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Bluebeard's First Wife
Disasters, accidents, and deaths abound in Bluebeard’s First Wife. A woman spends a night with her fiancé and his friends, and overhears a terrible secret that has bound them together since high school. A man grows increasingly agitated by the apartment noise made by a young family living upstairs and arouses the suspicion of his own wife when the neighbors meet a string of unlucky incidents. A couple moves into a picture-perfect country house, but when their new dog is stolen, they become obsessed with finding the thief, and in the process, neglect their child. Ha’s paranoia-inducing, heart-quickening stories will have you reconsidering your own neighbors.
243 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
October 10, 2020
I read Ha Seong-nan's first collection, Flowers of Mold, and the stories here are just as elusive. Most of them evade me and resist imprinting. All this despite the fact that I think I'm getting the hang of Korean short stories. You don't so much arrive at your destination as much as the bus just stops and boots you off and you're left standing at the side of the road trying to remember exactly how you ended up here with an odd sense of disquiet.
September 14, 2024
Bluebeard’s First Wife is the 2nd collection of stories by 하성란 (Ha Seong-nan) to appear in English translation. As with the first, Flowers of Mold, the translation is by Janet Hong and published by the excellent Open Letter press.
There are 11 stories in the collection all (as with Flowers of Mold) remarkably uniform in length, all from 18-24 pages.
The list of Korean titles and English translations is as follows (unlike Flowers of Mold, the stories are presented in the same order):
1. 별 모양의 얼룩 (The Star Shaped Stain)
2. 푸른수염의 첫번째 아내 (Bluebeard’s First Wife)
3. 파리 (Flies)
4. 밤의 밀렵 (Night Poaching)
5. 오, 아버지 (O Father)
6. 기쁘다 구주 오셨네 (Joy To The World)
7. 와이셔츠 (The Dress Shirt)
8. 저 푸른 초원 위에 (On The Green, Green, Grass)
9. 고요한 밤 (A Quiet Night)
10. 새끼손가락 (Pinky Finger)
11. 개망초 (Daisy Fleabane)
하성란 was born in 1967, and made her publishing debut in 1996. 옆집 여자 (the original of Flowers of Mold) was published in 1999 and this collection, 푸른 수염의 첫 번째 아내, in 2002 (see https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%98%EC%84%B... and https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Ha_Seon...)
My review of Flowers of Mold (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) concluded:
Bluebeard’s First Wife is similar, equally unsettling although perhaps a little more rooted in the domestic, but with an undercurrent of violence in most of the stories and just as effective.
The first story, The Star Shaped Stain, is based around a fictionalised version of a real-life incident, one that traumatized Korean society, in 1999 when a fire broke out at a summer camp at the Sealand Youth Training Centre, killing 4 adults and 19 children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand...). 18 of the children were from one kindergarten and aged between 5 and 7.
We follow the mother of one of the children as she journeys, with her husband, on a 1-year anniversary pilgrimage to the now abandoned site where her daughter died. A drunken local shopkeeper rather gives them all hope, by claiming, highly improbably, to have seen a late child wandering alone, out of the camp, that night, raising hopes and thereby rather blocking their process of acceptance.
No matter what everyone else said, she wanted to believe the child was hers. She wanted to believe the reason her child hadn’t come home in over a year was because she took such small steps. If she were to come home to that pace, they would have to wait much, much longer. No matter that everyone said, she wanted to believe.”
누가 뭐라든 여자는 그 아이가 자신의 아이였다고 믿고 싶었다. 일년이 넘도록 집으로 돌아오지 않는 건 아이의 좁은 보폭 때문이라고 믿고 싶었다. 아이가 그 걸음으로 돌아오려면 아직도 수많은 시간을 기다려야 할 것이다. 누가 뭐라든, 그렇게 믿고 싶었다.
The translation of the title story itself can be found at Asymptote Journal, one that is actually a little atypical of the collection, not least in its non-Korean setting.
The narrator, unusually and rather unacceptably to convention unmarried at 32, meets a similarly unmarried man on a plane to the idyllic paradise island of Jeju (commercial break: home of the GoldOne Hotel: end of commercial break). Jason, born Hyogyeong, has been living in New Zealand for many years and his family are surprisingly keen to rush through a marriage. When the narrator moves to the country she has transported by sea a giant wardrobe, made from the wood of a tree planted the day she was born, one that plays a key role in what is to follow.
The story, as the title suggests, is a clever modern retelling of Charles Perrault’s folktale, where the narrator's new husband is keeping a rather different secret in the closet, and one that speaks to both misogyny and intolerance.
The divorce was finalized during that time, and I talked to Jason only once on the phone. He asked for my address in order to send me the wardrobe. He mentioned he’d grown a beard, that he’d needed to cover up the nasty scar on his chin. Eventually Jason will marry another woman in order to receive his parents’ help. His parents, too, will refuse to give up. These things will repeat themselves.
그동안 이혼 절차는 마무리되었고 제이슨과는 딱 한번 통화를 했다. 그는 침실을 차지하고 있는 장롱을 보낼 테니 주소를 알려달라고 했다. 그리고 이렇게 덧붙였다. 이제 수염을 기르기 시작했다고, 턱에 난 상처가 보기 좋지 않아 상처를 가리기 위해 어쩔 수 없이 수염을 기르는 중이라고 했다. 전화를 끊고 난 생각했다. 제이슨은 부모의 도움을 받기 위해 또다시 여자와 결혼을 할 것이다. 그의 부모도 결코 포기하지 않을 것이다. 그런 일들이 반복될 것이다.
Flies and Night Poaching are both set in isolated area and the narrator, posted there as the local policeman in one story and as a detective to solve the murder/suicide/accidental death of a hunter in the other, an arrival from Seoul viewing the, rather impenetrable, locals with mutual suspicion.
Perhaps my favourite story was A Quiet Night as the narrator's husband, who gave up his banking career for a planned but unsuccessful life as a carpenter, decides to take matters into his own hands when the neighbours in the flat above refuse to be quieter.
The final two stories have striking first lines – Pinky Finger begins “Never get in a taxi alone”, and while the narrator wishes she’d taken the advice, her ride turns out rather differently to how she feared. And the final story begins “The fisherman is trying to drag me to the riverbank”, the reader instantly as hooked as the narrator.
Another excellent collection and a great translation by Janet Hong, retaining a distinctive Korean flavour - and I look forward to more translations of the works of 하성란.
Other reviews:
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/b...
http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/ha-...
https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/blu...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
https://www.booklistonline.com/Bluebe...?
http://www.yes24.com/Product/Goods/26...
There are 11 stories in the collection all (as with Flowers of Mold) remarkably uniform in length, all from 18-24 pages.
The list of Korean titles and English translations is as follows (unlike Flowers of Mold, the stories are presented in the same order):
1. 별 모양의 얼룩 (The Star Shaped Stain)
2. 푸른수염의 첫번째 아내 (Bluebeard’s First Wife)
3. 파리 (Flies)
4. 밤의 밀렵 (Night Poaching)
5. 오, 아버지 (O Father)
6. 기쁘다 구주 오셨네 (Joy To The World)
7. 와이셔츠 (The Dress Shirt)
8. 저 푸른 초원 위에 (On The Green, Green, Grass)
9. 고요한 밤 (A Quiet Night)
10. 새끼손가락 (Pinky Finger)
11. 개망초 (Daisy Fleabane)
하성란 was born in 1967, and made her publishing debut in 1996. 옆집 여자 (the original of Flowers of Mold) was published in 1999 and this collection, 푸른 수염의 첫 번째 아내, in 2002 (see https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%98%EC%84%B... and https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Ha_Seon...)
My review of Flowers of Mold (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) concluded:
It is a very strong collection, beautifully crafted stories of everyday life, often remarkable in their banality, and yet of character's on the edge, with something deeply disturbing lurking underneath, of lives about to fracture. On the Todorov spectrum of uncanny-fantastic-marvellous, this is firmly at the uncanny end. There is nothing supernatural here, or at least nothing that may not simply have been imagined or dreamt, but there is something strongly unsettling.
Bluebeard’s First Wife is similar, equally unsettling although perhaps a little more rooted in the domestic, but with an undercurrent of violence in most of the stories and just as effective.
The first story, The Star Shaped Stain, is based around a fictionalised version of a real-life incident, one that traumatized Korean society, in 1999 when a fire broke out at a summer camp at the Sealand Youth Training Centre, killing 4 adults and 19 children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand...). 18 of the children were from one kindergarten and aged between 5 and 7.
We follow the mother of one of the children as she journeys, with her husband, on a 1-year anniversary pilgrimage to the now abandoned site where her daughter died. A drunken local shopkeeper rather gives them all hope, by claiming, highly improbably, to have seen a late child wandering alone, out of the camp, that night, raising hopes and thereby rather blocking their process of acceptance.
No matter what everyone else said, she wanted to believe the child was hers. She wanted to believe the reason her child hadn’t come home in over a year was because she took such small steps. If she were to come home to that pace, they would have to wait much, much longer. No matter that everyone said, she wanted to believe.”
