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A review by heylook
The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness by Kyung-sook Shin
2.0
First things first, this book reads almost as if it were translated one word at a time, or plugged in to google translate. It definitely wasn't copy-edited. All over the place, pronouns, prepositions, other words are missing from sentences. Stylistic quirks pop up here and there randomly that aren't present anywhere else in the text. Events taking place in the framing story are told in the past tense, while the 'real' narrative is presented in present tense, except when the author/translator/editor forgets and screws it up.
All THAT being said, the book doesn't tell us anything. It's certainly not about loneliness. Most of the narrative concerns a teenage girl working at a factory to pay for school, except it all ultimately doesn't matter, it's just telling us what goes on, nothing deeper. Then union busting pops up - ah, conflict! But there's almost never any investment in it, emotionally, philosophically. Then there's a friendship/romance thing, but that too comes and goes until the end of the book, in which something happens that ultimately doesn't really cause any changes either. There's a narrative about a friend whose father has a secret, and . . . it just kind of gets forgotten. There's a narrative about people i nthe author's life reacting to the things she's written, but it too is only superficially important. Basically the entire book is like a high-school level personal narrative. Things happen, emotions are felt, but none of it really means anything - and this isn't intended, it's just poor writing.
All THAT being said, the book doesn't tell us anything. It's certainly not about loneliness. Most of the narrative concerns a teenage girl working at a factory to pay for school, except it all ultimately doesn't matter, it's just telling us what goes on, nothing deeper. Then union busting pops up - ah, conflict! But there's almost never any investment in it, emotionally, philosophically. Then there's a friendship/romance thing, but that too comes and goes until the end of the book, in which something happens that ultimately doesn't really cause any changes either. There's a narrative about a friend whose father has a secret, and . . . it just kind of gets forgotten. There's a narrative about people i nthe author's life reacting to the things she's written, but it too is only superficially important. Basically the entire book is like a high-school level personal narrative. Things happen, emotions are felt, but none of it really means anything - and this isn't intended, it's just poor writing.