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Beauty Looks Down on Me
Beauty Looks Down On Me is a collection of by turns sad and funny stories about the thwarted expectations of the young as they grow older. HeeKyung s characters are misfits who by virtue of their bodies or their lack of social status are left to dream of momentous changes that will never come. Unsatisfied with work, with family, with friends, they lose themselves in diets, books, and blogs. Heekyung s collection humorously but humanely depicts the loneliness and monotony found in many modern lives."
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 11, 2025
Watch my review on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDo6W...
June 17, 2018
3.5 stars
Slow-paced, detailed short stories that frequently unfold over a fairly long period of time and which read more like tiny novels than your usual short fiction.
Eun's prose is stripped down, almost awkward (this last may be due to translation or just reflect the particular patterns of thought of her somewhat socially isolated protagonists, I'm not sure which) The mundane events in her tales (people go to work, go to school, go on short trips and come home to do the same things all over again) rarely offer much scope for poetic license or brilliant imagery, but careful accrual of detail gives these stories surprising weight and depth and, at their best ('Beauty Looks Down on Me', 'Discovery of Solitude', 'Yuri Gargarin's Blue Star'), they can be quite moving. Fantasy does occasionally raise its head ('Weather and Life', 'Map Addict') , but it's slapped down quickly, often in a humourous fashion, and daily life plods inexorably on.
Eun has a remarkably romance-free notion of humanity: there's nothing special about any of her protagonists, they don't buck any trends or make any real difference in the world around them, they're not actively malicious nor are they selfless and noble; they're mostly just going along to get along, and that's refreshing if a bit disconcerting. I suspect almost every reader can find something of themselves in Eun's everyman/woman; Eun's strength is that most readers will find that slightly troubling.
Slow-paced, detailed short stories that frequently unfold over a fairly long period of time and which read more like tiny novels than your usual short fiction.
Eun's prose is stripped down, almost awkward (this last may be due to translation or just reflect the particular patterns of thought of her somewhat socially isolated protagonists, I'm not sure which) The mundane events in her tales (people go to work, go to school, go on short trips and come home to do the same things all over again) rarely offer much scope for poetic license or brilliant imagery, but careful accrual of detail gives these stories surprising weight and depth and, at their best ('Beauty Looks Down on Me', 'Discovery of Solitude', 'Yuri Gargarin's Blue Star'), they can be quite moving. Fantasy does occasionally raise its head ('Weather and Life', 'Map Addict') , but it's slapped down quickly, often in a humourous fashion, and daily life plods inexorably on.
Eun has a remarkably romance-free notion of humanity: there's nothing special about any of her protagonists, they don't buck any trends or make any real difference in the world around them, they're not actively malicious nor are they selfless and noble; they're mostly just going along to get along, and that's refreshing if a bit disconcerting. I suspect almost every reader can find something of themselves in Eun's everyman/woman; Eun's strength is that most readers will find that slightly troubling.
December 7, 2024
There were a few stories in here that I did really enjoy, particularly the one that the book is named for.
January 23, 2018
no mistaking that beauty looks down on me is exemplary of korean literature. the stark and highly elliptical way of writing that is synonymous with any korean lit is evident enough.
forgive me for going off tangent from here on but i was reminded of the recent controversy over deborah smith's translation for han kang's the vegetarian the whole time i was reading this book. i thought to myself this is what it feels like to read something inherently korean, if i dare say so without little attempt from the translators part to make the words, the prose 'easier' for the sake of appearing interesting and appealing. i understand both sides really, for smith's effort she was trying to do something and inevitably did something big enough, enormously i have to say that contemporary korean lit could have benefited from.
also the other side (this book! the translators!), less glamorous way in giving almost 100% accurate to the original language which resulted with far less appealing read and sometimes too culturally bound that it was easy to just be done with it.
what i'm trying to say is translation is a hard and long work that should not be taken lightly. they're doing a god's work in order to bring diversity in what we can read.
