Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

 I picked this book up randomly from Waterstones on my birthday as a part of my gift to myself. I have seen it on the internet frequently, but I have never gotten around to purchasing and reading it until recently. Before reading it, I did not know too much about it, except that it was a story about South Korean women in general and their position in the modern world. This was a short, but precise and relevant novel that exposed the issues of misogyny and sexism in an excellent mixture of fiction and non-fiction.
In the novel, we follow the story of the titular character from the start of her education to her marriage, motherhood and her issues with mental health. Throughout the novel, the reader is exposed to many inequalities and injustices that women in South Korea still face simply because they are born women in this world. Author provides numerous examples of situations in which it was expected that women would continuously and constantly sacrifice themselves for men in their families be they brothers, fathers, husbands or sons. While Kim and her sister do get highly educated, even in the job market their gender continues to be an obstacle for them.
This is a work of fiction, but the author frequently employs the statistics and quotes real life research to make the topic she is writing about even more relevant and pointed. Not only is this a heart wrenching story of discrimination on every level, but it is also supported by facts and statistics from research done on the topic of the position of women in the world. She managed to cover many different spheres that would be relevant for somebody’s life. 

Another important aspect in the novel are the male characters. There are some characters that are just flat out bad people, but the majority of them are honestly just clueless. Starting from her home, the father does not recognize or acknowledge his wife’s contribution to their financial situation or maintaining the whole household and family. At work, the work done by women is seen as less important and valuable- the main character experiences this first hand. Even the partners that were supposed to be understanding, kind and good people do not fully understand. Kim’s husband does not think twice before saying she should be the one to leave her job when they have a kid and he genuinely believes he is an equal partner to her, while we see this is not true.

At the end, Kim does see a doctor for the mental health issues she is having, but he is no better. It is heavily implied she is going through some kind of postpartum issues, but never explicitly stated as it is still a taboo topic. The doctor’s section spends a considerable time telling us about his wife, a well educated intelligent woman who dedicated herself to their child so much she had to quit her job. With lack of anything interesting to do, she finds herself completing elementary school level math, stunning her husband. From his lack of understanding for her mental health, we are also confronted with the notion that even the mental health experts do not have an understanding of women’s health. Why would they bother?

Overall, this book was not an eye opener for me, as I was aware of the lot of statistics and issues described, but it was a compact, well written and compelling narrative of women’s issues that are still persisting in the world today. I read it in one afternoon and it is a quick read. I rated it ⅘ as I truly enjoyed it. Did you read this book? What did you think?