I’ll be right there by Kyung-Sook Shin

Set in Seoul, South Korea. Reread on 2019/01: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsrSI6yHyQx/

I think #illberightthereshould have been titled I’ll Be Right There Someday. #someday is the keyword #kyungsookshin wanted to emphasize throughout the story. The problem with the promise of someday is that it is both hopeful and vague. It never comes to fruition because it was never defined and confirmed to begin with. So you go on and on hoping for that someday and it simply never comes along. What brings the message in the story together is what #kyungsook forces us to look at. Hoping for that someday makes you want to survive, makes you want to move forward, makes you want to look for a solution, makes you want to resist. So although that expected and desired ending never comes, someday becomes the fuel to live the now, the present and never give up. In a lot of ways this book reflects on a specific moment in time in #koreanhistory . But the message is clearly targeting all of us, including contermporary Koreans and our ability to energize our current reality with the hope of a radical imagination or a radically different future. #rereadmarathon#highlyrecommended #koreanliterature#studentprotests #seoul #otherpress #어디선가나를찾는전화벨이울리고 #신경숙 #서울 #universitystudents #activism #nostalgia#nevergiveup #againstallodds #mournful#beingthere

Reviewed on 2017/12: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc0YzIBHyNh/

And in radical contrast with my previous post, we have here a deep and complete book in every sense. #illberighthere is nostalgic, emotional and poignant. It mainly tells the story of #students grasping with the political and social unrest in the country in the 80s-90s from a very personal and human perspective. But beyond a #political book, the characters are all longing for memories that will never come back, memories of failures and absences, memories that continue to vanish. I adored the parallels between how necessary it is to continue to protest and stand up to successions of one corrupt and repressive government after another one and how the characters aim to be there for one another despite their constant mistakes and screwing up. At the end I believe #kyungsookshin aims for a feeling of hope despite our shortcomings and also an emotive #hommage to all those brave and relentless students. #highlyrecommended #koreanliterature#studentprotests #seoul #otherpress #어디선가나를찾는전화벨이울리고 #신경숙 #서울 #universitystudents #activism #nostalgia#nevergiveup #againstallodds #mournful#beingthere