###
back to the actual review of this book!
i quoted this from the final story to summarized just what this book was to me,
'They have no fear, but no excitement, either. It’s neither unhappy nor happy.'
forgive me for going off tangent from here on but i was reminded of the recent controversy over deborah smith's translation for han kang's the vegetarian the whole time i was reading this book. i thought to myself this is what it feels like to read something inherently korean, if i dare say so without little attempt from the translators part to make the words, the prose 'easier' for the sake of appearing interesting and appealing. i understand both sides really, for smith's effort she was trying to do something and inevitably did something big enough, enormously i have to say that contemporary korean lit could have benefited from.
also the other side (this book! the translators!), less glamorous way in giving almost 100% accurate to the original language which resulted with far less appealing read and sometimes too culturally bound that it was easy to just be done with it.
what i'm trying to say is translation is a hard and long work that should not be taken lightly. they're doing a god's work in order to bring diversity in what we can read.
###
back to the actual review of this book!
i quoted this from the final story to summarized just what this book was to me,
'They have no fear, but no excitement, either. It’s neither unhappy nor happy.'
September 25, 2019
I chose to read this book because one of the stories takes place in Wando; a city I'm planning to visit on my next visit to South Korea. Besides Wando (only named 'W'), some other places are named as well, like Gangnam and a certain bookstore at Gangwhamun Square (namely Kyobo). What's interesting is that all these places are not actually named (except Gangnam), probably to avoid advertising a brand. I notice this often in books from Korean authors. This makes it hard to actually recognize the sites.
The stories in this book didn't appeal to me at all. I couldn't connect to the characters, and what's more, I couldn't keep them apart as they all had a first letter like 'S' instead of a name. So I'm not recommending this book.
Check out https://wheretokim.com/books-south-ko... for more Korean books.
The stories in this book didn't appeal to me at all. I couldn't connect to the characters, and what's more, I couldn't keep them apart as they all had a first letter like 'S' instead of a name. So I'm not recommending this book.
Check out https://wheretokim.com/books-south-ko... for more Korean books.
Read
May 18, 2014Bien, por fin terminé de leer toda la obra. Otra que también me tomó su tiempo (por dejadez, supongo). Acá van los títulos (preliminares) de los cuentos:
1. El elogio de la sospecha
2. El descubrimiento de la soledad
3. La belleza me desprecia
4. El tiempo y la vida
5. Una adicción a los mapas
6. La estrella azul de Yuri Gagarin
¡Próximamente en sus librerías!
1. El elogio de la sospecha
2. El descubrimiento de la soledad
3. La belleza me desprecia
4. El tiempo y la vida
5. Una adicción a los mapas
6. La estrella azul de Yuri Gagarin
¡Próximamente en sus librerías!
December 31, 2017
I did enjoy a couple of these stories, but mostly they were quite depressing. The blurb says the stories depict the loneliness and monotony of many modern lives, and that certainly came through. I couldn't finish all of them.
August 4, 2025
Eun Heekyung’s 2017 collection Beauty Looks Down On Me consists of six stories looking at everyday life in contemporary (well, 2007) Korea. In terms of the translation, it’s a bit of a collaborative effort, with husband-and wife team Yoonjin Park and Craig Bott working on four of them, and Sora Kim-Russell and Jae Won Chung each translating one. Like many Korean stories, these are fairly long, meaning the book clocks in at just under two-hundred pages of low-grade existential angst.
The opening piece, which gives the collection its name, sets the scene. Here, an obese man in his mid-thirties decides to go on a diet, and the story describes his struggles to stick to it, particularly when his mother insists that he needs more food, including plenty of rice, to get through the day. The truth is, though, that his reasons for wanting to lose weight are slightly obscure, even if he’s well aware that carrying those extra pounds is both a health and social burden:
You can’t ignore what’s going on in the world. Nowadays, fat people aren’t just seen as dopey and apathetic. They’re also treated like lazy good-for-nothings who lack self-control and don’t take care of themselves.