누가 뭐라든 여자는 그 아이가 자신의 아이였다고 믿고 싶었다. 일년이 넘도록 집으로 돌아오지 않는 건 아이의 좁은 보폭 때문이라고 믿고 싶었다. 아이가 그 걸음으로 돌아오려면 아직도 수많은 시간을 기다려야 할 것이다. 누가 뭐라든, 그렇게 믿고 싶었다.
The translation of the title story itself can be found at Asymptote Journal, one that is actually a little atypical of the collection, not least in its non-Korean setting.
The narrator, unusually and rather unacceptably to convention unmarried at 32, meets a similarly unmarried man on a plane to the idyllic paradise island of Jeju (commercial break: home of the GoldOne Hotel: end of commercial break). Jason, born Hyogyeong, has been living in New Zealand for many years and his family are surprisingly keen to rush through a marriage. When the narrator moves to the country she has transported by sea a giant wardrobe, made from the wood of a tree planted the day she was born, one that plays a key role in what is to follow.
The story, as the title suggests, is a clever modern retelling of Charles Perrault’s folktale, where the narrator's new husband is keeping a rather different secret in the closet, and one that speaks to both misogyny and intolerance.
The divorce was finalized during that time, and I talked to Jason only once on the phone. He asked for my address in order to send me the wardrobe. He mentioned he’d grown a beard, that he’d needed to cover up the nasty scar on his chin. Eventually Jason will marry another woman in order to receive his parents’ help. His parents, too, will refuse to give up. These things will repeat themselves.
그동안 이혼 절차는 마무리되었고 제이슨과는 딱 한번 통화를 했다. 그는 침실을 차지하고 있는 장롱을 보낼 테니 주소를 알려달라고 했다. 그리고 이렇게 덧붙였다. 이제 수염을 기르기 시작했다고, 턱에 난 상처가 보기 좋지 않아 상처를 가리기 위해 어쩔 수 없이 수염을 기르는 중이라고 했다. 전화를 끊고 난 생각했다. 제이슨은 부모의 도움을 받기 위해 또다시 여자와 결혼을 할 것이다. 그의 부모도 결코 포기하지 않을 것이다. 그런 일들이 반복될 것이다.
Flies and Night Poaching are both set in isolated area and the narrator, posted there as the local policeman in one story and as a detective to solve the murder/suicide/accidental death of a hunter in the other, an arrival from Seoul viewing the, rather impenetrable, locals with mutual suspicion.
Perhaps my favourite story was A Quiet Night as the narrator's husband, who gave up his banking career for a planned but unsuccessful life as a carpenter, decides to take matters into his own hands when the neighbours in the flat above refuse to be quieter.
The final two stories have striking first lines – Pinky Finger begins “Never get in a taxi alone”, and while the narrator wishes she’d taken the advice, her ride turns out rather differently to how she feared. And the final story begins “The fisherman is trying to drag me to the riverbank”, the reader instantly as hooked as the narrator.
Another excellent collection and a great translation by Janet Hong, retaining a distinctive Korean flavour - and I look forward to more translations of the works of 하성란.
Other reviews:
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/b...
http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/ha-...
https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/blu...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
https://www.booklistonline.com/Bluebe...?
http://www.yes24.com/Product/Goods/26...
October 12, 2022
I read Ha Seong-nan’s first collection of stories, ‘Flowers of Mold’, in 2020...I actually read it twice, not because I really really liked it the first time around, but because I did not remember I had already read it when I opened up the book the second time around. The first time I read it I gave it 1 star, and the second time I read it I gave it 4 stars. Go figure! I did state in my review the second time around that I would not mind reading more of her oeuvre, so this was my chance.
In my reviews of ‘Flowers of Mold’ I commented that her stories were suffused with occasional grossness. Characters vomited or urinated, and there was the stench of different bodily emanations, or smell of rotting meat or vegetables, or maggots crawling out of dead fish. Rather yucky. But still the stories were original, and I liked a number of them. This time around, I appreciated that she is a good writer, but the tone of these stories was often dark. And a couple of the stories were just totally over my head. Oh yes, plenty of vomiting and stenches of all different kinds.
One thing I noticed in these stories is that there were some commonalities in some of the stores. Many of the men in the stories were grade-A jerks and treated women like second-class citizens.
Following are the stories, the order in which they appeared and my ratings, and when available, where and when the stories were originally published. The stories were copyrighted in 2002 by the author. Translation of the stories into English was done by Janet Hong.
1. The Star-Shaped Stain, first published in The Malahat Review, Issue 188 (2014). [3 stars]
2. Bluebeard’s First Wife available at: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/spec... [4 stars]
3. Flies [2 stars]
4. Night Poaching [2 stars]
5. Father [1.5 stars]
6. Joy to the World, first published in Ricepaper 20.4 (2016) [3.5 stars]
7. The Dress Shirt [1.5 stars]
8. On That Green, Green Grass [2.5 stars]
9. A Quiet Night [4 stars]
10. Pinky Finger published in New Quarterly, Summer 2017 [3 stars]
11. Daisy Fleabane [3.5 stars]
From Wikipedia: The First Wife of Blue Beard is a collection of short stories each revolving around a tragic, but familiar incident that could easily appear on the pages of a local newspaper. In the title story modeled after Perrault’s Le Barbe Bleue, a woman who marries a Korean living in New Zealand learns about her husband’s homosexuality; “Flies” portrays a small-town policeman’s descent into madness. In Ha’s fiction, such incidents as murder, fire, and robbery are treated without sensationalism: she uses those life-shattering moments in life to underscore fragility of happiness as well as the sense of emptiness that lies at the core of existence.
Reviews:
• https://kenyonreview.org/reviews/blue...
• A good review but should only be read after you read the stories...it gives too much of the stories’ contents away: https://wordswithoutborders.org/book-...
• https://wheretokim.com/review-bluebea...
• https://blog.pshares.org/ha-seong-nan...
Open Letter (Literary Translations from the University of Rochester) published this collection. Other books it has publishes/translated can be found at https://www.openletterbooks.org/
In my reviews of ‘Flowers of Mold’ I commented that her stories were suffused with occasional grossness. Characters vomited or urinated, and there was the stench of different bodily emanations, or smell of rotting meat or vegetables, or maggots crawling out of dead fish. Rather yucky. But still the stories were original, and I liked a number of them. This time around, I appreciated that she is a good writer, but the tone of these stories was often dark. And a couple of the stories were just totally over my head. Oh yes, plenty of vomiting and stenches of all different kinds.
One thing I noticed in these stories is that there were some commonalities in some of the stores. Many of the men in the stories were grade-A jerks and treated women like second-class citizens.
Following are the stories, the order in which they appeared and my ratings, and when available, where and when the stories were originally published. The stories were copyrighted in 2002 by the author. Translation of the stories into English was done by Janet Hong.
1. The Star-Shaped Stain, first published in The Malahat Review, Issue 188 (2014). [3 stars]
2. Bluebeard’s First Wife available at: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/spec... [4 stars]
3. Flies [2 stars]
4. Night Poaching [2 stars]
5. Father [1.5 stars]
6. Joy to the World, first published in Ricepaper 20.4 (2016) [3.5 stars]
7. The Dress Shirt [1.5 stars]
8. On That Green, Green Grass [2.5 stars]
9. A Quiet Night [4 stars]
10. Pinky Finger published in New Quarterly, Summer 2017 [3 stars]
11. Daisy Fleabane [3.5 stars]
From Wikipedia: The First Wife of Blue Beard is a collection of short stories each revolving around a tragic, but familiar incident that could easily appear on the pages of a local newspaper. In the title story modeled after Perrault’s Le Barbe Bleue, a woman who marries a Korean living in New Zealand learns about her husband’s homosexuality; “Flies” portrays a small-town policeman’s descent into madness. In Ha’s fiction, such incidents as murder, fire, and robbery are treated without sensationalism: she uses those life-shattering moments in life to underscore fragility of happiness as well as the sense of emptiness that lies at the core of existence.
Reviews:
• https://kenyonreview.org/reviews/blue...
• A good review but should only be read after you read the stories...it gives too much of the stories’ contents away: https://wordswithoutborders.org/book-...
• https://wheretokim.com/review-bluebea...
• https://blog.pshares.org/ha-seong-nan...
Open Letter (Literary Translations from the University of Rochester) published this collection. Other books it has publishes/translated can be found at https://www.openletterbooks.org/
July 22, 2021
Unsettling and disturbing but oh so good!!
I rated this book at 4 stars immediately after reading, but since then I've thought of it constantly and moved the rating up to a 5. Full post is here: http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2021...
On the back cover writer Brian Evenson notes that Ha Seong-Nan is "A master of the strange story," and as I discovered while reading this book, he is not exaggerating. It's also not an exaggeration to say that Bluebeard's First Wife is one of those rare books that can take me out of the here and now so thoroughly --it is a collection of stories which often start out offering a picture of normal, every day life before slowly taking that turn that moves the reader to a point where it becomes obvious that not only has something gone very, very wrong, but also by then that it's too late. Each and every story in this collection took me by surprise and left me feeling completely off-kilter and disoriented, and I found myself having to give my head a shake or two while reading to let go of the feeling of uneasiness each story provided.
