Title- Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Author- Cho Nam-Joo
Series- N/A
Published- 2021
Page Count- 163 pages
Publishing House- Simon&Schuster
Genre- translated fiction (South Korea), feminist fiction, modern literature
Rating- 4/5 stars
About the Author
Cho Nam-joo is a former television scriptwriter. In the writing of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 she drew partly on her own experience as a woman who quit her job to stay at home after giving birth to a child.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is her third novel. It has had a profound impact on gender inequality and discrimination in Korean society, and has been translated into 18 languages.
Taken from Goodreads.
Plot
Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own.
Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night.
Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely. Kim Jiyoung is depressed. Kim Jiyoung is mad. Kim Jiyoung is her own woman. Kim Jiyoung is every woman.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century and raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression that are relevant to us all. Riveting, original and uncompromising, this is the most important book to have emerged from South Korea since Han Kang's The Vegetarian.
Taken from Goodreads
Opinions
I had seen this book a few times on bookstagram, with it getting a lot of praise. It seemed that a lot of people suddenly started talking about this book. I did a bit of research into it and decided it was something I was interested in reading. I took it on holiday with me when I went to Exeter in July. It was a very good holiday read.
Maybe because I was so busy doing things every day while I was on holiday, but I felt that this had a bit of a rocky start. I found it hard to engage with the first couple of chapters, particularly the second one. I couldn't keep a track of who was who as we were introduced to all of Kim Jiyoung's family. We met her grandmother and mother, which made me a bit confused as to what was happening. However, as we moved through the book I worked out what was going on and who was who.
The middle section right up until the final chapter were incredible. I didn't want to put this book down. I went from not being very invested and thinking this was going to be a three star book to being obsessed and knowing this was going to be a four star read. Kim Jiyoung was an interesting character. I think the middle section of this book was my favourite as it made me feel a lot of things, which I'll talk about in the next section. I particularly liked how it moved through her life from her birth, which is why we had the backstory about her family and I got confused, to her experience as a mother. It captured all the layers of her life, weaving in these important themes and messages.
This books message was incredibly powerful. It made me feel angry because these are things I had heard, especially with the author backing it up with statistics. I think this is a book that everyone needs to read as the messages are so important. These sadly are still things that are thought about women. That we should have good careers and be perfect wives/mothers. That often experiences will go to men simply because they are men. Some women are pressured to having children and their in-laws want a certain gender for their grandchildren. Even though attitudes have changed, we still experience things like this. Like I said, this book made me angry at times but that was because in some way or other, I have had similar experiences to Kim Jiyoung.
I'll be honest, I didn't like the ending. I really enjoyed going through Kim Jiyoung's life and then suddenly we were with some male American therapist. It just felt a bit random and took away from the powerful message of this book. I didn't want some male's opinion on these issues and then to learn about his own life. It didn't sit right with me.
What did you think of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982?
