Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Cho Nam-Joo; transl., Jamie Chang , 2016 (2020, U.S.)
Liveright Publishing
176 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631496707
Summary
A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.
Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old "millennial everywoman," she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do.
But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.
In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission.
Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother.
Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.
Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons "family planning" birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?
Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Cho Nam-Joo was a television scriptwriter for nine years. Her debut novel, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, has sold in nineteen countries and over a million copies. She lives in Korea.
Jamie Chang is an award-winning translator and teaches at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Cho’s clinical prose is bolstered with figures and footnotes to illustrate how ordinary Jiyoung’s experience is.… When Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, was published in Korea in 2016, it was received as a cultural call to arms…. Cho’s novel was treated as a social treatise as much as a work of art.… The new, often subversive novels by Korean women, which have intersected with the rise of the #MeToo movement, are driving discussions beyond the literary world.
Alexandra Alter - New York Times
This novel is about the banality of the evil that is systemic misogyny.… [Jiyoung] feels so overwhelmed by social expectations that there is no room for her in her own body; her only option is to become something—or someone—else.
Euny Hong - New York Times Book Review
Cho Nam-joo’s third novel has been hailed as giving voice to the unheard everywoman.… [Kim Jiyoung] has become both a touchstone for a conversation around feminism and gender and a lightning rod for anti-feminists who view the book as inciting misandry…. [The book] has touched a nerve globally…. The character of Kim Jiyoung can be seen as a sort of sacrifice: a protagonist who is broken in order to open up a channel for collective rage.
Sarah Shin - Guardian (UK)
Cho Nam-Joo points to a universal dialogue around discrimination, hopelessness, and fear.
Time
In this fine―and beautifully translated―biography of a fictional Korean woman we encounter the real experiences of many women around the world.
Spectator (UK)
Following the life of the titular character from her mother’s generation through her own childhood, young adulthood, career, marriage and eventual "breakdown," the book moves around in time to subtly uncover how patriarchy eats away at the psyches and bodies of women, starting before they’re even born.
Seattle Times
While Cho’s message-driven narrative will leave readers wishing for more complexity, the brutal, bleak conclusion demonstrates Cho’s mastery of irony. This will stir readers to consider the myriad factors that diminish women’s rights throughout the world.
Publishers Weekly
A relatively quick read at under 200 pages, the novel… is credited with launching Korea's own #MeToo moment. It effectively communicates the realities Korean women face,…and the nearly impossible challenge of balancing motherhood with career aspirations. —Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis
Library Journal
(Starred review) Cho’s narrative is part bildungsroman and part Wikipedia entry…. Cho’s matter-of-fact delivery [and]…Jiyoung’s therapist’s report―his claims of being "aware" and "enlightened" only [damn] him further as an entitled troll―proves to be narrative genius.
Booklist
[T]here's nothing revolutionary here—it's basically feminism 101 but in novel form, complete with occasional footnotes.… But the story perfectly captures [misogyny]… recognizable to many. A compelling story about a woman in a deeply patriarchal society.
Kirkus Reviews
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