A large part of Bluebeard's Wife is concerned with the constraints on women or the expectations placed on them by family and society; sins, secrets, deception, despair and guilt are found throughout. There is a definite feel of detachment in the telling of these "paranoia-inducing, heart quickening stories," and there is also the sense all along that something is just not right, making for unsettling reading. There are no easy conclusions or resolutions to be found, leaving the reader with the feeling that what happens is inevitable, or that things are just how they are, which may just be the most frightening element of all. Susan Choi's front-cover blurb says that these stories "unfurl with the surreal illogic of dreams," and that is really everything you need to know in a nutshell. My kind of book, most certainly.
I loved this book. Absolutely.
I rated this book at 4 stars immediately after reading, but since then I've thought of it constantly and moved the rating up to a 5. Full post is here: http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2021...
On the back cover writer Brian Evenson notes that Ha Seong-Nan is "A master of the strange story," and as I discovered while reading this book, he is not exaggerating. It's also not an exaggeration to say that Bluebeard's First Wife is one of those rare books that can take me out of the here and now so thoroughly --it is a collection of stories which often start out offering a picture of normal, every day life before slowly taking that turn that moves the reader to a point where it becomes obvious that not only has something gone very, very wrong, but also by then that it's too late. Each and every story in this collection took me by surprise and left me feeling completely off-kilter and disoriented, and I found myself having to give my head a shake or two while reading to let go of the feeling of uneasiness each story provided.
A large part of Bluebeard's Wife is concerned with the constraints on women or the expectations placed on them by family and society; sins, secrets, deception, despair and guilt are found throughout. There is a definite feel of detachment in the telling of these "paranoia-inducing, heart quickening stories," and there is also the sense all along that something is just not right, making for unsettling reading. There are no easy conclusions or resolutions to be found, leaving the reader with the feeling that what happens is inevitable, or that things are just how they are, which may just be the most frightening element of all. Susan Choi's front-cover blurb says that these stories "unfurl with the surreal illogic of dreams," and that is really everything you need to know in a nutshell. My kind of book, most certainly.
I loved this book. Absolutely.
May 4, 2020
bluebeard's first wife, the new collection of short stories from korean author ha seong-nan, is as equally delighting and disquieting as its wonderful predecessor, flowers of mold. with eleven new stories (originally published in 2002), she once again offers a selection of tales where things are frequently more sinister than they first appear. with seedy underbellies, a (reader's) presumption of dastardly intentions, and very real human yearnings, ha's stories seem to so effortlessly, so beautifully blend the macabre and the mundane.
the other detective had known everything. he'd quit after he'd gotten spooked in the middle of the investigation. he'd known exactly what went on in the woods during those rainy winter nights. that sneaky motherfucker. he'd given me every detail about the case, except the most important thing.*translated from the korean by janet hong (ha's flowers of mold, han yujoo, ancco, et al.)
July 22, 2020
I recently complained that Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" was, contrary to the hype, not weird enough for me.
Here, then, is a book that rates highly on the weirdness scale. Like The Vegetarian its author also hails from South Korea but that is where the comparisons end.
"Bluebeard's First Wife" is the second collection, by my count, of short stories from Ha Seong-nan. Or at least, the second available in English.
Her first collection, Flowers of Mold, was a delightful surprise and I'm happy to say that "Bluebeard's First Wife" is not only every bit as good as that collection, but that it's even better.
The stories here really range the gamut, from a marriage that fails when a wife discovers her husband's secret (the title story) to a man driven to drastic measures when the upstairs neighbors just won't shut up ("A Quiet Night").
To a story, though, these are charmingly dark, manically comical episodes that feel like some sort of strange, South Korean fusion of Patricia Highsmith The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith and Quim Monzó Why, Why, Why?.
My personal favorite tales in the collection have everything to do with atmosphere and things that go on in the dark.
"Flies" tells the story of a Seoul policeman who is reassigned to a small Korean town. The town overshadows every character in the story, seemingly always dark and submerged in fog as it is. It's the perfect place for dark deeds, and dark deeds are exactly what transpires.
Meanwhile, "Night Poaching" put me in mind of Na Hong-jin's fabulous 2016 film, "The Wailing." And for those of you who haven't seen that, go and stream it NOW!
"Night Poaching" is set in an isolated area popular with hunters, and is so cinematic in scope and so strongly felt on every page it could easily be turned into an excellent film of its own. A detective from Seoul arrives to investigate the suicide of a hunter. Or is it a murder? It doesn't take long for some seriously strange shit to start happening.
After "Flowers of Mold" and now "Bluebird's First Wife," both of which I read this year, Ha Seong-nan has suddenly become one of my favorite writers. Were it not for my subscription with Open Letter Books, I likely would never have even heard of her (thank you Open Letter!)
If you need to be convinced that a short story can make just as strong a punch as a novel, I strongly encourage you to pick up "Bluebeard's First Wife." It's one of the most original, most intriguing, and, yes, one of the strangest things I've read this year.
Here, then, is a book that rates highly on the weirdness scale. Like The Vegetarian its author also hails from South Korea but that is where the comparisons end.
"Bluebeard's First Wife" is the second collection, by my count, of short stories from Ha Seong-nan. Or at least, the second available in English.
Her first collection, Flowers of Mold, was a delightful surprise and I'm happy to say that "Bluebeard's First Wife" is not only every bit as good as that collection, but that it's even better.
The stories here really range the gamut, from a marriage that fails when a wife discovers her husband's secret (the title story) to a man driven to drastic measures when the upstairs neighbors just won't shut up ("A Quiet Night").
To a story, though, these are charmingly dark, manically comical episodes that feel like some sort of strange, South Korean fusion of Patricia Highsmith The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith and Quim Monzó Why, Why, Why?.
My personal favorite tales in the collection have everything to do with atmosphere and things that go on in the dark.
"Flies" tells the story of a Seoul policeman who is reassigned to a small Korean town. The town overshadows every character in the story, seemingly always dark and submerged in fog as it is. It's the perfect place for dark deeds, and dark deeds are exactly what transpires.
Meanwhile, "Night Poaching" put me in mind of Na Hong-jin's fabulous 2016 film, "The Wailing." And for those of you who haven't seen that, go and stream it NOW!
"Night Poaching" is set in an isolated area popular with hunters, and is so cinematic in scope and so strongly felt on every page it could easily be turned into an excellent film of its own. A detective from Seoul arrives to investigate the suicide of a hunter. Or is it a murder? It doesn't take long for some seriously strange shit to start happening.
After "Flowers of Mold" and now "Bluebird's First Wife," both of which I read this year, Ha Seong-nan has suddenly become one of my favorite writers. Were it not for my subscription with Open Letter Books, I likely would never have even heard of her (thank you Open Letter!)
If you need to be convinced that a short story can make just as strong a punch as a novel, I strongly encourage you to pick up "Bluebeard's First Wife." It's one of the most original, most intriguing, and, yes, one of the strangest things I've read this year.
August 3, 2020
If I didn't do enough raving about Flowers of Mold, here is the sequel to my fangirling of that book.
This is a collection of 11 short stories. Though I'm not sure that Ha Seong-nan's writing can really be put in a box, I definitely consider her writing horror—my favorite kind of horror that sits quietly on the edge of your bed as you sleep, suffusing your dreams with dark imagery. There aren't any jump scares or supernatural happenings—it is just a dark world outside, and sometimes it stains you. All of the stories but one focus on female protagonists, and this is clearly where Ha Seong-nan shines. The stories end up being about much more than the plot, offering commentary on women's roles and society's expectations of them.
I savored every story in this collection, but here are a few standouts:
"The Star-Shaped Stain" is one that has stayed with me. This story follows a busload of parents traveling together. The story shows amazing restraint, and the author isn't afraid to let the reader sit in the dark as she slowly spools out where they are headed and why. There is this current of unease from the first sentence, and it is a gut-punch when you find out what happened. But the story isn't over yet, and becomes a desperate mystery.
"A Quiet Night" is a story of a woman whose husband quits his job to pursue his dream. She has to pick up extra work because of this and her husband proceeds to stay at home all day fixated on the kids in the apartment above theirs who make a lot of noise. When the kids go missing, she begins to suspect her husband isn't who she thinks he is.
"Daisy Fleabane" is a stream-of-consciousness narrative that goes back and forth in time, giving you little pieces of the story until it adds up to a horrifying reality.
This is the second work by Korean writer Ha Seong-nan translated into English, and it was originally published in 2002. She has several more works, and I'm hoping we might get a novel translated next??? I will read everything of hers that I can.
This is a collection of 11 short stories. Though I'm not sure that Ha Seong-nan's writing can really be put in a box, I definitely consider her writing horror—my favorite kind of horror that sits quietly on the edge of your bed as you sleep, suffusing your dreams with dark imagery. There aren't any jump scares or supernatural happenings—it is just a dark world outside, and sometimes it stains you. All of the stories but one focus on female protagonists, and this is clearly where Ha Seong-nan shines. The stories end up being about much more than the plot, offering commentary on women's roles and society's expectations of them.
