I Went To See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin

Book Review #755

Title: I Went To See My Father

Author: Kyung-Sook Shin

Translator: Anton Hur

Publisher: W&N

Genres: Fiction, Literary fiction, Contemporary

Format: Paperback

Source: Pansing

Publication Date: April 11, 2023

Pages: 304

My Rating: 3.5 STARS

SYNOPSIS

An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom;centering on a woman’s efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets.

Two years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Hon finally returns to her home in the countryside to take care of her father. At first, her father only appears withdrawn and fragile, an aging man, awkward but kind around his own daughter. Then, after stumbling upon a chest of letters, Hon discovers the truth of her father’s past and reconstructs her own family history.

Consumed with her own grief, Hon had been blind to her father’s vulnerability and her family’s fragility. Unraveling secret after secret and thanks to conversations with loving family and friends, Hon grows closer to her father, who proves to be more complex than she ever gave him credit for. After living through one of the most tumultuous times in Korean history, her father’s life was once vibrant and ambitious, but spiraled during the postwar years. Now, after years of emotional isolation, Hon learns the whole truth, from her father’s affair and involvement in a cult, to the dynamic lives of her own siblings, to her family’s financial hardships.

What Hon uncovers about her father builds towards her understanding of the great scope of his sacrifice and heroism, and of her country as a whole. More than just the portrait of a single man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss, and war. With this long-awaited follow-up to Please Look After Mom–flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator Anton Hur–Kyung-Sook Shin has crafted an ambitious, global, epic, and lasting novel.

BOOK REVIEW

I Went To See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin is a story of fatherhood and family relationships that revolve around it. This book is quite lengthy and it describes in great detail about every single thing which kind of makes it draggy. Despite that, it makes us appreciate our dad for his sacrifices and affection all the more.

A nice addition if you’ve read Please Look After Mom before but I enjoyed this one more. The stories are not out of the ordinary but was still unique that spans across time. Which makes us see the full spectrum of fatherhood.

I relate to so much with one of the characters which was the daughter. Her experiences is one a lot of Asian daughters can really relate to especially ones with brothers (iykyk).

All in all, this book is quite a meaningful read and one I recommend.