K-LIT REVIEW Jang Ryujin’s ‘To the Moon’ indulges in fantasy of sudden wealth
"To the Moon" by Jang Ryujin / Courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing
What if somebody dropped a fortune in your lap, enough to let you leave the job you hate, stop struggling just to survive and live life for a change? Jang Ryujin’s bestselling slice-of-life novel “To the Moon” brings this impossible fantasy, one grounded in realism, to life.
“To the Moon” tells the story of three ordinary women working dead-end office jobs in downtown Seoul. They’re casual work friends, keeping each other at arm’s length but gathering at lunchtime or when gossip is in the air. Eun-sang, the eldest and most ambitious, spends her free hours looking for ways to earn money outside of work. Jisong, the youngest, buries her head in the sand, choosing to give her all to a long-distance relationship that has no future. Dahae, the middle-of-the-road protagonist, keeps a low profile and dares only to dream of small things. The trio trudge through the daily grind, pushing paper in an endless loop.
This dull monotony is shattered when Eun-sang hits upon her latest moneymaking idea: cryptocurrency. Pouring her savings into Ethereum, she watches with glee as her wealth climbs to surreal heights. Convinced that this is the way out, Eun-sang begs the other two to join. After some debate, Dahae does, but Jisong flat-out refuses, banning them from even mentioning the topic around her. As the three friends are swept up in the exhilaration of a financial adventure, their relationship morphs and twists, and all three come out the other end irrevocably changed.
The brilliance of this story is that instead of offering an escape into a magical land far removed from reality, it dangles a more tantalizing fantasy in front of you. This one is so clearly imaginable, so deceptively close that you can’t help but ask yourself: If I took the same leap of faith, could this happen to me?
When interviewed at the 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, Jang confessed that her own daydreams were the inspiration behind the book. For years, she herself lived from paycheck to paycheck, even though she worked full-time at a respectable IT company. The week before payday was always the most harrowing, and when life weighed on her, she’d think to herself: If only someone would give me a million won out of the blue!
By offering her characters a chance at what she’d wished for and more, Jang was aiming to satisfy her own fantasies. At the same time, the book indulges anyone who’s looked jealously at headlines of people who hit the jackpot overnight with lucky investments.
But what goes up must come down. Or does it? That’s the question that loomed larger in my mind the further I progressed in the book. Is this the part where they crash and burn? Will they be brought back down to earth, stripped bare of what meager means they had and with nothing to show but a jaded pat on the back? Like the hapless passenger forced to fill the first row of a roller-coaster ride, I found myself flinching with each flip of the page, terrified that the next one would be where the drop begins.
Beyond the emotional turmoil and the surreal plot twists, what left the most lasting impression on me was the shrewd way Jang depicted the shifting dynamics between the three friends as their financial situations changed. The novel carefully picks apart what happens when three people begin an the same starting point, but two strap boosters on while one keeps going at the same pace. As the wealth gap between the coworkers widened, friction slipped into the formerly pure friendship, festering feelings were brought to the fore, and words better left unsaid were sharpened into weapons, propelled by frustration and jealousy.
Equal parts heartfelt and laugh-out-loud comedic, “To the Moon” is the perfect dose of “delulu,” in the modern vernacular. It sweeps readers straight up to the sky in a giddy spiral, but not so far that they lose sight of what’s real — just close enough to see that high above the dust and grime of daily life, the moon glimmers bright with a dream.
“To the Moon” is available for purchase online at dbBOOKS.
Faye Leung runs @the_bibliocracy, an Instagram account dedicated to singling out reads for savoring. She regularly posts book reviews and recommendations, and has a particular fondness for Korean literature.