Is there such a thing as the objective truth? How credible is a story that floats through the world going from mouth to mouth….Here too, we do not have answers. By its very nature, a story contains adjustments and embellishments depending on the perspective of the person telling it, depending on the listener's convenience, depending on the storyteller's skills. Reader, you will believe what you want to believe. That's all there is to it. Women and men alike suffer in this novel. They suffer physical, sexual and psychological abuse. If you have a hard time reading about these topics, beware. Huge trigger warning for violence and all types of abuse. There has never been a novel like this in Korean literature . . . A novel that's more like reading out loud than reading quietly to oneself; its structure is like that of a folktale. You can feel the oral tradition in the rhythm of the sentences." Whale is a book that made me feel so much. I didn't want it to end - as stereotypical as this statement gets about things we love; it couldn't be truer for me when it came to this read. I am so glad that this was translated so beautifully from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim – she takes the novel and makes it her own. She tells the story of Geumbok, of her daughter, of her lovers, of the twins, of the elephant, and of everyone in the novel. It stops being a novel by Cheon Myeong-kwan and takes the form of being the translator’s novel, at least for me. That is the beauty of translation, of how it can resonate with the reader because of the expression and words, and emotions chosen by the translator. Of how they make a work theirs and see it for what it truly is.

Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan — sins of the mother

While the man with the scar—the renowned con artist, notorious smuggler, superb butcher, rake, pimp of all the prostitutes on the wharf, and hot-tempered broker—was a taciturn man, he was gregarious with Geumbok, telling her everything about himself. The stories he told her were frightening and cruel, about murder and kidnapping, conspiracy and betrayal—how he was born to an old prostitute who worked along the wharf and was raised by other prostitutes when she died during childbirth, how he grew up without knowing his father, how a smuggler who claimed to be his father appeared in his life, how he stowed away to Japan with this man, how a typhoon came upon them during the journey, how the ship capsized, how the smuggler didn’t know how to swim and flailed in the waves before sinking into the water, how he, who thankfully knew how to swim, drifted onto a beach and lost consciousness, where he was discovered by the yakuza, how he lived with them and learned to use a knife, how he killed for the first time, how he met the geisha who was his first love, how he partedways with her, how he returned home and consolidated power in this city—but she remained enthralled, as though she were watching a movie. Whale gives new meaning to the generation-spanning epic. Cheon expertly inserts metafictional jousts into his stirring prose, sardonically toying with our need for narrative even as he explores his characters' lives with heartfelt urgency. Wonderfully translated by Kim, Whale is an intricate work of art with unexpected riches." Whilst the writing is often comedic, the tone is a philosophical one, with a twist of nostalgia and melancholy. The book is a classic in Korean literature, and this translation, though making the Booker Longlist, is not the first into English. Whale is the English-language debut of a beloved and bestselling South Korean author, a born storyteller with a cinematic, darkly humorous, and thoroughly original perspective. I may not have understood everything that this novel was trying to satirize, but I thoroughly enjoyed the bonkers story that was presented to me. I didn’t want to put it down; I just had to know where it was going.I am still reading the novel but I wanted to write a few words about it before the winner is announced Tomorrow. I think the novel has the best chances to win. I loved Boulder more but I am not sure it will win. This one epic, longer and “big” in every way, from the themes explored to the writing style and plot.

Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, Chi-Young Kim | Waterstones

Why didn’t the violence bother me as much? Was it my internalized sexism? Was it my affinity for romanticizing Korea’s history and culture? Was I truly comfortable with the way the women were written? By a man? From illiteracy to business tycoon, Geumbok thrills us with her candid vision of a changing world, mirroring in a way the progress of her home country and its cultural changes in the 20th century. I am writing this review a few weeks after finishing the lecture, so the plot progression has become a little mixed up in my memory. Nevertheless, I can state that this was truly the highlight of my summer vacation reading: provocative and original despite the early comparisons I made to Marquez and Rushdie. Cheon Meong-Kwan is a skilled writer who can play with the reader’s emotions in playful, tense or lyrical prose. Occasionally, there comes a novel that shakes you out of your reality, places you in its reality, and makes you want to live there forever, no matter how trying the circumstances, how matter how brutal the lay of the land, and no matter how beastly some characters who inhabit that world. Whale was one such novel for me this year, and maybe for a long time to come. Upon publication of the author’s first story, Frank and I (2003), he received the prestigious Munhakdongne New Writer Award. Cheon’s debut novel, Whale, was published the following year. It won the 10th Munhakdongne Novel Award and has become one of the most loved novels in South Korea, where it is regarded as a modern classic. Both protagonists encounter more than their share of violence, but there is humour and magic in equal amounts also.

From that day on, the terror of death ruled the girl. Her goal in life became fleeing death. Her mother's death was the main reason why she left her small mountain village, why she left the harbor city and roamed the country, and why she built an enormous theater that resembled a whale. She wasn't obsessed with the whale just because of its size. When she The book is a history of Korea: from it’s humble beginnings to a land of progress then one divided by political strife. This could be represented by the whale itself but the events which happen in the book also mirror ones which have happened throughout Korea’s history. Due to the grotesque characters and overtly sexual situations, the book is a satire. Think of it as a modern day Candide or Terry Southern’s Candy ,both of which also used sex to point out the failings of the philosophies, government and social circles of their time, Short stories are not usually my cup of tea but this one was done so artfully and cleverly that it's hard not to love. These stories all are interlinked with the same characters and instead form this huge overarching novel in which everything comes together in the end, with any questions being cleared up and clarified in not one, but TWO epilogues. The conflagration was indeed horrific. Over eight hundred people perished in the fire, and even more in the market where it eventually spread. The damage was massive. It was no exaggeration to say that half of Pyungdae burned to the ground. It was the greatest tragedy since the war.

Whale - Archipelago Books Whale - Archipelago Books

Life is sweeping away the dust that keeps piling up, as she mopped the floor with a rag, and sometimes she would add, Death is nothing more than dust piling up.” The detached tone, magical realism, and animals that communicate all give this novel a very fable/folklore-like feel. I loved that. As readers, we all love storytelling and I especially love the old-fashioned kind, the ones my mom would read to me at bedtime. And this felt exactly like that. And often times with fairytales, there are dark and sinister themes brewing underneath. This one was no different. Ranging from comedic satire to the downright offensive, this book has commentary on so much. The political landscape of a post-war Korea, the onset of capitalism and entrepreneurship, the stigma towards obesity, and the deeply patriarchal society that is Korea. A story where the same person can act heroically, cowardly and with great cruelty at different points in her life. Geumbok's daughter is Chunhui. She's the whale-like, autistic- y, mute girl who talks to the dead or alive elephant. We like her. We don't want bad things to happen to her. Bad things happen to her. We don't know what her thoughts were and we don't know what kind of life she desired. She was different, and she lived in isolation because of that.

One of the narrator's favourite refrains after an instructive passage is "That was the law of ..." and the list of Laws quoted gives a good flavour of the novel: