[Book review] Yang Gui-ja “Contradiction” / Why did this novel, published 25 years ago, become a bestseller in Korean novels in 2023?

I will read Yang Gui-ja’s long novel “Contradiction,” which was published in the top 100 bestselling Korean novels in 2023 for 19 weeks, and post a review of it.

1. writer’s introduction

[Younger]

A novelist born in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. He was active in his work in the 1990s, but since the 2000s, he has operated bookstores and Korean restaurants. As a masterpiece, <I wish> There are “Things Prohibited by Me,” “Love of a Thousand Years,” “Hidden Flower,” and “Sumo,” and many literary awards including the Lee Box Literature Award, the Modern Literature Award, and the 21st Century Literature Award.

2. Let’s follow the plot of the novel from within the work?

Na An-jin took a leave of absence from college to earn tuition and works for a company connected by her uncle. In addition to alcoholism, the mother, who is responsible for the family, is forced to live by doing business in the market instead of her father, who often leaves home without any sense of responsibility as a head of the family. On the other hand, the twin sisters’ aunt, who has a sincere architect’s husband, a son and a daughter who studied abroad, leads a relaxed and elegant life that is in contrast to her mother’s difficult life.I have a conflict between Na Young-kyu, a sincere and capable man who plans and lives his life carefully, and Kim Jang-woo, who is delicate and good but has little ability and vision.

In the meantime, his father, who has deepened his illness due to dementia, returns and his younger brother is imprisoned for an accident.In addition, I am suffering from shock and chaos as an incident occurred in which my aunt, who seemed to have everything missing, made an extreme choice.Looking at my mother, who is strangely lively in a painful and painful reality, I marry Na Young-kyu, who is always suffocating when I am with her instead of Kim Jang-woo, who is heartbroken. How do the contradictory situations in the novel appear?

In the meantime, his father, who has deepened his illness due to dementia, returns and his younger brother is imprisoned for an accident.In addition, I am suffering from shock and chaos as an incident occurred in which my aunt, who seemed to have everything missing, made an extreme choice.Looking at my mother, who is strangely lively in a painful and painful reality, I marry Na Young-kyu, who is always suffocating when I am with her instead of Kim Jang-woo, who is heartbroken. How do the contradictory situations in the novel appear?

The problem is that our lives are not determined by will and determination alone. Because life is always ready to run in a selfish direction.Anyway, the conditions of the long-read novel – I think of -3 as my own -1. Interesting story of turning over the bookshelf 2. Writer’s writing power to immerse and immerse the novel 3. Cover the bookshelf and have both the lingering and heavy feeling in my mind.If you have a chance, please read it. “Oh, is this a novel from the ’90s?” ” You’ll be surprised~^^

– Finished –