Danny ChaiI just finished finished this book and I’m curious if anyone’s read it. International bestseller from Korea. Asking because it made me really sad for Korea. I don’t read a ton of Korean books but this and another one I read this year (which I wrote about here), they’re both described as heartwarming but what comes through more strongly to me is an overwhelming sense of sadness and anxiety, much of it driven by economic concerns.
Everyone in this book starts off sad. The old people are concerned about how they’ll survive. The young people feel like they can’t get or keep jobs. People are still upset at the IMF. Covid seems to have done a number on jobs also. The pervasive sense that comes across is that life is so hard in Korea. I don’t want to take too much from just 2 books but man, is that how the country feels? It just seems really sad.
South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, far above any other developed nation, so something is messed up. I wonder what it will take for the country to change.