Ann Sung-hi Lee

This book was the first Korean novel ever written, and for that alone should be read by anyone trying to read the most important literary works of the century.

But, for those of you with less lofty aspirations, I can also recommend this books simply as a novel. The negatives of the book lie almost entirely with the fact it was originally serialized- like many serialized novels, there's a bit too much repetion and review. In addition, some scenes are drawn out inappropriately to create suspense for the next edition as well as increase the number of publications.

Aside from that, this novel is filled with melodrama, suspense, near misses, and villians. It is also rife with cultural references which are alien, but also contains themes so closely aligned with our culture that it's almost hard to believe the book wasn't written here and today. This combination makes the book both easy to identify with and also quite facinating from an anthropological perspective.… (mais)