‘Beauty Looks Down On Me’, p.10 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2017)
All the while, he’s keeping the secret of his divorced father’s illness from his mother, and this culminates in a final scene where he sees that genetics may have played a role in his struggles.
Another humdrum daily drama is to be found in ‘Praising Doubt’, a story of fate and destiny. A woman arrives for a date with a man who happens to share her name, but his twin shows up instead and tries to prove to her that there’s more to her attraction than chance. However, she more than holds her own, showing him that she’s well aware of how they met in a quickfire he-says, she-says story that frequently turns the tables.
Most of Eun’s protagonists are people stuck, usually happily, in routine existences. For example, the main character in ‘Map Addict’ is teased by a friend for his inability to try new things, which makes his decision to take another friend up on his offer to hike the Canadian Rockies even more out of character. In a story about trying new things (and avoiding bears…), we wonder whether this is the start of something new or simply a minor aberration from his routine – once back in Seoul, will he just slip back into his comfortable old life?
Another common theme is looking back, such as in ‘Discovery of Solitude’, when a man in a teahouse is reminded of his student days by a chance encounter, leading to a mini-adventure in which he goes on a trip to an inn in the mountains. Meanwhile, in ‘Weather and Life’, a teenage girl at a new school has to cope with a debt collector who rocks up at her school. She immediately worries about her mother’s ability to pay him, and goes to great efforts to throw him off the trail during a very long walk home.
Many of these themes come together in the closing piece, ‘Yuri Gagarin’s Blue Star’, probably my favourite of the six stories. In this one, the protagonist is a successful businessman, one who’s rather comfortable with his life:
I don’t know how long it’s been since I began to think of this world as nothing particularly remarkable. No matter what happens to me these days, I see it as something I’ve already experienced. The news, gossip from around the neighbourhood, it’s all like that. My job is the same, too, for there’s practically nothing in my work that’s beyond my capabilities. The outcome, good or bad, doesn’t deviate much from my expectations.
‘Yuri Gagarin’s Blue Star’, p.174
And yet, there’s a sense this confident tone is masking a growing depression about his life, so it’s the perfect time for a mysterious email regarding a dinner-date he can’t recall making, one that has him taking a leisurely walk down memory lane to see just how his life turned out the way it did.
In his look at the series, Post discussed some of the (many) issues with the collection, including the dull branding and a lack of promotion, and if I were to add to that, I’d probably question the number of short-story collections in the series. As is the case in Japan, Korean fiction is more heavily weighted towards shorter fiction than is the Anglosphere, and when I looked at the collection as a whole on the shelves, and saw that most of the remaining books were short-story collections, I have to say that my resolve to complete the set did waver somewhat. Others might feel differently, but I would have preferred more novels, particularly when, like today, the stories are fine, but nothing special.
Overall, then, Beauty Looks Down On Me is enjoyable enough, but there’s nothing really outstanding about it, and certainly not enough to make it stand out from twenty-five other books with virtually identical covers. Nevertheless, given my compulsion to finish any projects I start, I suspect I’ll be back with a look at another from the series before too long. In closing, though, let me throw the floor open to you. Have any of you read this (and enjoyed it)? More importantly, perhaps, had any of you actually heard of it before today? I have my doubts…
The opening piece, which gives the collection its name, sets the scene. Here, an obese man in his mid-thirties decides to go on a diet, and the story describes his struggles to stick to it, particularly when his mother insists that he needs more food, including plenty of rice, to get through the day. The truth is, though, that his reasons for wanting to lose weight are slightly obscure, even if he’s well aware that carrying those extra pounds is both a health and social burden:
You can’t ignore what’s going on in the world. Nowadays, fat people aren’t just seen as dopey and apathetic. They’re also treated like lazy good-for-nothings who lack self-control and don’t take care of themselves.
‘Beauty Looks Down On Me’, p.10 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2017)
All the while, he’s keeping the secret of his divorced father’s illness from his mother, and this culminates in a final scene where he sees that genetics may have played a role in his struggles.
