Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
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4.5 • 31 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The runaway bestseller that has sold over one million copies internationally, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the most important book to have come out of South Korea since Han Kang’s The Vegetarian.
Kim Jiyoung is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s.
Kim Jiyoung is representative of her generation:
At home, she is an unfavoured sister to her princeling little brother.
In primary school, she is a girl who has to line up behind the boys at lunchtime.
In high school, she is a daughter whose father blames her for being harassed late at night.
In university, she is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships by her professor.
In the office, she is an exemplary employee who is overlooked for promotion by her manager.
At home, she is a wife who has given up her career to take care of her husband and her baby.
Kim Jiyoung is depressed.
Kim Jiyoung has started to act out.
Kim Jiyoung is her own woman.
Kim Jiyoung is insane.
Kim Jiyoung’s husband sends her to see a psychiatrist.
This is his clinical assessment of the everywoman in contemporary Korea.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In her sledgehammer of a novel, author Cho Nam-joo exposes the misogyny experienced by women in South Korea—and she’s got receipts. With unflinching precision, her story follows the life of a seemingly ordinary South Korean woman from childhood to motherhood, highlighting unjust and, at times, terrifying events that are disturbingly commonplace. Jiyoung is groped by male teachers, harassed on the street (and then blamed for it by her father), and passed over by managers who promote her lower-performing male counterparts. The barrage never ends and it’s no wonder Jiyoung seems to be descending into psychosis. Cho Nam-joo weaves statistics and historical facts (complete with citations) into her narrative, making the reality behind the sexism that’s driving Jiyoung insane impossible to ignore. The result is an eye-opening, cathartic, and unavoidably infuriating read, whether Jiyoung’s story validates your own experiences or opens your eyes to someone else’s reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cho's spirited debut offers a picture of rampant sexism in contemporary South Korea through the experience of a frustrated, subjugated, 33-year-old housewife. At a gathering with her husband Jung Daehyun's family, Kim Jiyoung suddenly speaks up to her father in law, questioning the cultural expectation that she bend over backward to serve them. A distressed, apologetic Daehyun insists to his parents that "she's not well," and coaxes Jiyoung to see a psychiatrist whose report on Jiyoung forms the novel, offering insight on the challenges she's faced. Jiyoung grew up in Seoul as a middle child with an older sister and younger brother, and learned from her grandmother to accept that boys receive special treatment. At her school, she is punished for eating lunch too slowly despite being given much less time than the boys. While the psychiatrist recognizes how sexism has shaped Jiyoung and reflects on his privilege as a man, he concludes his report without resolving to offer support and validation. While Cho's message-driven narrative will leave readers wishing for more complexity, the brutal, bleak conclusion demonstrates Cho's mastery of irony. This will stir readers to consider the myriad factors that diminish women's rights throughout the world.
Customer Reviews
Amazing
I absolutely loved the writing in this book. It drew me in so much that I didn’t even realize when I got halfway through. It was … to me to read through and parallels that still occur even in 2023.