The four short stories of 불빛 없는 밤의 도시 have all been great, but what I really loved in this collection is that it never gives easy-to-love protagonists. They’re all morally questionable, do condemnable things or blame others for their failure (even though I read it years ago, I remember the protagonist of 인생, 리셋 really falling in this category). 불빛 없는 밤의 도시 and 아름다운 괴물 both featured very interesting characters: they have detestable aspects but it’s also easy to understand where they come from.
Overall a very good collection, but I wish the publisher had stated clearly which stories had already been published and which (if any) are new exclusive ones, because I know at least that the last one, 인생, 리셋, had already been published in a collection from 2022 and the author said she wrote 아름다운 괴물 5 years ago, though I don’t know if it had been published before.
불빛 없는 밤의 도시
Review
Updates
So I started the last short story 인생, 리셋, and it took me a couple of pages to realise that I had already read it: it was featured in the collection of short stories: 밀지 마세요, 사람 탑니다.
It’s very strange, I couldn’t see anywhere that this story (maybe the others too?) had already been published elsewhere, I thought it was a new collection.
밀지 마세요, 사람 탑니다 was so great, featuring stories from different authors with the common theme of Seoul metro. 인생, 리셋 was one of my favourite stories from the collection! I’m not going to re-read it though, so I just finished the book!
I didn’t read anything else today, but I finished the short story 아름다운 괴물. It was excellent, really felt like a short novel rather than a short story. I really love how the main character is morally grey, doing disgusting and condemnable things, while at the same time being relatable. I couldn’t help but root for her still, despite everything. Overall, all the three protagonists of the collection have had complex personalities, I find all characters are very well written.
아름다운 괴물 is really good! It feels more like a novel than a short story.
I don’t know if I’ll have time to finish it today, but maybe I’ll try to continue it later!
I started the third short story! It’s also the longest one.
I had originally planned to read half of it today, but I was busy with the website, so I only started it. I really love the beginning, looks very promising!
I finished the second short story, 보름, and I loved it. It was a very good mystery with very dark themes (depression, alcoholism and DV among others), but I loved how it makes you see the characters differently as the story goes.
I finished the first short story, 불빛 없는 밤의 도시, and I think it was a really strange one.
It feels like there was a lot of interesting threads, but none was really fully developed. Maybe it would have been better as a novel? For example, the idea of the zero lights nights was really interesting, and we do follow the different steps of its implementation, but at the same time, the character of Jae-u could have been more developed I felt like. The idea of linking those zero lights nights to crime was also very interesting. But challenges like CCTV being useless, were not really the focus of the short story, event though this had a lot of potential. Similarly, the tensions with the environmental maintenance workers could have been an interesting thread if the story had focused more on that. The end was very good, but also felt strange to me, maybe because we never get to know the characters completely. I feel like this short story could have easily been a novel, because there was so many things going on.
The first short story is really not easy to read, so I’m progressing slowly. I wanted to finish it today, but it’s probably not happening.
Started the first short story that gives its name to the collection. I found it hard to read (in terms of language level), but it’s very interesting!
Post
불빛 없는 밤의 도시 is a collection of short stories! I thought it was a novel. I’m super happy, because I actually wanted to read short stories in both Japanese and Korean while I was busy with 暗黑者2, but then I saw this book and really wanted to read it, so I chose this one even though I thought it was a novel… It’s a nice surprise!
Characters
Quotes
민원전화 한 통마다 이런 식으로 해결 방법을 찾아 기획안을 올린다면 아마 공무원 생활 2년을 채 넘기기 전에 쓰러지고 말 것이다.
Vocabulary
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 젖병 | baby bottle |
The meaning of 젖병 was obvious from the context, but I didn’t know this word.
| Word | Hanja | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 의처증 | 疑妻症 | morbid jealousy; Othello syndrome; morbid suspicion of one's wife's infidelity |
Looking at the hanja, this word is specifically for suspicion about one’s wife fidelity, not just pathological jealousy.
| Word | Hanja | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 재래식 | 在來式 | conventional type, customary style, traditional |
Today I learnt how to say “pit latrine” in Korean: 재래식 화장실. It’s strange that I never knew this word, but pit latrines are very rare, I sometimes see them in subway toilets but mostly outside of Seoul, or in some middle school buildings (I remember from taking the JLPT), and even then, it’s only half or less of the cubicles, and they’re identified with a drawing on the room, I never saw the word 재래식 화장실.
To me, the only thing that I regularly saw as being “재래식” is 된장.