The Descendants of Cain

by Hwang Sun-won

Hwang Sun-won, perhaps the most beloved and respected Korean writer of the 20th century, based this extraordinary novel on his own experiences in his North Korean home village between the end of World War II and the eve of the Korean War when Korea had been divided into North and South by its two "liberators" - the United States and the Soviet Union. In this story the Soviet-backed communist party, using the promise of land reform, sets people at each other's throat. Portrayed here is an entire community caught in the political and social firestorm that brings out the selfishness, cruelty and ignorance of simple people, but also shows their loyalty and nobility. Compelling here, too, is a heroine who represents the "eternally feminine" for all Korean men, and the setting, the harsh political, psychic and physical landscape of rural postwar North Korea rarely glimpsed by the outside world. Hwang Sun-won is an artist of consummate delicacy and subtlety, and his writing is marked by keen psychological insight and steely asceticism. While three collections of his short stories have appeared in Hong Kong and the West, "The Descendants of Cain" is the first English translation of a Hwang Sun-won novel.

Genres: Fiction, Asia

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

See: 황순원

Hwang Sun-wŏn was a Korean short story writer, novelist, and poet.

Reviews

[Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, read it within one week, but the way the author named all his characters in the book is so different from my understand of Korean names from my Korean friends, so it is a bit confusing for the names, only the main character Hun and the girl I remember.

The title, I think tries to say something about being brothers but killing each other. But I thought that's what we Asians like to do. Haha.

The story is not so attracting. In the beginning it was interesting to read a different way of portraying scenes, landscapes, beautiful but cold, not even like Japanese fictions. But in the middle, it gets a bit trivia, then the ending is not catchy.

I prefer to read some poems from young chi ha, but could not find them, it should be a good warm up.

[Sayeon ANSHIKA · Rating 4 out of 5]

-4/5

- PUBLISHED IN 1954, THIS WORK IS SET IN THEN NORTH KOREA, DURING THE EARLY COMMUNIST TRANSFORMATION OF THE NEW FOUND COUNTRY AND HOW PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT CLASSES DEALING WITH IT, I MEAN ONE CANNOT READ NORTH KOREAN LITERATURE FOR OBVIOUS REASONS BUT ATLEAST WE CAN SEE THE EARLY DAYS OF SO CALLED REFORMATION

[Veronika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuto knihu jsem začala číst hodně na poslední chvíli k přijímacím zkouškám na koreanistiku. Začala jsem ji dokonce číst tak pozdě, že jsem s sebou k přijímačkám nesla dvě verze seznamu četby: jeden s a jeden bez této knihy, podle toho, jestli ji stihnu dočíst. Knihu jsem naštěstí dočetla.
Hwang Sun-won popisuje v této krátké knížce s autobiografickými prvky stav po osvobození Severní Koreje od Japonské nadvlády a počátky severokorejského režimu. Plíživá úzkost, schovávající se za majetkovou reformu, mění nejen socioekonomické poměry, ale také lidi. Jídla je málo, všeho ostatního také, je zima a přerozděluje se půda. Syn velkostatkáře Hun, žijící na malé vesnici v otcovském domě s chudou dívkou, která mu slouží, Odžangnjo. Měnící se poměry rychle dovedou Huna do zoufalé situace.
Zoufalství vyznívající z některých postav ale tolik u Huna není vidět: ten se zdá být odevzdaný, až lhostejný svému osudu. Není schopen vinit lidi, viní dobu a okolí.
Kniha lyricky popisuje probouzející se zimní krajinu na přelomu jara a zároveň má celkem rychlý spád. Dobře se čte a není zdlouhavá. Jednotlivé postavy působí téměř jako archetypální postavy kritického realismu.

[Bryan Stubbles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel paints an interesting portrait of collectivization in a village under the new North Korean regime following liberation. Some scenes are also set in Pyeongyang and that's interesting as well. I think this would be a good book for anyone interested in Korean history, especially as a supplement to nonfiction reading. As a heads up, the male characters do not treat the female characters well in the novel.

[Liam Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wistful and interesting and not half as boring as the UNESCO Collection Of Representative Works tends to be. The older I get the more I see how Russia/Russian Communism is present in almost every great calamity of the 20th century... and midkey of the 21st :(

also reading this directly after the great gatsby has me thinking so much about the economic societal and physical abuse of women and their forced complicity in the system -> 'she wanted it' narrative

[Kaleb Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the end was a bit unsatisfying, I found this book very entertaining and informative of what it was like during the splitting of Korea!

[Syd Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

근현대사 비극의 묘사

[Tiffany Zhao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I would say read this because there are so few literature from or about North Korea. This book is set in pre-communist times. When Korea was getting separated into two, and people were fleeing to the South. It's also about the reformation from feudal lords and slaves caste system. In South Korea, it's depicted in the kdrama Mr Sunshine. Whereas this book shows how villagers react when renouncing greedy landowners. What happens when there are no more yangbans? How will the commoners behave when they discover they have rights too? That's always fascinated me.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book for me to read, both because of my lack of experience with Korean literature in general, as well as my lack of knowledge about this period in Korean history (the time immediately following the Communist revolution in North Korea). It was an extremely interesting novel, because it focuses on a very singular act - murder in a small town - but at the same time, it's completely without a protagonist. I don't mean this just in the "it features an ensemble cast" sort of way, but I literally mean that there is no one character that the novel focuses on as a main character. It's the complete opposite of everything I've ever been told about how a good novel should be written, or structured, and yet it works in terms of both entertainment and artistic expression. An eye-opening experience, to be sure.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS