Han Kang - the Vegetarian

>>9095060
There was a large lobbying push for korean works to capture international literature awards.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/can-a-big-government-push-bring-the-nobel-prize-in-literature-to-south-korea

This is their best shot. I too didnt think it was amazing, but it was certainly unique and had interesting imagery. I didnt see murakami but some interesting transitions between traditionalism and modernity, as well as some really surrealist capturing of mental illness.

>I also didn't really think there was much cultural commentary

The men are all brutal wankers and rapists, the women endure the brutality, I'd say that's some kind of commentary

>>9095167
To be fair to her, I would prefer to avoid living in a Korean family after reading that novel. Maybe before reading that novel.

>>9095060
This is one case where you would think the hype wasn't political, read it with the best intentions, and still find out you were wrong.

>>9095162
That's really interesting, thanks. The 'Korean wave' even extends to literature, huh

>>9095178
As I said in the OP, I don't think it's too representative of a typical Korean family dynamic. This is a fucked-up family, in any country

>>9095167
Fair point

>>9095209
2015-16 has been the year of exaggerated leftist-racialist works in awards. The Sympathizer, Underground Railroad, The Sellout, , Eileen, This, zadie smiths varied works are all bizarre, iconoclastic representations of perceived and real oppression with the pieces muddled up. I despise this shit politically, but it is an obvious movement in literature that is being gobbled up by the literary press, as you can only read so many whiny slave narratives. At least there are some unique takes on tired social perspectives, and in the case of Asian and South Asian patriarchy, I would suggest that there is a bit more space to whine.

At least above works are unique.

Is there any Korean fiction on fan death?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

I just read it. I can see the comparison to murikami even though it feels trite. I'm not sure how I totally understood it, but I did enjoy how weird it was.

My Korean fiancé understood the context of it better than I did. Apparently Korean culture is a lot stricter than American culture so maybe it was a big shock there?

>>9095232
Just reading about this bullshit makes me nauseous.

Saw it being shilled in the NYT, so I knew it was to be avoided. Same with The Nix, which many people on here also wondered about, and discovered to be bad. These publications only pander to pseuds and plebs, despite any pretension they have. If you're interested in a recent book, and you see that it's been reviewed favorably by places such as the NYT, New Yorker, Huff Post, Guardian, etc., avoid it.

>>9095648
How should you go about finding good contemporary lit?

>>9095943
There isn't much. Delillo, Pynchon, Ishiguro, and McCarthy are all still writing. They're pretty safe bets, though I read The Buried Giant after it was praised in the NYT, and what a surprise, I hated it compared to his other books I read.

But there are so many good books that were written in the past, I doubt you've read them all.

>>9095601
>>9095232
I see what you're saying but also feel like it's nothing new and not really restricted to 2015/16

>>9095255
Fan death isn't a thing any more

>>9095332
YeH, it's based in Confucianism so there's lots of emphasis on deference to your elders/betters, which pretty much means older men.

>>9095060
I haven't read this but have read Human Acts.i also found the prose sparse and a little disjointed - like Hememeingway on steroids, but that was possibly because it was a translation (tfw he can't read Korean fluently...). Lie you say the overtly political nature of the novel is very interesting, but there were times when it was so sparse it was almost hard to follow especially because, ashamedly, my western mind struggles with remembering the Korean names far more than it would western ones...

That said, deposits all her flaws, I still think Han Kang is well above Murakami.

>>9097268
Not being new or restricted to those years doesn't change how godawful it is or how those were especially dire years because of it.

>>9095060
>Han Kang(z)

WE

>>9095060
I imagine it's mostly ignorant cultural practices (unchanged by modern science or civility). People who force children to defer to their ignorant, unlearned, useless old people are obviously not worth listening to.

>>9095943
NYRB and international awards longlists (NOT winners) as well as reviews in stuff other than NYT like the NYRB, Jacobin, New Criterion, American Conservative, London Review, Laphams.

>>9097056
Buried Giant was a great book, and your dismissal of contemporary literature with a flick of the wrist just shows your lack of breadth in reading it.

"I would maintain, on the contrary, that every epoch is immediate to God, and that its value in no way depends on what may have eventuated from it, but rather in its existence alone, its own unique particularity"

Leopold von Ranke in regards to Sir Walter Scott's works to the King of Bavaria ironic since /lit/ shits on him now

>>9097886
What was good about Buried Giant? I had read The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, and I thought both of those were amazing, especially compared to Buried Giant. Maybe because I'm not that familiar with English history or Arthurian legend, but there wasn't really a clear idea behind the story that had any relevance to me. It all seemed to be magic and fantasy with no relationship to reality, and a conflict that in the end was just boring instead of heartrending and insightful like the other books I read.

>>9097886
"Le every era is equally valuable!"

You're worse than cancer.