Short stories
포인트
Not translated into English
Choe Sang-gyu · 1956
Synopsis
The narrator, a young man studying literature, lives off his wife, an employee of a department store; she alone acknowledges him as a writer. When he receives his call-up papers for the army, the narrative follows step by step the turmoil of this man who has just been assigned a departure. Saying nothing, he secretly sells his father's books, while his wife, for her part, sinks into despair.
Context
The text appeared in May 1956 in Munhak Yesul, which recommended it together with a second story by its author, then a student. The Encyclopedia notes in these early stories a mocking cynicism, an unstable structure and a provocative attitude, but also a singular freshness, and observes that the author's writing matured from the sixties onwards. The sentence is brief and the rhythm quick, a manner that the Boryeong monograph calls staccato.
Who it is for
A short story with almost no action, contained within the consciousness of a single man; no translation has been located.
Prizes and reception
The text with which its author entered literature; it later gave its title to one of his story collections.
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