internationalreads's Reviews (1.69k)

There are some really beautiful insights in this book around culture and values but I fear they are too often mired in these repetitive essays. Sometimes entire sentences and paragraphs were repeated. This book also can’t decide who its audience is. It went back and forth between over explaining Korean culture and history for those with no prior knowledge to dropping full Korean words and phrases with no translation or explanation. I don’t mind either way, it just felt like it should be one or the other.

Holds up way better than I thought it would!

Wrapped up the trilogy nicely. Some well done/thoughtful surprises.

I can’t think of any other short story collection where I loved every single story.

I was so excited for this book but it is dragging. The use of the philosophy class as a way for the main character to discover himself is way too cliche. The last straw for me was the inaccurate soccer scene (a wall during a penalty shootout?? Where is the editor?)

Maybe this would have worked better for me in print rather than audio. Something about the structure made me less engaged/interested than I wanted to be. Too many people to follow.