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| Hwang Sun-mi, the author of the best-selling book "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly," during an interview at a cafe in Seoul on Oct. 19. / Korea Times |
Author recounts her father's rugged life in her best-selling book
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Hwang Sun-mi, the author of the best-selling book "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly," opened up new possibilities for Korean literature. The global success of her book made many realize that Korean writers have the potential to captivate readers around the world.
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Not long after the book was translated into English and published by Penguin USA in 2013, it became the Amazon Best Book of the Month in November that same year. It also became a best seller in Britain.
Asked why the fable won the hearts of people around the world, Hwang, 52, said she doesn't know, but her readers, both at home and abroad, seem to easily relate to elements of the fable.
Readers have very different impressions of her book. The prolific writer, who has published nearly 50 books since debuting in 1995, said there are distinct differences between Korean and foreign readers. According to her, Koreans are more content-oriented and tend to focus on every detail of the book, whereas foreign readers look beyond the storyline.
"People whom I met in Korea asked questions that are directly related to the book's content, such as if there was any actual model that I had in mind for the lead character when I began the book project or how valuable it is for me compared with my other publications," she said during a recent interview with The Korea Times in Seoul.
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"One British reader was wondering if I was trying to send a certain message about the security standoff between South and North Korea," she said. Hwang returned to Seoul from Britain weeks ago after wrapping up a two-month stay in Norwich under an exchange program organized by the government.
She said Korean readers' perceptions also vary significantly depending on their backgrounds and experiences.
"I met several Korean ladies, who told me that the first chapter of the book, which had phrases about the fate of an immature egg born without a shell, reminded them of their miscarriage experiences. They said they paused on the page for a while because they became so sad and couldn't turn the page," she said. "Such unexpected reactions surprised me because I did not intend to cause such reactions."
The book describes the journey of Sprout, who challenges her fate as a hen laying eggs on command and whose eggs are collected daily by the farmer's wife. The hen yearns to have her own chick and explores the world outside the cage after watching the animals there roam free. Later, she decides to wander into the wild, where she meets a tragic end.
Foreign readers have written positive reviews of the book. On Goodreads.com, a popular site for book recommendations, a user identified as "Adrianna" gave the book a five-star review.
"I didn't expect much from that book when I first picked it up, but it turned out to be such an important read. It is about one brave hen, a very brave one, who decides to make a change in her life in order to fulfill her dream," the reader wrote.
Another user, identified as "Chris," wrote, "While the book is meditation about family, love and motherhood, it is also a close look at nature as well as the influence of man on nature."
Several other readers, in Arabic and other languages, also gave the book five-star reviews, indicating that Hwang's book appealed to readers from across a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
However, contrary to many of her readers' perceptions, Hwang said that Sprout was based on her father, who died of cancer before the book was published in 2000. He was a farmer-turned plumber who became buried in debt because of the actions of swindler acquaintances.
The author began to write the book in 1998, when her father was dying of cancer. Hwang said she wanted to recount her father's unfortunate, rugged life full of sad experiences and poverty.
She said that hens are such ordinary creatures that rarely capture people's attention, and that's why she chose it for the lead character because the animal's characteristics resembled those of her father. "My father was a principled man. He was a warm person. He always did his best, but his efforts didn't pay off. I learned that there are people like my father who are diligent and make strenuous efforts to achieve their goals, but the results always betray them," she said.
Some of her memories about her father were traumatic.
"One day, when my father and I passed by the Daewoo building near the Seoul Railway Station, he pointed to the skyscraper and proudly said to me that he was one of the construction workers who built it," she said.
His life at that time, however, was miserable. He had to skip meals and sleep outside near the station. Near where he slept was a street vendor selling "pulppang," or cheap sponge cakes. They smelled and looked so good, but the poor laborer had no money to buy them.
Ever since she heard this story, Hwang said she has never eaten pulppang again because they reminded her of the hardships that her father had gone through.
Hwang, the second of five children, was her father's favorite. He regretted being poor and not being able to send his daughter, who was bright and eager to learn, to middle school. She taught herself at home and passed the qualification exam to enter high school. She went on to study at the Seoul Institute of the Arts in 1984.
Hwang said her father's hey day came in the late 1970s when he had worked in Saudi Arabia as a construction worker for three years. During that time, he was able to send money home and wrote letters to his family in Korea.
"Every letter he sent had a ‘P.S.' that asked my mother to give me an allowance of 5,000 won ($5) so that I could buy books that I wanted to read. However, my mother never acted on this," Hwang said.
One day, in 1998, when her father's health worsened because stomach cancer had spread to other organs, he told his wife to give 100,000 won ($100) to Hwang.
Her mom nodded but didn't immediately do what he asked. He became upset and demanded that she do it right before him to make sure that his daughter received the money.
"It was the first and last stipend that I received from my father," she said. "I still don't know what my father was trying to say to me about the money, but I still keep it because it was my last memory of him."