I savored every story in this collection, but here are a few standouts:
"The Star-Shaped Stain" is one that has stayed with me. This story follows a busload of parents traveling together. The story shows amazing restraint, and the author isn't afraid to let the reader sit in the dark as she slowly spools out where they are headed and why. There is this current of unease from the first sentence, and it is a gut-punch when you find out what happened. But the story isn't over yet, and becomes a desperate mystery.
"A Quiet Night" is a story of a woman whose husband quits his job to pursue his dream. She has to pick up extra work because of this and her husband proceeds to stay at home all day fixated on the kids in the apartment above theirs who make a lot of noise. When the kids go missing, she begins to suspect her husband isn't who she thinks he is.
"Daisy Fleabane" is a stream-of-consciousness narrative that goes back and forth in time, giving you little pieces of the story until it adds up to a horrifying reality.
This is the second work by Korean writer Ha Seong-nan translated into English, and it was originally published in 2002. She has several more works, and I'm hoping we might get a novel translated next??? I will read everything of hers that I can.
March 2, 2021
Tiga cerpen yang paling aku suka:
1. Daisy Fleabane
2. A Quiet Night
3. Pinky Finger
1. Daisy Fleabane
2. A Quiet Night
3. Pinky Finger
Read
August 23, 2022#BookReview
Bluebeard's First Wife
By Ha Seong-nan
Translated from Korean by Janet Hong
Genre: Anthology, Literary Fiction, Horror (of the mind, not the supernatural horror)
(Main review ends with the sixth paragraph, beyond that follows the individual details of the 11 stories in this collection and can be skipped.)
TW: loss of children, animal cruelty, suicide
First thing first. I fell in love with Ha Seong-nan after I read the anthology, Flowers of Mold. And yet, I always thought the author to be a man. But when story after story in this collection impressed me with how well the author has their finger on the pulse of female responsibilities, frustrations, aspirations, imaginations, vulnerabilities, discriminations and even gullibility, and how effortlessly the author, story after story, highlights these emotions, like picking them up by a pair of forceps to hold them up in bright light for the others to see, did it occur to me to check the author's gender. Ha Seong-nan is a female author. I cannot apologise to Ha Seong-nan, so I apologise here.
The plots in this anthology, though ordinary are extraordinary in their treatment and in the imagination they come cradled with. Though only one story has elements of magical realism in it, some of the stories will take readers to the very edge of reality.
In many of the stories, the author lures the readers with only crumbs of information, one crumb at a time. But the big picture is always revealed at the end. All the stories are tied up well in their climaxes, within the scope that short stories offer.
The entire collection is brilliant. With deftness, the author dives into the darkness that always lurks at the edges of our normal lives, to raise its head at every opportunity that life offers. A woman sees an unhitched kite in the darkness of a night sky and thinks of her husband, now probably unhinged from what we call a normal life. A daughter, unable to return home wonders if her mom would blame her friendship with the girl who is now an outcast. During a late night ride to home, another daughter remembers her mother's warning to never travel alone at night. A man sees a woman slip out from his colleague's room, only the image of one person is tarnished in his mind. When no one takes responsibilty, a girl does.
The characters in this anthology are such that they can be one among us. The stories in this anthology are such that they can belong to any of us. In this lies the beauty and the horror of Ha Seong-nan's collection of 11 short stories, Blue Beard's First Wife.
Q: Do I recommend Blue Beard's First Wife to my fellow readers?
A: If the genre of literary fiction in anthology suits your taste, absolutely yes!
***********
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 -
This is a mother's story. This is a story of trauma, done extremely well. I won't go into details because the plot is best discovered through the pages of the story; the author has crafted the story with that in mind I feel. I will just say that the ending left me grieving with the character, and I know that nothing I can say can be of any consolation to the character. The story adeptly conveys this to the readers and in that, lies its tragic beauty.
𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝'𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞 -
Again, cannot divulge the plot of this story but to me, this was a very obvious, run of the mill story. Surprisingly, even the storytelling didn't impress me. 'Suprisingly' because, usually Ha Seong-nan's words and her skill at presenting a mundane situation/emotion in extraordinary light does the trick for me in catapulting her work from good to brilliant. In that, this story was lack-lustre.
The good thing I can say for this story is its title - it is an apt fit. And as a retelling, it is perfect. It falls off the mark because my expectation from Ha Seong-nan far exceeds what this predictable story offers. However the image of comfort as the protagonist basks in the sun, remains etched in my mind, so much so, that I feel this too holds a key point/message in the story, which I have half missed.
𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 -
The man moves to a remote, sparsely populated village. Everything is strange, everything emanates a chill to the reader - even the flies feeding on the dry pollack hanging in a house might make you wonder if this is a dark foreboding, such is Ha Seong-nan's writing here. And when strange is the outlook, only stranger thing can happen right?
The village stands united in its questions, accusations and persistence. An outsider will always remain an outsider. The dark, strange story emoted well for me, specially in drawing out the sense of isolation, alienation and a resultant hopelessness of a Seoul man in an obscure village. The male pov is intersting, disturbing.
𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 -
Again, a story about a man in a remote, sparsely populated village. It could even be the same village from the previous story. In this village, investigation is on about a dead man. Was it a suicide, a murder or an accident?
The village stands united in its silence. An outsider will always remain an outsider.
The story is average, the story-telling is brilliant. I liked it better in retrospect; in retrospect I could feel the vividness of the atmosphere - of the mind, the village and the forest.
𝐎 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 -
A story of a daughter's yearning for her father. A story that will touch readers if they can put themselves in the daughter's shoes. Otherwise, it will remain just an average story, a meandering reflection of a daughter.
When it comes to the daughter's heart, even God can't win over a father.
What is the cause of this heart's yearning? A natural tendency? A spirit of competitiveness? Or a desire to accumulate what is sparsely available?
𝐉𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 -
Horrors don't raise their heads only in dark, narrow lanes where ghosts and monsters roam about. Horror can slither into our lives donning the face of familiarity and friendliness, and before we know, we find ourselves in a dark place. This is one such story. Told with an expertise that is so trademark Ha Seong-nan. Needless to say I found it a great read.
Don't want to reveal much. Two people who have dated for three years are about to get married when the girl meets her fiance's three friends.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭 -
Urban marriage, urban disaster. The husband has disappeared from the house. This story summed it up not so delicately, but quite exquisitely. Loved how the author uses kite in the narrative. Loved the story.
𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧, 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬 -
A story about family. Disappointment. Priorities. Hidden despair. Loss. Neglect? Regret. Done heart-wrenchingly. Pierced my heart.
A dog is lost. Will finding the dog solve everything? We love with open hearts, but can one love substitute another? Whom are to trying to fool?
𝐀 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 -
A dark comedy. Again, loved it. A man cannot sleep because of the noises upstairs. To a point I could identify with the man because the people upstairs my house make quite a deal of noise at weird times, though touchwood, like the wife in the story, the noise doesn't trouble me. Thankfully, nor does my partner take much notice, unlike the man in the story.
𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐲 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 -
A story about a female employee leaving alone for home after an office party at 1 a.m. in a cab.
Every female taking a ride alone at night will identify with this story, I think. And most will remember their mothers too, with a smile or maybe even a bit of guilt, while reading it.
Loved it.
Even without the magical realism, the story holds its ground for me. The magical realism adds to the story, what maybe reality cannot yet offer to the female sex.
𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐞 -
The saddest story of all. Written with a bleeding heart. The story reveals itself with each turn of page, so won't discuss the plot. A good, painful story.
Bluebeard's First Wife
By Ha Seong-nan
Translated from Korean by Janet Hong
Genre: Anthology, Literary Fiction, Horror (of the mind, not the supernatural horror)
(Main review ends with the sixth paragraph, beyond that follows the individual details of the 11 stories in this collection and can be skipped.)
TW: loss of children, animal cruelty, suicide
First thing first. I fell in love with Ha Seong-nan after I read the anthology, Flowers of Mold. And yet, I always thought the author to be a man. But when story after story in this collection impressed me with how well the author has their finger on the pulse of female responsibilities, frustrations, aspirations, imaginations, vulnerabilities, discriminations and even gullibility, and how effortlessly the author, story after story, highlights these emotions, like picking them up by a pair of forceps to hold them up in bright light for the others to see, did it occur to me to check the author's gender. Ha Seong-nan is a female author. I cannot apologise to Ha Seong-nan, so I apologise here.
The plots in this anthology, though ordinary are extraordinary in their treatment and in the imagination they come cradled with. Though only one story has elements of magical realism in it, some of the stories will take readers to the very edge of reality.
In many of the stories, the author lures the readers with only crumbs of information, one crumb at a time. But the big picture is always revealed at the end. All the stories are tied up well in their climaxes, within the scope that short stories offer.
The entire collection is brilliant. With deftness, the author dives into the darkness that always lurks at the edges of our normal lives, to raise its head at every opportunity that life offers. A woman sees an unhitched kite in the darkness of a night sky and thinks of her husband, now probably unhinged from what we call a normal life. A daughter, unable to return home wonders if her mom would blame her friendship with the girl who is now an outcast. During a late night ride to home, another daughter remembers her mother's warning to never travel alone at night. A man sees a woman slip out from his colleague's room, only the image of one person is tarnished in his mind. When no one takes responsibilty, a girl does.
