Logo image
  • BookDragon
  • About
  • The Blogger
  • Review Policy
  • Smithsonian APAC
 
42430
post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-42430,single-format-standard,stardust-core-1.1,stardust-child-theme-ver-1.0.0,stardust-theme-ver-3.1,ajax_updown_fade,page_not_loaded,smooth_scroll

BookDragon Blog

28 Jun / The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

When Oghi wakes in a hospital room, his world doesn’t align with his last memories. He’s been in a coma after surviving a car accident, but his wife is dead, and he’s completely paralyzed.

At 47, Oghi is parentless and childless, with few friends and colleagues at the university where he teaches. His widowed mother-in-law is now “his only family and legal guardian,” under whose care Oghi is eventually sent home. Silently trapped in his damaged body, Oghi loses all control of what happens around him, to him, and because of him. As he recalls more of what led to the fatal accident, his mother-in-law, too, is learning intimate details about her daughter’s life as Oghi’s wife. The facade of a happy union cracks and crumbles, with terrifying results.

Sora Kim-Russell, one of today’s top Korean-to-English translators, excels at replicating the stifling, unrelenting desperation that Pyun creates for her voiceless protagonist. Winner of many of Korea’s top literary prizes and accolades, Pyun proves to be an effectively chilling storyteller whose expert narrative manipulations should earn new followers.

Review: “Adult,” Booklist Online, June 19, 2017

Readers: Adult

Published: 2017 (United States)

By Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Translation Tags > Betrayal, Booklist, Death, Family, Hole, Horror/Ghost story, Hye-Young Pyun, Illness, Parent/child relationship, Sora Kim-Russell
No Comment

Post a Comment
Cancel Reply

Smithsonian Institution
Asian Pacific American Center

Capital Gallery, Suite 7065
600 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20024

202.633.2691 | APAC@si.edu

Additional contact info

Mailing Address
Capital Gallery
Suite 7065, MRC: 516
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012

Fax: 202.633.2699

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

SmithsonianAPA brings Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture to you through innovative museum experiences and digital initiatives.

About BookDragon

Welcome to BookDragon, filled with titles for the diverse reader. BookDragon is a new media initiative of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), and serves as a forum for those interested in learning more about the Asian Pacific American experience through literature. BookDragon is inhabited by Terry Hong.

Learn More

Contact BookDragon

Please email us at SIBookDragon@gmail.com

Follow BookDragon!
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Looking for Something Else …?

or