Recent books
Policies that Rewrite History
Essay collection; Historical Criticism: 252 pp., 15,000 won
The book is a collection of writings by nine historians and social science professors who share the concern over how politics is increasingly influencing the writing of history textbooks used in middle- and high-schools here. In the seven chapters, the authors attempt to broaden their argument beyond education and provide an opinionated but detailed analysis on how the state’s growing intervention with the interpretation of historical events affects social policies, diplomatic relations with neighboring states, protection of cultural assets and perseverance of official records. The newly opened National Museum of Korean Contemporary History also comes under attack with Seoul National University historian Lee Dong-ki and Sungshin Women’s University’s Hong Suk-ryul reviewing how the preparation process for the institution lacked the participation of historians and was influenced more by politicians under the former Lee Myung-bak government.
― Kim Tong-hyung
The Voices of Heaven
Maija Rhee Devine; Seoul Selection: 316 pp., 12,000 won
This is the latest work of Korean-American author Devine, who tells the story about the devotion and secrets of a family living at the cusp of the Korean War. The quiet life of Gui-yong and Eum-chun and their secretly adopted daughter begins to split at the seams after a mistress moves in with the family to bear Gui-yong a male child, which was deemed necessary in a society dictated by Confucianist culture. The family is further driven apart by the Korean War and it falls on the shoulders of Mi-na, the adopted daughter, to keep things together. Devine is a Korea-born writer whose fiction, non-fiction and poetry works have appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Boulevard and the North American Review among other publications.
Bonjour Coree
Laurent Barberon: Noonbit Publishing 200 pp., 33,000 won
The book contains 200 photos of Korea from the 1970s to the current times taken by Frenchman Laurent Barberon, also known by his Korean name Park Laurent. Barberon, who majored in architecture at a university in Paris, first visited Korea in 1973 to participate as an athlete in an international taekwondo competition. He developed an emotional attachment to the country and has been a frequent visitor for the past four decades during which he passionately took photos he believed marked the changes in society. Barberon’s black-and-white photos are particularly valuable as windows to Korean everyday life in the 1970s and 80s. The most memorable images include a 1978 photo of moving packages up an apartment building by rope, photos of Seoul’s now-closed red light districts and their neighboring areas in the 1970s and ‘80s, and a 2004 photo of men drinking coffee outside a shop closed due to the owner experiencing a family death.