is memorable in that way, but the imagery is so strong and surreal that I've had at least three dreams about assassins and gangsters while reading the book, and books don't tend to infiltrate my brain that way. The characters have multiple facets (and this is where the tenuous connections comes in) but some of their decisions feel unscrutable and pointless or surreal and irrational.
Minor, vague spoilers abound below.
Broadly, maybe you can characterize the decisions as rebelling against a prescribed fate vs choosing own path, but even people forgoeing a normal, traditional life, have to pretend, and then they follow directions anyway. It's plots and plotters all the way down. And if this is the theme, then the conclusion of "why bother fighting it" vs "the only way to win the game is to not play" is pretty dark in its implications. And also a really kind of juvenile nihilism? I keep thinking this book has to be more complex and interesting and then it just ends.
The story of why a polar bear is called a polar bear is also deeply depressing. "You are what you are, trying to escape to find the true meaning of who you are, to view yourself out of your own cage, results in death." But best part of the novel and honestly, I don't know if this book even holds up without it.
Ultimately, this isn't the kind of book for me. It's interesting to explore, and weird, but philosophically discordant. Tbh I'd be interested in reading an account of how this novel is received in South Korea, in the original. Would it be seen more as an obvious hyperbole, but that it draws out relevant tensions and feelings of despair of the modern office worker? Curious about this.
On one hand this book has some vivid prose. Gorgeous isn't how I'd describe it, none of it is memorable in that way, but the imagery is so strong and surreal that I've had at least three dreams about assassins and gangsters while reading the book, and books don't tend to infiltrate my brain that way. The characters have multiple facets (and this is where the tenuous connections comes in) but some of their decisions feel unscrutable and pointless or surreal and irrational.
Minor, vague spoilers abound below.
Broadly, maybe you can characterize the decisions as rebelling against a prescribed fate vs choosing own path, but even people forgoeing a normal, traditional life, have to pretend, and then they follow directions anyway. It's plots and plotters all the way down. And if this is the theme, then the conclusion of "why bother fighting it" vs "the only way to win the game is to not play" is pretty dark in its implications. And also a really kind of juvenile nihilism? I keep thinking this book has to be more complex and interesting and then it just ends.
The story of why a polar bear is called a polar bear is also deeply depressing. "You are what you are, trying to escape to find the true meaning of who you are, to view yourself out of your own cage, results in death." But best part of the novel and honestly, I don't know if this book even holds up without it.
Ultimately, this isn't the kind of book for me. It's interesting to explore, and weird, but philosophically discordant. Tbh I'd be interested in reading an account of how this novel is received in South Korea, in the original. Would it be seen more as an obvious hyperbole, but that it draws out relevant tensions and feelings of despair of the modern office worker? Curious about this.