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roraco 's review for:
The Red Palace
by June Hur
about the good: the pacing is even, the morals are admirable, the author of the story is clearly kind-hearted in her approach to her characters, viewing them with and affording them empathy. it hasn't caused an epiphany and hasn't changed me profoundly, but it's a good book written by a good writer. it's solid. a couple of hours are worth the emotional weight of being reminded some simple wordly truths: that your parents have had life before you and have their emotional struggles outside of the mark their parenting left on you, that loss is inevitable, inescapable, and therefore someting we must learn to live with, that uncleaned wounds fester and attending to them remains our personal responsibility, that love is terrifying and full of painful possibilities, but that doesn't diminish its worth. life is worth living.
about the neutral: the writing style brought up to me the ancient translation dilemma of "to domesticate or not to domesticate". which is particularly troublesome, since this isn't a translation. at which point does using culturally specific transcribed names become a problem? i found that (imo) it became a problem in the very first chapter. it's not that i didn't understand or misremembered those terms, but they seemed to overpower the text, ask for too much attention. not sure i have an intelligent solution to offer; instead i can only present a mild conclusion that yes, the balancing of assuring the reader of the authenticity of the foreign culture presented in the text with immersive readability is a delicate act.
about the neutral: the writing style brought up to me the ancient translation dilemma of "to domesticate or not to domesticate". which is particularly troublesome, since this isn't a translation. at which point does using culturally specific transcribed names become a problem? i found that (imo) it became a problem in the very first chapter. it's not that i didn't understand or misremembered those terms, but they seemed to overpower the text, ask for too much attention. not sure i have an intelligent solution to offer; instead i can only present a mild conclusion that yes, the balancing of assuring the reader of the authenticity of the foreign culture presented in the text with immersive readability is a delicate act.