A review by snaillydia
Shoko's Smile by Choi Eunyoung

3.0

"If life after death is eternal, then why does this life exist when it's just a fleeting moment compared to eternity? Is heaven supposed to be compensation for a life like this?"
" A life like this?" Caro looked searchingly at me.
I said no more to Caro. I didn't tell her that I had been longing to disappear once I die---no, that I was wishing I hadn't existed in the first place. That that would have been better than endurring all of life and entering Heaven.
"Oh, Youngju." Caro said my name and patted my back.

Shoko's Smile is a simple collection of slice-of-life stories, centering Korean women. It's very reminiscent of Banana Yoshimoto's writings, it shares a similar focus on human connection and tragedy through the lens of tenderness.

And yet, something that Banana Yoshimoto gets right, Choi Eun-Young just doesn't. I can quite put my finger on it, but these stories did not have the same sort of impact on me. It felt like the author was holding back. All the emotions were subdued, reviewed by the narrator long after they had been felt.

The first and last stories made me cry, but I think that was mostly because of me, I've been needing a good cry. Old people are my weakness. Beyond that, a lot of these stories came and went without leaving an impression, stories I'll inevitably forget.

There was one unique aspect to these stories that I enjoyed greatly, though. Most of them are firmly planted into a specific time in history. We see characters deal with trauma related to specific historical events, and we see how that affects their relationships and their worldviews. I wish this had been explored in all of the stories rather than only some of them, as it would've made them stand out more.

This could be a good comfort read, but at the end of the day, its intentional simplicity may be working against it.