My thanks to Cho Nam-Joo, Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for the ARC of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982.

Cho Nam-Joo has written a powerful short novel set in Korea detailing the life of Jiyoung. There is disturbing accounts of discrimination and misogyny supported by relevant references. The writing is superb and unique. Highly recommend.

Cho Nam-ju has written such a strong story of the everywoman in South Korea, highlighting ingrained cultural sexism, institutional oppression and the impossibility to speak out against such unfairness. From birth girls are secondary to their brothers and this whole 'society favours males' mind set impacts her time through school, university and beyond. Women are classes as second class citizens, it's no wonder Kim ji-young becomes depressed with the sheer injustice of it all. Women are not allowed/supposed to speak out against the inappropriate behaviours towards them and that just blew my mind. I found this book to be relatable because discrimination based on one's gender isn't just pigeon holed to one country like Seoul where the story is set, it can happen anywhere. I enjoyed the style of writing, I liked the footnotes and I'd happily recommend this book. Infact I'd urge people to read the book before watching the movie version. 5 stars.

This book didn't grip me - I'm not sure if it is the translation, but I didn't find myself particularly drawn into the story. I think I would have preferred an actual memoir or work of non-fiction, this was too close to that (e.g. with footnotes about legislation and statistics) but still sold as a story. Details of life in Korea were interesting, but not particularly surprising if you have read any other novel or memoirs set in the country from a female perspective. However, this may have been a result of me expecting more of a 'story'. As a quiet, slice of life narrative, it succeeded.

While I recognise the significance and importance of this story, I disliked the style: it's so dry and matter-of-fact that it becomes very boring very quickly. As a result it feels like an informative or educational book rather than a novel. It's still worth reading for the eye-opening account of women's lives in South Korea.

While I whole heartedly agree and understand the issues in this book, about the sexism and misogyny that is especially prevalent in Asian cultures, I found it hard to relate to the character due to how the story was presented.

It was all so removed and from a strange third person perspective like reading case studies. Not sure if things were a translation issue of if it's just a cultural thing, but characters referred to as The mother rather than Her mother, felt unnatural. 

I also wasn't aware of the cult popularity of the book and the cultural context of things that happened in Korea around the time of its release so maybe I missed some of its significance. I spent the entire time wondering why I was reading these incredibly dry accounts about this woman.

At least at less than 200 pages, it was a relatively quick read and the last line is so poignant it was worth getting to the end.

**Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for providing access to this book in return for an honest review.

A very relatable book for any young woman growing up today. Examples of misogyny and sexist behaviour grow from subtle to glaringly obvious and all can easily be imagined in today's world. Kim Jiyoung's treatment by others has an almost Big Brother quality to it, she must have done something to attract unwanted attention, family members seem to watch for any slip up of female duty. The atmosphere throughout the book gives you a sense of how trapped and alone Jiyoung must feel and how desperate for equality

I'm not sure whether it is Cho Nam-Joo's writing style or due to the way it has been translated but the narrative is incredibly dry. To call it 'prose' would be an exaggeration as the writing is so flat and impersonal as to resemble a mere list rather than a work of fiction.
Usually I really enjoy translated fiction...in this case I struggled to read the first few pages.

This is the story of the systematic sexism the main character and the women in her family endure throughout their lives, from constant micro aggressions to really shocking revelations, such as her mother choosing to abort a perfectly healthy baby because it would have been a third girl in the family. The beginning reminded me of The vegetarian, as the main character seems to be losing her sanity, but this is a much less oneiric and more straightforward story, which I appreciated given the subject.

Some of the stories are shocking when I think that they so close in time (like when she is asked how when would react to a client sexually harassing her in a job interview), and some others seem uncomfortably familiar, and I see them happen all around me,  like the lack of support she gets to raise her child and her own career sacrifices, compared to her husband. The very ironic end is the perfect ending to this overall sad story. I was glad to hear is such a success in Korea.

I wish I could rate this book higher but the grammatical errors really irked me. It was poorly edited and had pretty simple mistake that any editor would have picked up.

As far as translated books go, Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 is not a beautifully written masterpiece. Instead it is a raw and unflinching look at the realities of life for the average Korean woman. Systematic misogyny and unsympathetic relatives seem to be the norm for Kim Jiyoung, the university educated ex-professional who was forced to become a stay at home mother due to the lack of resources for young families. What the book lacks in subtly, it makes up for with the unfiltered truth.