Another humdrum daily drama is to be found in ‘Praising Doubt’, a story of fate and destiny. A woman arrives for a date with a man who happens to share her name, but his twin shows up instead and tries to prove to her that there’s more to her attraction than chance. However, she more than holds her own, showing him that she’s well aware of how they met in a quickfire he-says, she-says story that frequently turns the tables.
Most of Eun’s protagonists are people stuck, usually happily, in routine existences. For example, the main character in ‘Map Addict’ is teased by a friend for his inability to try new things, which makes his decision to take another friend up on his offer to hike the Canadian Rockies even more out of character. In a story about trying new things (and avoiding bears…), we wonder whether this is the start of something new or simply a minor aberration from his routine – once back in Seoul, will he just slip back into his comfortable old life?
Another common theme is looking back, such as in ‘Discovery of Solitude’, when a man in a teahouse is reminded of his student days by a chance encounter, leading to a mini-adventure in which he goes on a trip to an inn in the mountains. Meanwhile, in ‘Weather and Life’, a teenage girl at a new school has to cope with a debt collector who rocks up at her school. She immediately worries about her mother’s ability to pay him, and goes to great efforts to throw him off the trail during a very long walk home.
Many of these themes come together in the closing piece, ‘Yuri Gagarin’s Blue Star’, probably my favourite of the six stories. In this one, the protagonist is a successful businessman, one who’s rather comfortable with his life:
I don’t know how long it’s been since I began to think of this world as nothing particularly remarkable. No matter what happens to me these days, I see it as something I’ve already experienced. The news, gossip from around the neighbourhood, it’s all like that. My job is the same, too, for there’s practically nothing in my work that’s beyond my capabilities. The outcome, good or bad, doesn’t deviate much from my expectations.
‘Yuri Gagarin’s Blue Star’, p.174
And yet, there’s a sense this confident tone is masking a growing depression about his life, so it’s the perfect time for a mysterious email regarding a dinner-date he can’t recall making, one that has him taking a leisurely walk down memory lane to see just how his life turned out the way it did.
In his look at the series, Post discussed some of the (many) issues with the collection, including the dull branding and a lack of promotion, and if I were to add to that, I’d probably question the number of short-story collections in the series. As is the case in Japan, Korean fiction is more heavily weighted towards shorter fiction than is the Anglosphere, and when I looked at the collection as a whole on the shelves, and saw that most of the remaining books were short-story collections, I have to say that my resolve to complete the set did waver somewhat. Others might feel differently, but I would have preferred more novels, particularly when, like today, the stories are fine, but nothing special.
Overall, then, Beauty Looks Down On Me is enjoyable enough, but there’s nothing really outstanding about it, and certainly not enough to make it stand out from twenty-five other books with virtually identical covers. Nevertheless, given my compulsion to finish any projects I start, I suspect I’ll be back with a look at another from the series before too long. In closing, though, let me throw the floor open to you. Have any of you read this (and enjoyed it)? More importantly, perhaps, had any of you actually heard of it before today? I have my doubts…
December 12, 2020
"Pero si yo era incapaz de mover un dedo no era por eso, más bien era por la desesperación y la impotencia de tener que admitir la derrota incondicional en la vida."
August 24, 2025
I had issues with pretty much every one of these short stories, but I'm still giving it 5 stars. Mainly because I think it's my fault.
Each one of these stories seems to stem from some research. In other words, I feel like each story made me smarter, whether it be regarding weight loss, time and memory, or Russian cosmonauts.
However, don't expect closure as such from any of these stories. The proverbial quest is the journey itself (or whatever the expression is).
- Beauty Looks Down on Me: A great story about a man and his weight loss
- Discovery of Solitude: The oddest story, probably, but full of nostalgia.
