mzgreads 's review for:

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

1.5

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strange how unmoved i was by this compared to the pachinko parlour. i think firstly and probably most importantly, i didn't care for the french man nor did i understand why she was so obsessed with him (or he with her?) the contrast of Old World mysterious traveller with the tawdry glitz and superficiality of her plastic-surgery-obsessed model boyfriend was... there but idk, it didn't leave me feeling anything at all, really. & especially when we aren't actually given any understanding of why south korean korean society is like that, it amounts to just being told over & over that in south korea people are so intense about self-modification and image that it can even help you get a job if you get surgery. like okay yeah we get it... and....? except all we get is more repetitive scenes and flat dialogue and this fuckin annoying french guy who won't even eat korean food. there's a lot of alienation in this book and it isn't balanced by any real tenderness or poignancy. i found the descriptions of the conflict between south korea and the dprk to be disappointingly 2-dimensional. also, as a personal thing, i don't really like reading depictions of eating disorders so that was kind of tough for me