372 pages
English language
Published Jan. 2, 2023 by Steerforth Press, Archipelago.
While "Whale" begins with Chunhee, a mysterious young brickmaker of imposing physicality who cannot speak, introduced a the Queen of Red Bricks, it quickly situates her story within a longer multi-generational saga composed of three parts. While we learn of Chunhee s tragic path to her becoming someone who makes bricks of the highest quality, the novel retraces the familial circumstances that shaped her. While poignant yet brutal, "Whale" is also a satire of how we the general public, mass media, even artists and writers tend to romanticize voiceless figures of history."
I find it very strange that many of the top reviews don’t mention the constant rape happening in this book. I tried to look past it but it got tiring so quickly.
Whale is a historically and atmospherically rich story centering around a shrewd woman named Geumbok in the 1950s. It is a full account of her birth, full life, death, and the full life of her daughter as well. With elements of mysticism, this was a surreal read as we followed Geumbok and all of the women that preceded and followed her in life, manifesting as a tragic, but oftentimes funny, family epic.
In many ways, this felt like a Korean "One Hundred Years of Solitude" with the satire dialed up quite a bit. I really enjoyed that aspect, as Solitude is one of my favorite classics. All of the characters were uniquely charming in their own way, even if they were unlikable. Even the characters that were likable had moments of unlikability, painting a realistic picture of who they were as people. Many had redemption, others fell into corruption. The …
Whale is a historically and atmospherically rich story centering around a shrewd woman named Geumbok in the 1950s. It is a full account of her birth, full life, death, and the full life of her daughter as well. With elements of mysticism, this was a surreal read as we followed Geumbok and all of the women that preceded and followed her in life, manifesting as a tragic, but oftentimes funny, family epic.
In many ways, this felt like a Korean "One Hundred Years of Solitude" with the satire dialed up quite a bit. I really enjoyed that aspect, as Solitude is one of my favorite classics. All of the characters were uniquely charming in their own way, even if they were unlikable. Even the characters that were likable had moments of unlikability, painting a realistic picture of who they were as people. Many had redemption, others fell into corruption. The structure of this story jumped back and forth between characters and timelines, always keeping you just at arms reach of what was going on and why we were shifting focus to a new character or story, but never enough to feel disjointed or sloppy.
The story itself I found to be quite touching, focusing on themes of abandonment, family connections and love so deep it can't be communicated. It is a story of extreme hardship and extreme wealth, fluctuating between the two several times. What resulted was an introspective, satisfying story that keeps you thinking about it long after the fact.
This book feels like an homage to contemporary classics. If you like classical literature, generational stories with aspects of political satire and equally lovable and unlovable characters, you should pick this up.