The characters in this anthology are such that they can be one among us. The stories in this anthology are such that they can belong to any of us. In this lies the beauty and the horror of Ha Seong-nan's collection of 11 short stories, Blue Beard's First Wife.
Q: Do I recommend Blue Beard's First Wife to my fellow readers?
A: If the genre of literary fiction in anthology suits your taste, absolutely yes!
***********
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 -
This is a mother's story. This is a story of trauma, done extremely well. I won't go into details because the plot is best discovered through the pages of the story; the author has crafted the story with that in mind I feel. I will just say that the ending left me grieving with the character, and I know that nothing I can say can be of any consolation to the character. The story adeptly conveys this to the readers and in that, lies its tragic beauty.
𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝'𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞 -
Again, cannot divulge the plot of this story but to me, this was a very obvious, run of the mill story. Surprisingly, even the storytelling didn't impress me. 'Suprisingly' because, usually Ha Seong-nan's words and her skill at presenting a mundane situation/emotion in extraordinary light does the trick for me in catapulting her work from good to brilliant. In that, this story was lack-lustre.
The good thing I can say for this story is its title - it is an apt fit. And as a retelling, it is perfect. It falls off the mark because my expectation from Ha Seong-nan far exceeds what this predictable story offers. However the image of comfort as the protagonist basks in the sun, remains etched in my mind, so much so, that I feel this too holds a key point/message in the story, which I have half missed.
𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 -
The man moves to a remote, sparsely populated village. Everything is strange, everything emanates a chill to the reader - even the flies feeding on the dry pollack hanging in a house might make you wonder if this is a dark foreboding, such is Ha Seong-nan's writing here. And when strange is the outlook, only stranger thing can happen right?
The village stands united in its questions, accusations and persistence. An outsider will always remain an outsider. The dark, strange story emoted well for me, specially in drawing out the sense of isolation, alienation and a resultant hopelessness of a Seoul man in an obscure village. The male pov is intersting, disturbing.
𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 -
Again, a story about a man in a remote, sparsely populated village. It could even be the same village from the previous story. In this village, investigation is on about a dead man. Was it a suicide, a murder or an accident?
The village stands united in its silence. An outsider will always remain an outsider.
The story is average, the story-telling is brilliant. I liked it better in retrospect; in retrospect I could feel the vividness of the atmosphere - of the mind, the village and the forest.
𝐎 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 -
A story of a daughter's yearning for her father. A story that will touch readers if they can put themselves in the daughter's shoes. Otherwise, it will remain just an average story, a meandering reflection of a daughter.
When it comes to the daughter's heart, even God can't win over a father.
What is the cause of this heart's yearning? A natural tendency? A spirit of competitiveness? Or a desire to accumulate what is sparsely available?
𝐉𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 -
Horrors don't raise their heads only in dark, narrow lanes where ghosts and monsters roam about. Horror can slither into our lives donning the face of familiarity and friendliness, and before we know, we find ourselves in a dark place. This is one such story. Told with an expertise that is so trademark Ha Seong-nan. Needless to say I found it a great read.
Don't want to reveal much. Two people who have dated for three years are about to get married when the girl meets her fiance's three friends.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭 -
Urban marriage, urban disaster. The husband has disappeared from the house. This story summed it up not so delicately, but quite exquisitely. Loved how the author uses kite in the narrative. Loved the story.
𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧, 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬 -
A story about family. Disappointment. Priorities. Hidden despair. Loss. Neglect? Regret. Done heart-wrenchingly. Pierced my heart.
A dog is lost. Will finding the dog solve everything? We love with open hearts, but can one love substitute another? Whom are to trying to fool?
𝐀 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 -
A dark comedy. Again, loved it. A man cannot sleep because of the noises upstairs. To a point I could identify with the man because the people upstairs my house make quite a deal of noise at weird times, though touchwood, like the wife in the story, the noise doesn't trouble me. Thankfully, nor does my partner take much notice, unlike the man in the story.
𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐲 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 -
A story about a female employee leaving alone for home after an office party at 1 a.m. in a cab.
Every female taking a ride alone at night will identify with this story, I think. And most will remember their mothers too, with a smile or maybe even a bit of guilt, while reading it.
Loved it.
Even without the magical realism, the story holds its ground for me. The magical realism adds to the story, what maybe reality cannot yet offer to the female sex.
𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐞 -
The saddest story of all. Written with a bleeding heart. The story reveals itself with each turn of page, so won't discuss the plot. A good, painful story.
August 25, 2020
Short stories anthologies were never my thing but I always thought I would eventually come across a really good one that would change my mind, and I think this is the one.
I have always kept my distance from this genre because it was never engaging enough; short stories are usually too short and don't have enough to them to keep me interested. Or, the story would end abruptly when I started getting interested. It wasn't the case here.
The stories were the perfect length and had so much complexion to them; they were well structured, well laid out, and very well translated. The whole anthology had an eerie air to it, even though the stories aren't really what one would classify as horror, but there was an eeriness and the stories sort of made my skin crawl without really making the horror elements very explicit.
I have always kept my distance from this genre because it was never engaging enough; short stories are usually too short and don't have enough to them to keep me interested. Or, the story would end abruptly when I started getting interested. It wasn't the case here.
The stories were the perfect length and had so much complexion to them; they were well structured, well laid out, and very well translated. The whole anthology had an eerie air to it, even though the stories aren't really what one would classify as horror, but there was an eeriness and the stories sort of made my skin crawl without really making the horror elements very explicit.
July 8, 2025
Just published a deep dive into Bluebeard’s First Wife by Ha Seong-nan, a haunting, razor-sharp collection of Korean short stories that reimagines fairy tales, flips crime fiction on its head, and exposes the unsettling truths hidden in ordinary lives. If you're into psychological suspense, literary horror, or just want to read some seriously unforgettable fiction, check it out. https://open.substack.com/pub/barrywe...
KBS Korea 24 @KBSKorea24
19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.
Download the KBS Kong / KBS WORLD Radio Mobile apps
or subscribe to the Korea 24 podcast for your daily updates!
“On #KoreaBookClub @BarryPWelsh is back with the collection of short stories, "#BluebeardsFirstWife (#푸른수염의첫번째아내)" by Ha Seong-nan (#하성란), translated by @JanetHong333. Tune in to hear how Ha's "microscopic depiction" created one of Barry's top picks of the entire year!”
#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #Korea24 #코리아24 #책추천 #bookstagram #북스타그램 #책스타그램 #KoreanLiterature #한국문학
(https://lnkd.in/gxkU6aW) #book #reading
KBS Korea 24 @KBSKorea24
19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.
Download the KBS Kong / KBS WORLD Radio Mobile apps
or subscribe to the Korea 24 podcast for your daily updates!
“On #KoreaBookClub @BarryPWelsh is back with the collection of short stories, "#BluebeardsFirstWife (#푸른수염의첫번째아내)" by Ha Seong-nan (#하성란), translated by @JanetHong333. Tune in to hear how Ha's "microscopic depiction" created one of Barry's top picks of the entire year!”
#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #Korea24 #코리아24 #책추천 #bookstagram #북스타그램 #책스타그램 #KoreanLiterature #한국문학
(https://lnkd.in/gxkU6aW) #book #reading
May 4, 2021
4.5
Incredible collection. This will definitely be one of my memorable reads this year and I will for sure be picking up my own copy.
My goal this year has been to explore Korean literature a bit more. In the past I haven't been quite sure how to respond to the elements of it. Korean literary fiction is quite unique in its use of magical realism, fabulism, and speculative elements and that is really reflected well in this collection. Bluebeard's First Wife explores the strangeness of everyday life and the interpersonal relationships between family, friends, and strangers through these devises.
Incredible collection. This will definitely be one of my memorable reads this year and I will for sure be picking up my own copy.
My goal this year has been to explore Korean literature a bit more. In the past I haven't been quite sure how to respond to the elements of it. Korean literary fiction is quite unique in its use of magical realism, fabulism, and speculative elements and that is really reflected well in this collection. Bluebeard's First Wife explores the strangeness of everyday life and the interpersonal relationships between family, friends, and strangers through these devises.
June 27, 2022
While most of these stories were enjoyably disquieting, the collection as a whole felt as though it lacks the freshness and daring of Ha Seong-nan's earlier collection Flowers of Mold. There was a sameness to several of these stories... it might have been a stronger collection with a third of the stories excluded.
April 19, 2021
Bluebeard's First Wife is absolutely horror, but it may not be the kind of horror you're thinking of. There are no ghosts, vampires, or slashers here. There is simply the horror of reality, of normal people and their obsessions, their fears, their paranoias...the violence depicted here is all too real and commonplace. This is the kind of horror that maybe doesn't scare you so much as it makes you deeply, deeply uncomfortable.
The best stories include:
Bluebeard's First Wife - the titular story concerns a woman who has moved to a new country to be with her new husband. She finds herself isolated and alone, and, as she discovers her husband's secrets, possibly in danger.
