Homecoming

K-Fiction Series #8

by Myeong-kwan Cheon, Jeon Miseli (Translator)

This < K-Fiction> Series represents the brightest of young imaginative voices in contemporary Korean fiction. Each issue consists of a wide range of outstanding contemporary Korean short stories that the editorial board of Asia carefully selects each season. These stories are then translated by professional Korean literature translators, all of whom take special care to faithfully convey the pieces' original tones and grace. We hope that, each and every season, these exceptional young Korean voices will delight and challenge all of you, our treasured readers both here and abroad.

108 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2015

About the author

Cheon Myeong-kwan is a South Korean novelist, screenwriter and director whose work has been translated into eight languages.

Upon publication of the author’s first story, Frank and I (2003), he received the prestigious Munhakdongne New Writer Award. Cheon’s debut novel, Whale, was published the following year. It won the 10th Munhakdongne Novel Award and has become one of the most loved novels in South Korea, where it is regarded as a modern classic.

Associated Names:
* Cheon Myeong-Kwan
* 천명관 (Korean Profile)

Reviews

[Barry Welsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Watch my review on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwV2p...

Watch a career roundup of Cheon Myeong kwan on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRNe3...

Fantastic Korean dystopian fiction. Highly recommended

Meet three of the brightest young imaginative voices in Korean fiction on September 12th in central Seoul. These three exceptional Korean writers will read their work and be interviewed (in English & Korean!) at Seoul Global Cultural Centre in Myeong-dong. You will also be able to ask them questions in the Q and A session, buy new bilingual editions of some of their most celebrated stories and get them signed. The event will be moderated by Seoul Honorary Citizen Professor Charles Montgomery and is co-organised with ASIA Publishers – publishers of some of the most exciting Korean literature in print. (www.facebook.com/events/1620470551540...)

한국문학을 밝히는 젊고 창의적인 세 명의 작가들을 오는 9월에 서울에서 만나보세요. 이 특출난 한국 작가들이 명동에 위치한 서울글로벌문화체험센터에서 작품을 낭독하고 인터뷰를 할 예정입니다. (한국어와 영어로!) 질의응답 시간에 작가들에게 질문도 할 수 있고, 우수한 작품으로 선정되어 출간된 새로운 K-픽션 책을 구입해 사인도 받을 수 있습니다. 이 이벤트는 서울명예시민인 찰스 몽고메리 교수가 사회를 볼 예정이며, 가장 재미있는 한국문학 작품들을 한영대역으로 출간하는 아시아 출판사와 함께 진행합니다. (www.facebook.com/events/1620470551540...)

The authors are:
함께할 작가들은 다음과 같습니다.

Hwang Jung-eun - ‘Kong’s Garden’
황정은- “양의 미래”
Yun I-hyeong – ‘Danny’
윤이형-“대니”
Cheon Myeong-kwan – ‘Homecoming’
천명관-“퇴근”

ASIA Publishers are the publishers of the bilingual K-Fiction series of short stories. They publish some of the most exciting Korean literature available in English. (www.bookasia.org/ & www.facebook.com/asiapublishers)

아시아 출판사는 한영대역선인 ‘K-픽션’ 시리즈를 출간하고 있는 곳입니다. 그 외에도 가장 흥미로운 한국의 문학작품들을 영어로 번역해 출간하고 있습니다. (www.bookasia.org/ & www.facebook.com/asiapublishers)

The event will be moderated by Charles Montgomery. Charles is a professor at Dongguk University, an honorary citizen of Seoul and the creator of the www.ktlit.com website dedicated to Korean literature in translation.

행사의 사회를 맡으신 찰스 몽고메리 동국대 교수님은 서울시 명예시민이며 한국문학 번역서 관련 웹사이트 www.ktlit.com 을 개설해 운영중입니다.

Event host Barry Welsh is an English instructor at Sookmyung Women’s University, the host of Seoul Book and Culture Club (www.facebook.com/groups/seoulbookandc...), one of the organizers of Seoul Film Society (www.facebook.com/groups/seoulfilmsoci...) and creator of www.seoulabc.com.

사회자 배리 웰시 숙명여대 교수님은 Seoul Book and Culture 클럽을 운영하고 있으며 서울필름소사이어티 주최자이고 www.seoulabc.com을 개설해 운영중입니다.

I hope you can all make it. I really look forward to seeing you there. I think it’s going to be a fantastic meeting.

많은 분들이 참여해주시길 바랍니다. 그곳에서 모두 뵙기를 기대하겠습니다. 아주 멋진 모임이 될 것입니다.

All the best
안녕히 계세요.

Barry Welsh 드림.

Date: Saturday 12th September.
날짜: 9월 12일 토요일
Time: 4:00pm to 6:00pm.
시간: 오후 4시부터 6시
Admission fee: FREE
참가비: 무료
Place: Haechi Hall in Seoul Global Cultural Center
(5th Floor M Plaza in Myeong-dong) (www.facebook.com/SeoulGlobalCultureTo...)

Full directions are here www.seoultourism.kr/2013/eng/center/c...
장소: 서울글로벌문화체험센터 해치홀 (명동 M플라자 5층)
오시는 길은 다음 링크를 참조하시기 바랍니다.
www.seoultourism.kr/2013/eng/center/c...

(Call Barry on 010 5138 8859 if you get lost or can't find it and I will come meet you at exit 6 Myeong-dong station.)

(행사 장소를 찾기 어려우시면 010-5138-8859 배리 웰시에게 전화를 주세요. 명동역 6번 출구로 마중나가겠습니다.)

[Radwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dystopian Korean story.

Homecoming focuses on a future in Korea where only office workers get to have a decent life, while everyone else called "blankets" live a life of complete poverty.

The novel tackles the current Korean mentality of the dream to be an office worker with a stable job and income and how it might be in the future, with super-rich people and high status office workers maintaining a good life, while the economic situation in the country collapses, and only 1% of the country's population have money.

It follows the protagonist "the man" through different timeline as we revel in the collapse of the society. It seems a not too far-fetched future.

[Ocean G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why, but the economics of this book annoyed me. I think I just let it get to me. Anyway, "overly capitalist society divided into 1% haves and 99% have-nots" aside (entirely ignoring the overly anti-capitalist society divided into <1% haves and >99% have-nots just to the North), it was actually an engaging and very poignant novella.

[Klaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending seemed contrived (the author wrote the whole thing in a week so can't really blame him), but I agree with the critic 정은경 in that this story is a good depiction of inequality and the sort of post-capitalist future that is in many ways already here for the poor and working class, i.e. an exterminist society where the rich no longer rely on exploitation of working class labor and instead produce a society with an explicit commitment to the elimination of people who produce no economic value.

[Sarbajit Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice presentation of present Korean society.

[Stephane Mot · Rating 3 out of 5]

In “Homecoming”, the single father of a mixed boy struggles for survival in a dystopian future. They are ‘blankets’, homeless people at the bottom of a society of casts where only 10% have a job, and where the only safety net is a closefisted system of vouchers. At the top of the pyramid, the Gangnam super-rich play with the lives of the Gangbuk super-poor, sometimes adopting their kids on a whim. Even by sacrificing himself, the father can’t afford feeding his son, or paying for his medical treatment. Will he accept the offer and abandon him, like his own father abandoned his family decades ago? What does ‘do the right thing’ mean in such a broken world?