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Kyuri is an achingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a Seoul “room salon,” an exclusive underground bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake threatens her livelihood.
Kyuri’s roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of the country’s biggest conglomerates.
Down the hall in their building lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that she hopes will change her life.
And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea’s brutal economy.
Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them.
Kyuri’s roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of the country’s biggest conglomerates.
Down the hall in their building lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that she hopes will change her life.
And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea’s brutal economy.
Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them.
****
Author : Frances Cha
Year Published : April 21, 2020
Pages : 288
Genre : Young Adult, Literary Fiction
Language : English
To be honest, this is my most anticipated book in 2020. I read the news about the release last year and put it in a want-to-read list so I won't forget about it. Then when I saw it in online shopping, I ordered it without checking the price (thankfully 25% disc).
I have a mixed feeling after reading this book since I live in Seoul and meet Korean girls at the same age as the heroine every day. I will explain why later.
This book telling the astonishing story of five women who live in the same office-tel in Seoul. The first story opened by Ara, a mute girl that working as a hairstylist. She was born as normal, but in high school, she got an accident that made her mute. She is a calm one but crazy in love with Idol.
She lives with Sujin, a childhood friend that obsessed to be beautiful. Sujin spent her childhood in an orphanage, Loren Center at Cheongju City. The harsh life made her tough and badass. She is the one who loves to break a rule but she is the most loyal one. She adores Kyuri so much, the girl lives in the upper-level.
Kyuri is the 10% best beauty of South Korea. She spent her money to maintain the perfect beauty as a Korean standard. She has undergone plastic surgery several times, and keep maintain 10 steps skincare every day. It is because she works at room-salon, upper-level prostitution whereas woman accompany 'businessman' drinking to seal a deal with other partners and spent the night together in bed, sometimes when they are not too wasted. Her life is so difficult since childhood. She earns a lot of money but it is flowing like a river to her mother health's expense, routine plastic surgery, or just filler filling. Practically, she only has a huge pile of debt.
Kyuri lives with Miho, the natural strikingly beautiful orphan that once lived together with Sujin at Loren center. Miho is a lucky orphan because she has a talent and a beautiful face. She awarded scholarships and studied in the USA. She has a loving boyfriend, son of chaebol that follows her like puppies since they live in the USA.
The last is Wona, a married lady, who once abandoned by her parents and lived with a monstrous grandmother. Wona married to ordinary salaryman that always lives positively. Wona is the opposite. She always thinking negatively because nothing good happens for free. She adores the group of girls living in her office-tel but Wona never says hi to them. She is just born like that, spiteful.
Office-tel in Seoul usually is in between office or residential area. Some units can function as an office or can change it to an apartment. Because it has a dual function, usually the rooms more suited as an office which bland, cold and functional. Usually, it is cheaper than a real apartment.
Each girl has the same portion to share their background and daily story, except for Sujin. Sujin portion is too few. And after recheck, Sujin is not a heroine. She's just Ara's closest friend. They experienced the same world's expectation and tackle the biggest issue born as a woman. The world expects you to be beautiful, if you are beautiful, everyone has the right to ask you to be better than the ordinary or ugly one. If you are work in big corporate, you are a big loss because women always ask for go home earlier than men, and the company needs to pay you when you have a vacation after giving birth to your baby.
There are so many potential issues that can be explored more, such as Kyuri's world. When she addicted to the beauty standard and how harsh men treat her like she is just a disposal body. Kyuri that never believes in man, hold the most sensitive soul between five of them. The addiction to a pretty thing is a national problem. Korean girls love a branded handbag, that sometimes cost more than your one month salary.
Or Ara with her addiction to K-pop Idol. She lives in hope after hearing her idol voice on the radio or television. Miho with the chaebol live.
It is what 'trend' now in Korea, and yes it is happening and maybe real. But the author explores it only on the surface that made me feel, a mockery of Korean girls. They live in a high expectation world that turns them into materialistic, hollow, and pessimistic. However, I understand what the author wants to tell the reader in her subtle message in the ending when they finally find another perception in life,
What I love the most from the book are the detail and alive characterization. Each girl has a very different character but they tied together with loyalty. They are not Seoul girls and live in the harsh capital city, they help each other without being asked to.
The diction is beautiful with melancholic feeling lingering in one full sentence.
This is the example paragraph that made my heart wretched deeply:
What I daydream about most is an older version of you. You are a young woman, perhaps the age of those girls who live above me-not that much younger than I am now. But unlike them and unlike me, you have a perpetual smile lurking at the corners of your mouth because you've had a happy childhood.
That's when Wona talking to her fetus and praying for her fetus to keep alive.
Just like I said, the book is character-driven, not plot-driven so don't expect too much in the ending.
So that's why I have a mixed feeling, I love it but disappoint in some points. That's why I cannot give a perfect score to my most anticipated book in 2020.
But if you want to know the harsh life of the woman in Seoul, you need to read it even I doubt that the Seoul woman will approve the author's description :) It is somehow true yet somehow too much.
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