Night Poaching is about a city detective investigating the death of a loner in a small village. He quickly discovers a cover up, as well as how dangerous the woods can be after dark.
Joy to the World - another story about how we often don't know those close to us as well as we think we do. A woman discovers her fiancé's true nature after a drunken night spent with him and his oldest friends.
In A Quiet Night, a woman fears what her husband is capable of when misfortune befalls their upstairs neighbors, whom he's been feuding with over the noise they make.
Pinky Finger is ultimately, perhaps, the most light hearted tale. A woman taking a taxi home late one night fears for her safety from her strange driver. This one had an interesting, whimsical little twist and was probably my favorite in the collection.
Daisy Fleabane is possibly the most tragic story in the collection. The story is narrated by a dead girl floating in a river. The story goes back and forth in time as we slowly discover how she ended up there.
Warning, dog lovers will probably want to skip On the Green, Green Grass. I only skimmed it, but it was still upsetting to me.
Otherwise, this is an excellent collection, and I hope to soon read Ha Seong-nan's other collection, Flowers of Mold.
The best stories include:
Bluebeard's First Wife - the titular story concerns a woman who has moved to a new country to be with her new husband. She finds herself isolated and alone, and, as she discovers her husband's secrets, possibly in danger.
Night Poaching is about a city detective investigating the death of a loner in a small village. He quickly discovers a cover up, as well as how dangerous the woods can be after dark.
Joy to the World - another story about how we often don't know those close to us as well as we think we do. A woman discovers her fiancé's true nature after a drunken night spent with him and his oldest friends.
In A Quiet Night, a woman fears what her husband is capable of when misfortune befalls their upstairs neighbors, whom he's been feuding with over the noise they make.
Pinky Finger is ultimately, perhaps, the most light hearted tale. A woman taking a taxi home late one night fears for her safety from her strange driver. This one had an interesting, whimsical little twist and was probably my favorite in the collection.
Daisy Fleabane is possibly the most tragic story in the collection. The story is narrated by a dead girl floating in a river. The story goes back and forth in time as we slowly discover how she ended up there.
Warning, dog lovers will probably want to skip On the Green, Green Grass. I only skimmed it, but it was still upsetting to me.
Otherwise, this is an excellent collection, and I hope to soon read Ha Seong-nan's other collection, Flowers of Mold.
August 17, 2021
A throughly satisfying collection of short stories by Ha Seong-nan with only one that didn’t really work for me. They contain grief, violence, tragedy and secrets and some of them are setup so well they could easily have been turned into novels. We move from small villages to the city and get a strong sense of what it takes to live and work in these cities; two incomes, long commutes, noisy neighbors and what that does to people. The writing is simple but often evocative with some great opening first lines such as ‘Never get in a taxi alone at night’. There were several stories that felt as though they could go somewhere far weirder and more tragic than they did but that skirt that edge. My favorite was The Dress Shirt with a wife whose husband becomes a deadbeat and then disappears while young people are throwing themselves off of buildings which kind of gives you an idea of what to expect with this collection.
July 7, 2020
Another excellent collection of short stories written in the spare, somewhat whimsical style that I adore. Ha specializes in surprisingly poignant, disgusting imagery that sticks with you a long time. I cannot wait to see more of her translated work in the future.
November 3, 2020
Same feel as Flowers of Mold, but more, shorter stories, and more variety - and maybe more playfulness. More than once I had the feeling of being led towards a very dark place only to be let off the hook at the last minute. Highly recommended.
August 13, 2020
Interesting and not too weird short stories are delightful.
October 23, 2020
Ha Seong-Nan is the master of unsettling and haunting tales about guilt, loneliness, isolation, loss, ambition, obsession, and disconnection.
December 2, 2020
11/23/2020 Not quite horror stories but still a collection of distressing tales. Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
12/2/2020 I have a bad habit of not remembering why I picked up certain volumes, not helped by the often considerable lag time between me deciding I want to read a book and me actually getting the opportunity to read it. So I vaguely recall placing a library hold on Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-nan because I was told it was a collection of horror stories set in contemporary South Korea. And it's not. It's actually better.
I mean, if your idea of horror is anything psychologically thrilling a/o supernaturally tinged, then sure, BFW is going to be the spooky read you're looking for. Of the 11 stories included here, only two have an overtly supernatural component to them, and even fewer verge into territory so violent or grotesque that the horror genre may take over from mere crime. But each and every one of these tales is disquieting and sad, with survival being perhaps the happiest ending available to the heroes, who are also often the victims, of these stories. In some ways, this book reminded me of Patricia Highsmith's Little Tales Of Misogyny: where Ms Highsmith wrote with a barely concealed contempt of her characters however, Ms Ha treats hers only with empathy, even when they're being foolish or just plain wrong.
Perhaps my favorite story of the set, and one of the most traditionally "spooky" is the closer, Daisy Fleabane, about a young girl who remembers going fishing with her dad and picking wildflowers while he waited in the water. The story that hurt the most was On The Green, Green Grass, about parents who care more for their kidnapped dog than for their child; with its revolting imagery of, among other things, dog meat restaurants, it is not for the weak of stomach. Joy To The World is the kind of tale that'll give any woman nightmares, depicting not only a horrific betrayal of trust but also the loneliness of its aftermath.
One interesting thing about this collection is that the works are so uniformly strong that I can only rank them by what resonated with me personally instead of by which were objectively better than others, a remarkable feat in this day of kitchen-sink compilations. Ms Ha's tales, elegantly translated from the original Korean by Janet Hong, work so well because they are so different from one another, even as they revolve around similar touchstones: being from Seoul and wanting to go back, getting into and out of bad relationships, neglected children who are only missed once they're gone. There's also a quiet existential despair running through these tales of life in turn-of-the-21st-centry South Korea. The title story would be comical were the characters American or European, but with the more conservative mores of 2002 (when these stories were originally published) Asia, it is instead a springboard for a bleak future bereft of anything but existence. Similarly, the afore-mentioned Joy To The World could have been passed off as a comedy of errors or perhaps the basis for a feel-good empowerment story but is instead placed in a milieu where attachments matter and injured feelings rightfully carry long-term consequences.
It was weirdly interesting to see where I, as a Malaysian and an American, would relate to the emotional beats of each story, with their underlying cultural assumptions, and why. Unsurprisingly, one place is with the food, dog meat notwithstanding. The setting is Very Korean and I am super craving banchan, stews and spicy squid as I type this.
Overall however, BFW is the kind of book that makes the reader queasy, that focuses on the disorienting feeling of losing control, often to an outside entity that may not necessarily be malevolent, but is definitely looking out for itself first and foremost. I do not recommend pairing it with watching the first few episodes of the final season of The Man In The High Castle, as I made the mistake of doing: that is a combination of beautiful downers no one needs. But this is a good book for quiet chills, for reckoning with the despair that seethes just below the placid surface of everyday life, as beautifully evoked in the metaphor of waves in one of the middle stories of this collection, The Dress Shirt.
Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-nan, translated by Janet Hong, was published June 16th, 2020 by Open Letter, and is available from all good booksellers including Bookshop! Want it now? For the Kindle version, click here.
12/2/2020 I have a bad habit of not remembering why I picked up certain volumes, not helped by the often considerable lag time between me deciding I want to read a book and me actually getting the opportunity to read it. So I vaguely recall placing a library hold on Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-nan because I was told it was a collection of horror stories set in contemporary South Korea. And it's not. It's actually better.
I mean, if your idea of horror is anything psychologically thrilling a/o supernaturally tinged, then sure, BFW is going to be the spooky read you're looking for. Of the 11 stories included here, only two have an overtly supernatural component to them, and even fewer verge into territory so violent or grotesque that the horror genre may take over from mere crime. But each and every one of these tales is disquieting and sad, with survival being perhaps the happiest ending available to the heroes, who are also often the victims, of these stories. In some ways, this book reminded me of Patricia Highsmith's Little Tales Of Misogyny: where Ms Highsmith wrote with a barely concealed contempt of her characters however, Ms Ha treats hers only with empathy, even when they're being foolish or just plain wrong.
Perhaps my favorite story of the set, and one of the most traditionally "spooky" is the closer, Daisy Fleabane, about a young girl who remembers going fishing with her dad and picking wildflowers while he waited in the water. The story that hurt the most was On The Green, Green Grass, about parents who care more for their kidnapped dog than for their child; with its revolting imagery of, among other things, dog meat restaurants, it is not for the weak of stomach. Joy To The World is the kind of tale that'll give any woman nightmares, depicting not only a horrific betrayal of trust but also the loneliness of its aftermath.
One interesting thing about this collection is that the works are so uniformly strong that I can only rank them by what resonated with me personally instead of by which were objectively better than others, a remarkable feat in this day of kitchen-sink compilations. Ms Ha's tales, elegantly translated from the original Korean by Janet Hong, work so well because they are so different from one another, even as they revolve around similar touchstones: being from Seoul and wanting to go back, getting into and out of bad relationships, neglected children who are only missed once they're gone. There's also a quiet existential despair running through these tales of life in turn-of-the-21st-centry South Korea. The title story would be comical were the characters American or European, but with the more conservative mores of 2002 (when these stories were originally published) Asia, it is instead a springboard for a bleak future bereft of anything but existence. Similarly, the afore-mentioned Joy To The World could have been passed off as a comedy of errors or perhaps the basis for a feel-good empowerment story but is instead placed in a milieu where attachments matter and injured feelings rightfully carry long-term consequences.
