{"id":41454,"date":"2016-09-15T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=41454"},"modified":"2019-07-13T14:18:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T18:18:55","slug":"vaseline-budda-jung-young-moon-translated-yewon-jung-library-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/vaseline-budda-jung-young-moon-translated-yewon-jung-library-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaseline Budda by Jung Young Moon, translated by Yewon Jung [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-41396 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/08\/Vaseline-Buddha-by-Jung-Young-Moon-on-BookDragon-via-LJ.jpg\" alt=\"Vaseline Buddha by Jung Young Moon on BookDragon\" width=\"509\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/08\/Vaseline-Buddha-by-Jung-Young-Moon-on-BookDragon-via-LJ.jpg 800w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/08\/Vaseline-Buddha-by-Jung-Young-Moon-on-BookDragon-via-LJ-509x800.jpg 509w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/08\/Vaseline-Buddha-by-Jung-Young-Moon-on-BookDragon-via-LJ-768x1207.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/>As narratives go, little happens in Jung Young Moon&#8217;s latest translated-into-English title: unable to sleep, the protagonist considers writing a story, but not before he prevents a possible robbery. The unknown fate of the fallen thief sparks his imagination to cite memories (a break-up, a house-sitting experience, his nine-year-old son), far-flung journeys (France, Madagascar, Nepal, and beyond), philosophical ponderings (Marx, Hitler, his dead fish named Kierkegaard), obscure historical observations (transracial adoption in the Netherlands, Yasser Arafat&#8217;s love of Tom and Jerry cartoons), and much more.<\/p>\n<p>Disparate details, devices, and themes all coalesce into &#8220;this story [that] is also a story about the process of writing a story.&#8221; Defying labels, Jung \u2013 an enigmatic sensation in South Korea whose chameleon-like linguistic talent has allowed him to render 40-plus English-language titles into Korean (from the likes of Germaine Greer, John Fowles, and Raymond Carver) \u2013 ultimately offers an audacious discourse on creativity, presenting readers with a labyrinth of ideas, images, suggestions, and observations all waiting and available to individual interpretation. Translator Yewon Jung deserves equal praise for smoothly deciphering the author&#8217;s generous sentences and multipage paragraphs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Audiences are likely to have two extreme reactions to this book: adulation or dismissal. Libraries with adventurous patrons will want to acquire and test this provoking treatise without delay.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/reviews.libraryjournal.com\/2016\/09\/books\/fiction\/lj-fiction-reviews-september-15-2016\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, September 15, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As narratives go, little happens in Jung Young Moon&#8217;s latest translated-into-English title: unable to sleep, the protagonist considers writing a story, but not before he prevents a possible robbery. The unknown fate of the fallen thief sparks his imagination to cite memories (a break-up, a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,37,6535,66],"tags":[6608,10,11,51,7115,70,35,173,7114,7116],"class_list":["post-41454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-korean","category-repost","category-translation","tag-bookdragon","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-identity","tag-jung-young-moon","tag-library-journal","tag-speculative-fantasy","tag-travel","tag-vaseline-buddha","tag-yewon-jung"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vaseline Budda by Jung Young Moon, translated by Yewon Jung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/vaseline-budda-jung-young-moon-translated-yewon-jung-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vaseline Budda by Jung Young Moon, translated by Yewon Jung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As narratives go, little happens in Jung Young Moon&#8217;s latest translated-into-English title: unable to sleep, the protagonist considers writing a story, but not before he prevents a possible robbery. The unknown fate of the fallen thief sparks his imagination to cite memories (a break-up, a...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/vaseline-budda-jung-young-moon-translated-yewon-jung-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-15T13:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-13T18:18:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/08\/Vaseline-Buddha-by-Jung-Young-Moon-on-BookDragon-via-LJ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1257\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vaseline Budda by Jung Young Moon, translated by Yewon Jung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/vaseline-budda-jung-young-moon-translated-yewon-jung-library-journal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vaseline Budda by Jung Young Moon, translated by Yewon Jung [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","og_description":"As narratives go, little happens in Jung Young Moon&#8217;s latest translated-into-English title: unable to sleep, the protagonist considers writing a story, but not before he prevents a possible robbery. 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