Love and revolution
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Shin Kyung-sook’s newly-translated novel seeks universality in youth, tumult
Shin Kyung-sook’s second English-translated novel, “I’ll Be Right There” is a portrayal of youthful exuberance during the politically tumultuous 1980s. / Korea Times file
By Kim Young-jin
Following the success of her first novel translated into English, “Please Look After Mom,” Korean author Shin Kyung-sook is again stepping into the international spotlight. And again, readers are advised to have a handkerchief nearby.
That’s because like the previous, best-selling effort, “I’ll Be Right There” is packed with emotion. But rather than a tearjerker about a mother’s devotion, the book is a portrayal of youthful exuberance during the politically tumultuous 1980s, a time, Shin says, when “young people would rally against the government one day, only to disappear the next.”
Available in June from Other Press, “I’ll Be Right There” takes place in Seoul under an omnipresent fog of tear gas. Its characters are caught up in the democracy movement against strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who had taken power after the collapse of the authoritarian government of Park Chung-hee.
The book follows Jung Yoon, a literary-type who is forced to reflect on her painful past and those of her three college friends. Her musing is prompted by a phone call from one of those friends, Myungsuh, with whom she had a fling. Their mentor, the charismatic Professor Yoon, has fallen ill.
Jung Yoon hesitates to visit the dying man, instead delving into her memories of her college days.
Then grieving over the passing of her mother, Jung Yoon is an outsider until she takes Professor Yoon’s literature class, where she meets Myungsuh, who is involved in the democracy movement, and his childhood friend, Miru.
Jung Yoon is filled with compassion for Miru, who is strikingly beautiful except for her badly-scarred hands. As the two get closer, she learns the tragic story about how the hands got burned. As the friendships get more intense, the character’s lives reflect the tumult around them and accelerate to a tragic outcome.
Shin’s characters reflect the excitement of university life: sprawling conversations with a new friend, how a professor’s words can ruminate in one’s head and that youthful feeling of invincibility. While the portrayals bring us closer to the characters, they also include the all-knowing platitudes spewed by young people still discovering themselves.
Amid the tumult, questions go unanswered. In particular, the students’ relationship with their mentor - whose illness precipitates the telling of the story - is underdeveloped. He is constantly in their thoughts but remains in the periphery, leaving us to wonder if his story couldn’t have been more compelling.
Beyond the tragedy and the beautiful awkwardness of youth, “I’ll Be Right There” is ultimately about a character, Jung Yoon, discovering that while all things must end, it is possible to persevere through the most difficult of times. This is a message that’s universal, a quality that Shin is visibly seeking in her work.