Book No. 68 of 2020
Normally I save the comparing-to-other-books thing for the end of my mini-reviews, where I recommend books with similar themes/structures/narratives, but this is so structurally similar to Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart that I have to mention it.
The stories in If I Had Your Face are yearning and quietly bleak and depict, without being heavy handed, the joys and traps of modern Seoul life with all its pleasures and high expectations (of beauty, of career, of money) and precipitous income inequality. You can’t read it and not be reminded of the same issues that we have in America (anyone who wants to critique the ubiquity of plastic surgery in Korea through a lens of paternalistic exoticism, please see: LA and the UES).
My favorite storyline in the book was that of Miho, whose orbiting of one-percenter life in the NYC art world and in Korea, and her relationship with certain characters, was really compelling. (Also clarified a thing I’ve observed and been perplexed by in the brand name music school world; a couple of “ohhhhh” moments for me there.) Also, another character’s arc offers some insight into kpop stan culture—there is way more nuance in this book than I’ve seen in typical Western news pieces about social trends in Korea, and Asia in general.
Similar Reads
As stated above, super similar in structure (and overall vibe) to Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart.
Also thought that some of the observations on poverty, career, and expectations were really reminiscent of a recent read, Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami.