Reviews

To give a 3.5 start to a mamouth of a book that talks about railroads and political history of korea speaks volumes on the talent pf the writer. I recommend before reading to have a map of korea with all important cities and a list of characters and the relationship between them. After that the book is very easy to follow and read. Thank you international booker prize for making me read this book

sinneblommen's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Technically speaking, this book was incredibly well done. You can tell the author did a lot of research, and the way he wove all this information into a compelling narrative is commendable.
For me however, I think the more distant narrator and characters that functioned more as icons were not for me. One of the main reasons I read is complex characters and their psychology, which weren't the focus.
I do appreciate the characters we did have, and I like the way they were written. Especially Shin Geumi, that woman has my heart.
Overall, a really good book, simply not for me.

sacmersault's review against another edition

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adventurous informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

minarima's review

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challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

4.0

coopercodes's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Final book in the Booker Prize shortlist and probably and 8/10.

This novel is WORK, and if you aren’t interested in history of Korea, the Japanese imperialism, or socialist and communist ideology, then you will probably not enjoy this book.

I found it two be written in two very different voices, where it constantly switched between factual style of history non fiction, and a standard novel voice, while not bad I felt the connection to the characters was constantly ring interrupted by it.

Now I am interested in Korean history, Japanese history, and fall very in line as a socialist leftie, so this book was for me.

One of the thing I found difficult, and this is not a criticism, but characters of the same family will have similar names, each character will have both a Korean, Japanese, and if they’re a revolutionary, a code name, so I did struggle to connect characters as they could have 3 names.

This isn’t a critique of that, as it is very much a core identity of the novel, it’s about culture and having it erased, I just suggest you pay attention when names and characters are introduced, is it’s very easy to fall behind and need to pull threads together.

All up I found this the easiest to read than almost all the Booker nominations, read it if you are interested in the subject matter, avoid it if you aren’t.

the_snicklefritz's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

jwproctor's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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