It was weirdly interesting to see where I, as a Malaysian and an American, would relate to the emotional beats of each story, with their underlying cultural assumptions, and why. Unsurprisingly, one place is with the food, dog meat notwithstanding. The setting is Very Korean and I am super craving banchan, stews and spicy squid as I type this.
Overall however, BFW is the kind of book that makes the reader queasy, that focuses on the disorienting feeling of losing control, often to an outside entity that may not necessarily be malevolent, but is definitely looking out for itself first and foremost. I do not recommend pairing it with watching the first few episodes of the final season of The Man In The High Castle, as I made the mistake of doing: that is a combination of beautiful downers no one needs. But this is a good book for quiet chills, for reckoning with the despair that seethes just below the placid surface of everyday life, as beautifully evoked in the metaphor of waves in one of the middle stories of this collection, The Dress Shirt.
Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-nan, translated by Janet Hong, was published June 16th, 2020 by Open Letter, and is available from all good booksellers including Bookshop! Want it now? For the Kindle version, click here.
June 16, 2020
Rep: Written by a Korean author, contains an all-Korean cast, and almost all are set in South Korea
Warnings: child death, child abduction, domestic violence, homophobia, gun violence, dubious consent and drunken sex, mention of abortion, fatal accident, animal abuse
It's hard to pin down a connecting theme in this collection of short stories, but I guess the one thing they have in common is they are all unsettling, sometimes in a good way and at times, they are unsettling because they don't make sense. There are a couple of stories that are like rural Gothic sort of tales, while some are more along the lines of 'I don't know what kind of person my husband is'; in fact, weird and unnerving husbands is the theme of some of these stories. I was drawn to this book because of title itself - Bluebeard's First Wife - and thought some might be some sort of modern retellings; to be fair, that story does have themes of the story, but it takes a very different take on it which I am not sure I entirely like.
The most confusing was O Father because I feel it didn't fit alongside these other stories at all, and the only unsettling thing about it was its non-linear timeline that just confuses you till the end. Then there were the other stories where I felt some small mystery was hidden in them, and it doesn't have much to do with the resolution of the story, but leaving that thread unwound sort of unsettled me; one of these was Bluebeard's First Wife itself where I couldn't understand a certain scene where a character attacks another. Joy to the World has an unreliable narrator who is probably being gaslit, so that's another that felt incomplete. Perhaps my favorites in terms of delivering on the tension and paranoia they promised were Night Poachin and On That Green, Green Grass which engage you fully in their narrative, and to some extent, so does Pinky Finger (although this one hits close to home as a woman reading about a regular fear) and Daisy Fleabane which is from the perspective of a drowned corpse. The rest were, well, just depressing more than paranoia-inducing.
Shortly, while a few stories hit the mark, and some didn't, the lack of a common thread or even theme in this collection didn't make for a wholly enjoyable reading experience.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Open Letter, via Edelweiss.
Warnings: child death, child abduction, domestic violence, homophobia, gun violence, dubious consent and drunken sex, mention of abortion, fatal accident, animal abuse
It's hard to pin down a connecting theme in this collection of short stories, but I guess the one thing they have in common is they are all unsettling, sometimes in a good way and at times, they are unsettling because they don't make sense. There are a couple of stories that are like rural Gothic sort of tales, while some are more along the lines of 'I don't know what kind of person my husband is'; in fact, weird and unnerving husbands is the theme of some of these stories. I was drawn to this book because of title itself - Bluebeard's First Wife - and thought some might be some sort of modern retellings; to be fair, that story does have themes of the story, but it takes a very different take on it which I am not sure I entirely like.
The most confusing was O Father because I feel it didn't fit alongside these other stories at all, and the only unsettling thing about it was its non-linear timeline that just confuses you till the end. Then there were the other stories where I felt some small mystery was hidden in them, and it doesn't have much to do with the resolution of the story, but leaving that thread unwound sort of unsettled me; one of these was Bluebeard's First Wife itself where I couldn't understand a certain scene where a character attacks another. Joy to the World has an unreliable narrator who is probably being gaslit, so that's another that felt incomplete. Perhaps my favorites in terms of delivering on the tension and paranoia they promised were Night Poachin and On That Green, Green Grass which engage you fully in their narrative, and to some extent, so does Pinky Finger (although this one hits close to home as a woman reading about a regular fear) and Daisy Fleabane which is from the perspective of a drowned corpse. The rest were, well, just depressing more than paranoia-inducing.
Shortly, while a few stories hit the mark, and some didn't, the lack of a common thread or even theme in this collection didn't make for a wholly enjoyable reading experience.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Open Letter, via Edelweiss.
March 7, 2024
"Back then, I had two fathers. One was my biological father, who, on a whim, quit his job at the company and lounged around all day, lying on his belly on the heated floor, while thumbing through slim Japanese magazines or books like Shintaro Ishihara's Season of the Sun. Then there was Father God, whose countless eyes roamed the earth, watching over his people's every move from heaven above.”
This short story collection reminded me of Shirley Jackson in that there was a similar thread of dread present in each tale, the use of economical but evocative language. I think my favorites were Joy To the World, A Star-Shaped Stain, and Daisy Fleabane. I’ve read a few Korean novels and I love the way horror is conveyed in their literature. Ha Seong-Nan deftly shows the minute horrors of being a woman in Korean society.
This short story collection reminded me of Shirley Jackson in that there was a similar thread of dread present in each tale, the use of economical but evocative language. I think my favorites were Joy To the World, A Star-Shaped Stain, and Daisy Fleabane. I’ve read a few Korean novels and I love the way horror is conveyed in their literature. Ha Seong-Nan deftly shows the minute horrors of being a woman in Korean society.
June 23, 2020
Originally published in 2002, this collection of short stories from Korean author Ha Seong-nan gets an English-language translation. The stories mostly deal with secrets, crimes and families, and almost all are have a female first-person narrative voice. As with a lot of collections, some stories work better than others, but the general theme of the macabre is enough to keep the reader dipping in and out.
An interesting collection worth checking out for fans of Korean literature.
An interesting collection worth checking out for fans of Korean literature.
August 23, 2020
Originally written in Korean, this collection of short stories invokes unease with common daily interactions and relationships taking a slow turn into weirdness inside richly-wrought backdrops of place and setting. The everyday 50’s vibe only adds to the disquiet. Not really gory, just excellently dread-full.
February 19, 2021
I didn’t like this nearly like I thought I would. Just not compelled.
October 13, 2022
One of the things that allowed me to enjoy this were the incredibly my low expectations. There was a real possibility I was going to end up disliking it just as much as I did the previous book by the author, Flowers of Mold.
Let me tell you, some of the stories in this collection were quite good. I specially liked the first one, The Star-Shaped Stain. Others were unbelievably boring. With nothing happening and without an interesting conclusion. Like O Father or Flies. There were a couple that started pretty well, but then either had a not so great ending or took a weird turn that I didn't like (Pinky Finger).
The reason I could never give this book a good rating it's because its supposed to be a horror collection in which the mayority of the stories were not scary, even the one that were good. A couple of them had some tension (Night Poaching), but its sparce.
I would have given this book three starts if it wasn't for the homophobia. Flowers of Mold had transphobia so Im not surprised. The second story, Bluebeard's First Wife, is a reimagining of that classic story. But instead murdering women and stuffing them in a closet, Bluebeard is a gay man that marries women in order to keep his sexuality a secret. The book treats those tow things as comparable and it's not a good look.
Let me tell you, some of the stories in this collection were quite good. I specially liked the first one, The Star-Shaped Stain. Others were unbelievably boring. With nothing happening and without an interesting conclusion. Like O Father or Flies. There were a couple that started pretty well, but then either had a not so great ending or took a weird turn that I didn't like (Pinky Finger).
The reason I could never give this book a good rating it's because its supposed to be a horror collection in which the mayority of the stories were not scary, even the one that were good. A couple of them had some tension (Night Poaching), but its sparce.
I would have given this book three starts if it wasn't for the homophobia. Flowers of Mold had transphobia so Im not surprised. The second story, Bluebeard's First Wife, is a reimagining of that classic story. But instead murdering women and stuffing them in a closet, Bluebeard is a gay man that marries women in order to keep his sexuality a secret. The book treats those tow things as comparable and it's not a good look.
Read
February 26, 2024as with any short story collection, i enjoyed some of these more than others, but overall i was struck by the atmosphere of anxiety that ran through each story— not quite horror, and not quite true fear, but an unsettling tension. a good break with the other translated books i've read recently in that the translation felt natural & consistent & aligned with the subject matter.
Read
May 16, 2025loveee ha seongnan!!! her short stories are incredible. this collection has some interesting ones, her first book flowers of mold has stories that are more sad, and grotesque. bluebeard's first wife is full of twists and turns, i enjoyed some of the stories here more.
