KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
translated by Jamie Chang
★★★★★
Liveright, April 2020
“Kim Jiyoung is thirty-three years old, thirty-four Korean age. She got married three years ago and had a daughter last year. […] Jiyoung’s abnormal behavior was first detected on 8 September.”
So begins Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Cho Nam-Joo’s daring excavation of a young woman crumbling under the strain of unrelenting misogyny, which has sold over a million copies in its native South Korea. Jiyoung (the Korean naming convention places a person’s family name before their given name), an average, unremarkable woman, one day begins to imitate the voices of other women she has known throughout her life—a phenomenon neither she nor her husband can explain, which prompts them to visit a psychiatrist.
You can read my full review HERE on BookBrowse, and a piece I wrote about feminist movements in South Korea HERE.
You can pick up a copy of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 here on Book Depository.
I have this from Netgalley and I really wish I’d put it on my 20 Books list as I think I’ll love it. I might try to get to it over the summer.
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I’m going to request this the second my library system reopens for business.
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This sounds really strange. Women in translation month is coming…
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