We take a trip to South Korea when we review Winter in Sokcho.
Winter in Sokcho – the blurb
It’s winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North’s watchtowers. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape.
The two form an uneasy relationship. When she agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an authentic Korea, they visit snowy mountaintops and dramatic waterfalls, and cross into North Korea. But he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows the gaudy neon lights, the scars of war, the fish market where her mother works. As she’s pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she strikes upon a way to finally be seen.
Picture perfect
You can’t review this book without first commenting on how god damn gorgeous the book is. Styled to look like a postcard, it was it’s uniqueness that leapt at my from the bookshelf I was browsing. Dusapin is a French Korean woman (like the books narrator) and the book is actually a translation from French not Korean. It was interesting to see what picture Dusapin would paint about a country unfamiliar to so many.
It immediately felt like Before the Coffee gets Cold. I appreciate it’s about a different country but I’ve recently read Coffee and the style is very similar. There is such focus on the smaller detail yet the writing is so sparse. It was also interesting to compare it to K Pop Confidential the only other book I’ve read set in Korea. Whilst very different the obsession about body image and the clash of traditional v modern was equally as present.
Eel anyone?
Food was so important to this book and whilst I don’t often, I would issue a note of caution to anyone with eating triggers. I found the scenes where she ate with her mother almost repulsive at times. The fish described as cold, slithering and poisonous was also a source of income and brought family to the table. I found it so interesting that Kerrand would never eat the (unnamed) narrators food. He didn’t really engage with her nor Sokcho.
Very little happens in the book yet there is so much underneath the surface. The section where the narrator was describing South Korea as living in a winter that never ends was particularly poignant. The ending is left wide open and you question how happy anyone in the book actually is. The hotel seemed so depressing, as was the weather. It was all very bleak yet I was compelled to read it. I consumed it in a day and can’t say I didn’t like it to the point I’m really not sure what I made of it. A strange fish as some might say.