March 11, 2022
Ha Seong-Nan’s Bluebeard’s First Wife: 11 Tales of Everyday Sorrow: selected as on of the top ten books of 2020 in Publishers Weekly, Ha Seong-nan’s “Bluebeard’s First Wife” is the second collection of stories from the South Korean Author to be translated to English. The previous collection, “Flowers of Mold“, set the stage for an author who dives into misery with unapologetic honesty. “Bluebeard’s First Wife” carries on the same motifs of the previous work, all the while cementing Seong-na a wonderfully, unique literary voice.
The eleven tales contained in this release offer brief moments that act as a profound turning moment in life, whether it be the loss of a partner who wanders off, an unplanned pregnancy after a night of partying, or the loss of a pet leading to a search that causes neglect of duties, all the stories take place over the course of a few, traumatic, days. What makes each of these stories resonate with the reader is the way that Seong-nan delivers her stories: told in frank language that is conveyed as if it is a personal account from the person who is struggling. consequently, the writing does not contain pithy language, and emotions are expressed very matter-of-factly.
It is the approach to her writing that makes these tales really resonate with the reader, the words almost coming across as a dark confession from a stranger. A prime example, in the phenomenal “On That Green Green Grass”, Seong-nan is able to completely break down the nuclear family trope after the kidnapping of a family pet puts a suburban family’s ideal existence into disarray through the matriarchs' personal account of events. This short, above all else, demonstrates the authors’ ability to lead the reader on an emotional journey as the chain of events evokes deep moments of empathy for how each family member copes from the perspective of the exhausted wife.
While doom and gloom is the modus operandi in the world of Seong-nan, that is not to say that the work is just pure indulgence in misery. The author can express a playful wit in entries such as “A Quiet Night”, which sees a failed carpenter slowly become mad by the neighbors upstairs–forming an odd relationship with a disgruntled family where their every movement becomes timed. However, the indulgence in fantastical elements offers the most engaging departure from the emotionally fueled work. The short “Pinky Finger”, manages to morph an unsettling cab ride into an absurdist tale of magic-induced vengeance.
However, the biggest highlight in the collection comes from the closing piece, “Daisy Fleabane”. The story is of a young girl reflecting on the past, but the reader is soon informed, through an inventive story device, that daisy has long since deceased with her body swirling below the river she would visit with her father on camping trips. It is a story that combines tragedy, horror, and experimental narratives in a brilliant and engaging fashion–an ideal conclusion to the collection that summarizes the wide skillet of Seong-nan as a writer.
Overall, the stories across “Bluebeard’s First Wife” demand a lot of emotional commitment from the reader. The themes explored capture both deep universal tragedies and personal turbulence that can come from a simple misunderstanding. The book will challenge you, but it is certainly worth the challenge.
This title is, perhaps, most comparable to the popular South Korean novel “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, containing the same flow of language and knack for hyper-focusing in on minute tragedies and broken personalities. if that work piqued your interest I would highly recommend checking out “Bluebeards First Wife”.
I reviewed this one for The Forgotten Fiction https://theforgottenfiction.com/
The eleven tales contained in this release offer brief moments that act as a profound turning moment in life, whether it be the loss of a partner who wanders off, an unplanned pregnancy after a night of partying, or the loss of a pet leading to a search that causes neglect of duties, all the stories take place over the course of a few, traumatic, days. What makes each of these stories resonate with the reader is the way that Seong-nan delivers her stories: told in frank language that is conveyed as if it is a personal account from the person who is struggling. consequently, the writing does not contain pithy language, and emotions are expressed very matter-of-factly.
It is the approach to her writing that makes these tales really resonate with the reader, the words almost coming across as a dark confession from a stranger. A prime example, in the phenomenal “On That Green Green Grass”, Seong-nan is able to completely break down the nuclear family trope after the kidnapping of a family pet puts a suburban family’s ideal existence into disarray through the matriarchs' personal account of events. This short, above all else, demonstrates the authors’ ability to lead the reader on an emotional journey as the chain of events evokes deep moments of empathy for how each family member copes from the perspective of the exhausted wife.
While doom and gloom is the modus operandi in the world of Seong-nan, that is not to say that the work is just pure indulgence in misery. The author can express a playful wit in entries such as “A Quiet Night”, which sees a failed carpenter slowly become mad by the neighbors upstairs–forming an odd relationship with a disgruntled family where their every movement becomes timed. However, the indulgence in fantastical elements offers the most engaging departure from the emotionally fueled work. The short “Pinky Finger”, manages to morph an unsettling cab ride into an absurdist tale of magic-induced vengeance.
However, the biggest highlight in the collection comes from the closing piece, “Daisy Fleabane”. The story is of a young girl reflecting on the past, but the reader is soon informed, through an inventive story device, that daisy has long since deceased with her body swirling below the river she would visit with her father on camping trips. It is a story that combines tragedy, horror, and experimental narratives in a brilliant and engaging fashion–an ideal conclusion to the collection that summarizes the wide skillet of Seong-nan as a writer.
Overall, the stories across “Bluebeard’s First Wife” demand a lot of emotional commitment from the reader. The themes explored capture both deep universal tragedies and personal turbulence that can come from a simple misunderstanding. The book will challenge you, but it is certainly worth the challenge.
This title is, perhaps, most comparable to the popular South Korean novel “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, containing the same flow of language and knack for hyper-focusing in on minute tragedies and broken personalities. if that work piqued your interest I would highly recommend checking out “Bluebeards First Wife”.
I reviewed this one for The Forgotten Fiction https://theforgottenfiction.com/
August 12, 2020
With short stories, you never know what the stories will be about before you start reading. But having read another short story collection by Ha Seong-nan, Flowers of Mold, I started reading with some expectations.
The first story in this collection, The Star-Shaped Stain, immediately sets the tone: sorrowful with modest hope. It’s impressive how you can get a sense of foreboding from the very first page of a story, but Ha Seong-nan manages it with nearly every story in Bluebeard’s First Wife. That shows good writing skills.
The stories in this collection are less indirect and spiritual and more mundane than those in Flowers of Mold. So you can imagine my surprise when I started Flies. I will forever believe there is more to this story, that there is this different story beneath the surface, just beyond my grasp. I would have loved to know more about the background of the police officer so that I could understand his reaction to the situation better. Whereas Flies kickstarted my imagination, Night Poaching, a story with a similar setting, turned out to be less interesting.
Most of the stories are about not knowing someone you live with and, as a result, growing apart. The main characters find out about a missing piece of information halfway or at the end of the story. That’s what all the stories have in common: the main characters, often the wives, learn something new that changes the way they see things, but seeing no solution, they just go with the flow. The reader can see a solution though, but that is usually when the stories end. You don’t really know what happens after, which is fine: you’re reading a snapshot of someone’s life.
You follow the daily struggles of ordinary people who find themselves in situations they don’t want to be in, hoping it isn’t true. Suspicions are everywhere. And in retrospect, the main characters realize things. And right when I thought no one was ever gonna act on anything, A Quiet Night happened. Together with Pinky Finger, it provided the much-needed action, or rather, activity. These two and Flies were my favorite stories in Bluebeard’s First Wife.
After reading two short story collections by Ha Seong-nan, I can without a doubt say that she writes very good stories. If you’re looking for stories that keep you on your toes, that make you question everything you read and wonder whether you grasp the ‘real’ story, then read Bluebeard’s First Wife or Flowers of Mold.
The first story in this collection, The Star-Shaped Stain, immediately sets the tone: sorrowful with modest hope. It’s impressive how you can get a sense of foreboding from the very first page of a story, but Ha Seong-nan manages it with nearly every story in Bluebeard’s First Wife. That shows good writing skills.
The stories in this collection are less indirect and spiritual and more mundane than those in Flowers of Mold. So you can imagine my surprise when I started Flies. I will forever believe there is more to this story, that there is this different story beneath the surface, just beyond my grasp. I would have loved to know more about the background of the police officer so that I could understand his reaction to the situation better. Whereas Flies kickstarted my imagination, Night Poaching, a story with a similar setting, turned out to be less interesting.
Most of the stories are about not knowing someone you live with and, as a result, growing apart. The main characters find out about a missing piece of information halfway or at the end of the story. That’s what all the stories have in common: the main characters, often the wives, learn something new that changes the way they see things, but seeing no solution, they just go with the flow. The reader can see a solution though, but that is usually when the stories end. You don’t really know what happens after, which is fine: you’re reading a snapshot of someone’s life.
You follow the daily struggles of ordinary people who find themselves in situations they don’t want to be in, hoping it isn’t true. Suspicions are everywhere. And in retrospect, the main characters realize things. And right when I thought no one was ever gonna act on anything, A Quiet Night happened. Together with Pinky Finger, it provided the much-needed action, or rather, activity. These two and Flies were my favorite stories in Bluebeard’s First Wife.
After reading two short story collections by Ha Seong-nan, I can without a doubt say that she writes very good stories. If you’re looking for stories that keep you on your toes, that make you question everything you read and wonder whether you grasp the ‘real’ story, then read Bluebeard’s First Wife or Flowers of Mold.
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