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A review by dreesreads
City of Ash and Red by Pyun Hye-young
3.0
I picked this up from the New Fiction section at the library for WIT month--and finally got to it a month late.
This novel is strange. It's a little dystopian and a little not. The narrator seems reliable and seems not. He is unnamed, so the text is somewhat awkward to read (he, his, he, his, ad nauseum), but I did get used to it. I also can't tell if that is because of the translation, and if that actually works better in Korean.
A man works for an extermination company in Country A. He receives a transfer to the home office in Country C--he took it because why not? Maybe he will move up in the company. He's divorced with no kids, so the move doesn't really matter.
When he arrives, he finds both the office and his apartment are in a section of the city that is dangerous, the heart of a new epidemic, where trash is dumped everywhere and trash fires burn. His stuff is stolen. He knows few phone numbers. Few people are out. It stinks. There are fumigation trucks everywhere. And his life spirals out of control before he settles down again.
At first he seems very reliable--though the narration style is so awkward, so maybe that is a clue? IN the end though, I was wondering if anything at all was how he perceived/told his story. I also wonder if this is actually meant as an allegory for something in Korean history/current events that I don't recognize.
This novel is strange. It's a little dystopian and a little not. The narrator seems reliable and seems not. He is unnamed, so the text is somewhat awkward to read (he, his, he, his, ad nauseum), but I did get used to it. I also can't tell if that is because of the translation, and if that actually works better in Korean.
A man works for an extermination company in Country A. He receives a transfer to the home office in Country C--he took it because why not? Maybe he will move up in the company. He's divorced with no kids, so the move doesn't really matter.
When he arrives, he finds both the office and his apartment are in a section of the city that is dangerous, the heart of a new epidemic, where trash is dumped everywhere and trash fires burn. His stuff is stolen. He knows few phone numbers. Few people are out. It stinks. There are fumigation trucks everywhere. And his life spirals out of control before he settles down again.
At first he seems very reliable--though the narration style is so awkward, so maybe that is a clue? IN the end though, I was wondering if anything at all was how he perceived/told his story. I also wonder if this is actually meant as an allegory for something in Korean history/current events that I don't recognize.