Fascinating, urgent and powerful testimony of the South Korean female experience. A brilliant glimpse into another time and culture, with all too-stark parallels to our own - chauvinism, patriarchy, oppression, violence and all. Little wonder it has become a touchstone of feminist literature both within South Korea and beyond.

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful book about a woman growing up in a country where men are classed as more important in the world. Where women feel the need to apologise for not producing male airs. After growing up and not letting her sex define her or hold her back she ends up having to give her career up and then ends up even more confused and unstable. This book is in some ways shocking especially as this woman was not born that long ago but along the way there are signs of change which is good.

Kim Jiyoung may have been born in Korea in 1982 but she could have been born in any country in the world, any time in the 20 years previous, and still encountered the same obstacles and challenges. This is the story of a modern woman, who will never be as successful or treated as fairly as her brother purely for the fact that she is a woman. She will be judged by strangers and family alike for decisions she does or doesn’t make. She will encounter expectations that society places on her... because she was born female. This book is striking as a account of one womans place in society and how it affects her mental health.

My thanks to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for a review copy of this one.

Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 is a 2016 Korean novel, now translated into English (besides other languages). This hard-hitting novel has sold over a million copies, and was also adapted into a film that released in October this year. The book traces the story of Kim Ji-Young, the title character, from the year she was born, 1982, to 2016 highlighting the sexism, discrimination and injustice she faces at every stage of her life [The author, a former scriptwriter for television, in fact, said that Ji-Young’s life wasn’t much different from her own]. Ji-Young is the second daughter in the family of a lower-level government servant. Her mother is a housewife who also takes up an assortment of jobs from home to supplement her husband’s income, having had to give up on her own education and work in her youth so that her brothers could get the best educations. Ji-Young of course has a ‘better’ time in that she does get an education, as best as her parents can afford, and even goes to university, and has a chance at a career (though not for long), but at every stage be it as a child growing up, to school, to interviewing for a job, getting one, and having to give it up, she is impacted in some way or other by sexism, having to share where her younger brother doesn’t, having to accept being secondary, being looked over despite being qualified simply because she is a woman, whether for a job or inclusion in a team at work, having to give up her career for her child, and having fingers pointed at her for everything, whether it be her fault or not, mostly the latter. However, there is a little hope too in the story. Ji-Young’s mother, despite and also perhaps because of having faced worse in her life, does stand up for her daughters at times, and tries within her constraints to ensure that they do not have to give up their dreams as she did. Others girls and women who Ji-Young encounters (at school and work) too sometimes take a stand, rather than accepting things quietly, winning for themselves and others small victories. But despite all that, at the end one realises that there is still very long to go before much of this changes, and many will still have to walk the same path, face the same life as Ji-Young. (The final sentences will definitely shake you.)

I found the book to be a very impactful one, and while set in Korean society, some (actually most) of these forms of discrimination and sexist behaviour aren’t restricted to that country, so the truths it brings one face to face with would resonate with many. I was also quite surprised with how fast the book moved—of course, it is a short read (under 170 pages in the edition I had), but still it moves well, and it doesn’t ‘feel’ like a translation at all (The translator is Jamie Chang). Some reviews of the book I read mention how the book uses a rather dry tone. Partly I do agree with this, as it certainly does that, and in addition, the footnotes supporting different facts make it feel somewhat like non-fiction at times, but on the other hand, the tone I felt is explained once one gets to the end of the book and realises who the narrator is, and what it is one is supposed to be reading. Well worth a read, for everyone. Four and a half stars!

I absolutely adored this book and the authors writing style. It was so eye opening to see what life is like for a woman in Korea and how different things are from life at home. 

I loved how the chapters were split up into different areas of Jiyoungs life from childhood to adulthood and it felt like we really got to know her well throughout the book. 


Would highly reccomend this book to everyone.

An eye-opening and fascinating novel about gender inequality and sexual discrimination in South Korea. Written in documentary style, which I thought highly effective, it follows Kim Jiyoung from childhood to adolescence, adulthood, marriage, motherhood and postnatal depression. There is nothing exceptional about Kim Jiyoung, she is everywoman and she experiences discrimination from the day she is born as relatives comfort her mother that the next child will be a boy. 

