Korean Literature discussion

Hello! It's almost June and we are reading My Brilliant Life by Ae-ran Kim. I am looking forward to our discussion this month!

I started this yesterday. Despite the subject matter, so far it's a heartwarming story more about the parents than about the child and his illness.

"Only three stars? A teenager is dying of old age here! Can't you give it a little more!?"

In a novel where you know the ending before you even get to page one, it's hard to maintain dramatic tension along the way. My Brilliant Life is alternatingly heartwarming, plucky, and sad, but I don't think it comes together into a unified whole. Each section has its own story to tell, and while there should be more bleed-over they stand oddly isolated from each other.

Perhaps others will see this as a kind of slice-of-life. I'm no stranger to liking slice-of-life. But this one didn't work for me that way.

I ended up at 3 stars as well.

And given we know the ending - who by and when is this story being told?

This though is one where I only read it because it is translated from Korean. The same book by a UK/US author wouldn't be close to my reading list. So hard to judge it.

I read the book last week and I have mixed feelings. Not sure if the plot is meant to actually evoke intense emotions or as a kind of camp/pulp narrative structured like a family drama. Given that I only read the translation, the original could go either way.

Like Paul, I only read it because it was from Korea and made it to an English translation. I wonder if there are things to be learned from it, despite my personal impressions, for example, about what kind of books are popular in South Korea and why.

MBL seems to follow a similar logic to "Please Look After Mom". Are they vehicles for some kind of religious lobbying or preaching? And why are they so emotionally naive? Even among Christian authors, there have been complex narratives - like Shūsaku Endō's books in Japan. What is the role of books like MBL on the Korean book market? Does anyone know?

I didn't manage to finish the book, I completely disliked how it was written.
I'm not sure if the translation is at fault - I read the German translation, as that was the cheaper option to get as a used book.

as others have said, I also wouldn't have read this book had it not been originally written in Korean.
I will read most of the available translations from Korean really since there isn't that much choice (compared to other languages), but with this one I just couldn't.
if I can get my hands on the English translation cheaply at some point, I might give it another try though.