- Weather and life: A perfectly normal girl is actually quite resilient, although I'm not sure she ever figures it ou
- Map addict: Seems to show the juxtaposition between routine and adventure. A guy joins a hike in the Rockies.
- Praising Doubt: A woman is meeting a man with her same name for a date, but his twin brother shows up instead. This is just the beginning of it.
- Yuri Gagarin��s Blue Star: My favorite story. A man stuck in a comfortable routine receives an odd email that arouses memories. I wish this had a conclusion. I really felt it left me hanging, but it was great.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
Each one of these stories seems to stem from some research. In other words, I feel like each story made me smarter, whether it be regarding weight loss, time and memory, or Russian cosmonauts.
However, don't expect closure as such from any of these stories. The proverbial quest is the journey itself (or whatever the expression is).
- Beauty Looks Down on Me: A great story about a man and his weight loss
- Discovery of Solitude: The oddest story, probably, but full of nostalgia.
- Weather and life: A perfectly normal girl is actually quite resilient, although I'm not sure she ever figures it ou
- Map addict: Seems to show the juxtaposition between routine and adventure. A guy joins a hike in the Rockies.
- Praising Doubt: A woman is meeting a man with her same name for a date, but his twin brother shows up instead. This is just the beginning of it.
- Yuri Gagarin��s Blue Star: My favorite story. A man stuck in a comfortable routine receives an odd email that arouses memories. I wish this had a conclusion. I really felt it left me hanging, but it was great.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
November 10, 2025
2/5 ⭐️
“Therefore, for fear of being unsightly, he prefers not to stand out, but tries to adapt himself well enough to every situation. [...] This type gets rid of his anxiety by plunging himself into pressing work, or latching on to unimportant things in order to avoid the burden of handling a big project. He’s drawn by small returns in compensation for his inability to pursue what he really wants. Though he appears to go along with what others say, he’s stubborn and defiant on the inside. He doesn’t want his good mood to be disturbed by others, so he resists them by being quiet and unresponsive. Oh, and another thing. He’s on intimate terms with alcohol, a characteristic common to those who want to escape life’s problems. ”
despite some promising ideas, the collection fell short for me. i only ended up liking a couple of the stories.
“Therefore, for fear of being unsightly, he prefers not to stand out, but tries to adapt himself well enough to every situation. [...] This type gets rid of his anxiety by plunging himself into pressing work, or latching on to unimportant things in order to avoid the burden of handling a big project. He’s drawn by small returns in compensation for his inability to pursue what he really wants. Though he appears to go along with what others say, he’s stubborn and defiant on the inside. He doesn’t want his good mood to be disturbed by others, so he resists them by being quiet and unresponsive. Oh, and another thing. He’s on intimate terms with alcohol, a characteristic common to those who want to escape life’s problems. ”
despite some promising ideas, the collection fell short for me. i only ended up liking a couple of the stories.
November 28, 2025
3.5 stars
This collection of bleak short stories translated from the original Korean by various translators is a complete mixed bag. Some stories were thought-provoking and compelling, while others were philosophical but dull. Each story was uniquely structured similar to a novella with short "chapters", making it easy to set down and pick up.
I truly enjoyed some of the stories, but not all of them, hence the overall lukewarm rating.
This collection of bleak short stories translated from the original Korean by various translators is a complete mixed bag. Some stories were thought-provoking and compelling, while others were philosophical but dull. Each story was uniquely structured similar to a novella with short "chapters", making it easy to set down and pick up.
I truly enjoyed some of the stories, but not all of them, hence the overall lukewarm rating.
December 19, 2023
São contos que relatam momentos específicos de alguma indecisão ou paragem para reflexão na vida de várias pessoas: seja lutando contra a obesidade de uma vida, fazendo uma viagem inesperada, conhecendo o seu destino na forma de um par de gémeos invulgares ou revivendo um amor de juventude há muito perdido.
February 11, 2025
Son varios relatos en los que se hace una critica a diferentes temas sociales como la percepción personal o las expectativas de otros sobre uno mismo
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