throughout the novel to ask rather didactic questions concerning conscience, compassion , and guilt in the face of the government machine. Many more questions frame the narrative, a lesson learned well from Anton Chekhov, who once wrote that “the role of the artist is to ask questions, not to answer them.” This is usually effective , but the sheer number of questions in the novel can be overwhelming, and the urgency of the narrative falters at such moments. Regardless, Kang is bold in her exploration of what a novel can do and be. Much as Toni Morrison does in her first novel, The Bluest Eye, Kang pushes the possibilities of the genre by moving from the first, second, and third point of view, traversing large spans of time and incorporating real documents and witness testimonies , all of which contribute to exploring the violence of man against man and the violence of the state against its people. What follows is an epic battle of the weak against the strong. The people are helpless before the omnipresence of the state. Jin-su, a man who originally resisted the military attack alongside volunteers such as Dong-ho and later resisted military attack in the provincial office, muses that they couldn’t even lift the gun and shoot after soldiers opened fire on them. This starkly demonstrates how the innocent were brutally exterminated and how, after the survivors are imprisoned following sham trials and tortured for being enemies of the state, truth is shaped solely by the government machine. The omnipresence of violence is also counterbalanced by compassion. Dong-ho becomes a kind of abstract figure and symbol for the survivors , perhaps because he was so young and innocent when he was killed during the massacre. All who were acquainted with him remember him over the years and memorialize his sacrifice, making his absent presence central to the novel. Though violence is vividly depicted throughout the novel, one of the few tender moments is when Dong-ho’s mother recalls him breast-feeding from her “soft right breast,” “pulling at that deformed nipple,” then later sucking his thumb until “the nail wore thin and transparent as paper.” Dong-ho’s mother’s vivid, precise description brings to life her loss and the sadness of the historical tragedy that, in a novel with breadth and scope, had felt just out of reach. Some readers of The Vegetarian will miss the fierce, taut language that visualized the world so precisely, and yet the unadorned writing seems deliberate as well as appropriate. Artistry is muted and takes a backseat to the vivid reality of Gwangju. Krys Lee Underwood International College, Seoul Krys Lee is the author of Drifting House and How I Became a North Korean (August 2016), both published by Viking/ Penguin. She received the Rome Prize and was a finalist for the BBC International Story Prize. Her work has appeared in Granta, Narrative, the San Francisco Chronicle, Corriere della Sera, the Guardian, and others. She teaches creative writing at Underwood International College in South Korea. Fiction Basma Abdel Aziz. The Queue. Trans. Elisabeth Jaquette. Brooklyn. Melville House. 2016. 217 pages. Building on an Egyptian literary dystopic tradition, Basma Abdel Aziz transforms queuing into a metaphor for the pervasive institutional and moral corruption of Egyptian life post–Arab Spring. Crumbling institutions, decaying landscapes, and disarray become the anonymous Middle Eastern city’s defining characters as the Gate, with its ironclad grip, drives the country into oblivion. Egyptian journalist and psychiatrist Aziz is a prolific author of nonfiction and academic writings on the sociopolitical and psychological ramifications of institutionalized repression under Mubarak’s regime. Dubbed “The Rebel” for her staunch defense of human rights in the Rudolfo Anaya The Sorrows of Young Alfonso University of Oklahoma Press Told through a series of letters from an anonymous source to a recipient named only as “K,”The Sorrows of Young Alfonso is the story of a writer whose development mirrors that of the state of New Mexico. Dealing intimately with issues of faith, identity, and political agency, the latest novel from this towering figure in Chicano literature is a wholly American story capturing a critical time in the nation’s history...
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Jan 26, 2024
Dalia Elsheikh + 2
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