It is a short book that can easily be read in one sitting but I read it over several days, taking frequent breaks because it just made me so angry. As the title states, Kim Jiyoung wasn’t born in 1237, 1658 or 1846 when discrimination was the norm but in 1982. Cho relates everyday sexism at home, school and workplace, from Jiyoung’s younger brother receiving biggest and best helpings of food at family meals, to university professors never recommending female students for job interviews. The incidents are numerous and the men never apologise because they do not comprehend that they have done anything wrong. Cho cleverly uses statistics and factual data, given in footnotes to stress just how common and universal Jiyoung’s experience is. The book is really an indictment of the society and country which rapidly transformed from traditional to modern without addressing the roles of women within it. 

An important, powerful novel, reminiscent of but very different to Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, a must-read.

My thanks to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster and Scribner for the opportunity to read and review Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is a fascinating story about a Korean 'everywoman', following her life story from her birth in 1982 until her death in 2016 (the year this was published in its original Korean). 

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but I ended up finding it absolutely gripping. I know very little about life in Korea, so it was extremely interesting to follow the life of an average Korean woman and find out more about what life is actually like for them. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about gender roles and the life of women in Korea.

Wow! What a read. Having just read a book about life in Taiwan which shattered my ideas about that country I was just in the mood to find out more about another nation held up as a good model.
I was shocked and horrified to find that in this day and age the sexism found in what is held up as a modern, progressive country.
The ending took my breath away.

wow. omg. this book is phenomenal. everything about it is exceptional: the writing, the story, the narrator at the end.... the ending. the book started off in a present day scenario of Kim Jiyoung, then retrospectively looked back in her life, from childhood, to adolescence, to marriage, and then motherhood. we really get to see a vivid insight into what it means to be a girl/woman in Korea, not just in present day but through generations, as shown by Kim Jiyoung's mother and mother-in-law's experiences. I can't fault this book. the ending is so perfectly poignant and insightful. (my takeaway from the ending was that: oh, what a vicious, repetitive cycle we are in, as a society!)

This novella hit a nerve in South Korea and became one of the biggest-selling books of the new century. In it, Cho Nam-Joo tells the story of a Korean everywoman from her birth in 1982 until 2016, the year the book was published in its original Korean. Kim Ji-young experiences systemic misogyny in all stages of life, be it as a kid in her own family, in school and at university, in the workplace and also as a wife and mother. The protagonist does not only suffer because of stereotypical women-hating machos (although they also feature in the text), but there's a whole web of factors, attitudes and implications that affect all characters differently, from the education system to the economic crisis, from conservative gender roles to questions of agency related to intersectional feminism. An overall feeling of powerlessness and internalized societal norms lead to self-alienation and to female trauma that is inherited over generations: When Kim Ji-young is born, her mother apologises to her mother-in-law for having a girl. When Kim Ji-young is pregnant with a girl, people feel sorry for her and try to cheer her up. Being a woman means being a failure. 

The book led to a fierce debate about sexism in Korea. Some months before its publication, the "Gangnam murder" shook up the country: A woman was murdered at a metro station, and the perpetrator stated that he had been ignored by women for so long that he could not stand it anymore. The hate crime heated up the #metoo movement in Korea, but there was also a huge backlash. Many K-Pop singers and other celebrities who professed to reading Cho Nam-Joo's feminist novella (which, as the author explained, is largely based on personal exprience) were attacked and threatened on the internet. When the book was turned into a movie, the actors and actresses got under attack. 

But Cho Nam-Joo has the numbers to back up her text, and she includes them in it - the book is written in a very particular, rather dry and detached style that includes studies and other research (the twist-ending reveals why, and the last sentence is vicious). The effect is harrowing - it is by largely denying empathy and stating the facts that the protagonist's dire situation becomes clear. Gender inequality in South Korea is ranked as one of the highest in the world, you can find some stats here. 

Similar to Han Kang in The Vegetarian, Cho Nam-Joo depicts a scenario in which other characters interpret the effects of degradation and lack of agency that the protagonist shows as mental illness - but it's worth contemplating whether those protagonists are sick, or whether the circumstances under which they have to live are sick.

Very interesting and highly relevant, not only in South Korea. Here's the movie trailer with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f-XGrn_7Kk

The way this book is written is very intelligent. The position of a woman in the business world is something that does not get acknowledged enough. It's something that gets dismissed or joked about a lot. I found the most heartbreaking part of this story, the end. When you think you've met a man who understands the struggles a woman has to go through every single day, especially in Korea, you're faced with the cold hard truth that no, this man is not enlightened as one thought. I loved every second of this book and would love to read more about the women that shaped Kim Jiyoung.