A review by ryuuminate
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

3.5

'How do you know when a story is done?'
Kerrand came closer to the desk.

'My character reaches a point when I know he has a life of his own. I can let him go.’ 

Winter in Sokcho is the kind of book that leaves you with more of a feeling than a hardened thought, its story unfolding through mundane routines and atmospheric subtleties. Its themes of identity and physicality (through body image, plastic surgery, and intimacy) emerge like a butterfly from a chrysalis, slow yet beautiful. 

You see how Kerrand shows more interest in his idea of Korea than the Sokcho our unnamed narrator has lived through, how he maintains a superficial relationship with her and leaves her scrambling for an inkling of his validation, a sign that he could see her for who she was, not just as a tourist guide that could fill the gaps in his knowledge of a foreign land, not just as a mythologized muse of his art.

And so, when she breaks free from that search, he leaves the guest house she works at, leaves Sokcho, goes back to France—Kerrand leaves behind a character who has gained a mind of her own, a girl whose world no longer revolves around him.