A review by nini23
Violets by Kyung-sook Shin

4.0

Violets by Shin Kyung-sook has lingered in my mind days after reading. It's left an imprint like afterimages after a camera's flash. I wish San and Su-ae could have used the flower shop as a sanctuary forever. Violet, violence, violator. Unremarkable flowers, unremarkable women. The afterword by the author is very touching, this novel was written in the early 2000s and yet, seeing how the latest South Korean president has been elected in 2022 on promises of fighting against feminism, not much has changed.  The aggression and sexual violence toward women has to stop.

I had previously read Shin's Please Look After Mom in translation. While that was from the missing/lost mother's point of view, Violets interestingly takes the abandoned daughter's perspective. I'll confess to not fully grasping the significance of the childhood incident in the minari fields but it ends where it starts with a fitting symmetry. The loneliness in the middle of busy bustling Seoul experienced by San is piercing in its intensity. 

Hats off to Anton Hur for the translation, I've read his thoughtful insights on translating Korean on his blog. Each word was carefully considered and I found myself sometimes pondering what the original Korean word was, like for 'darling.'




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