KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 BY CHO NAM-JOO AND TRANSLATED BY JAMIE CHANG

Blurb: A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

The best way to describe the story is to say that for years women have been subconsciously screaming into a void that may have gotten slightly smaller over time but has shown no real signs of closing anytime soon. Kim Jiyoung is a 34-year-old woman who lives in Seoul with her husband and daughter. She leaves her full-time desk job to take care of her newborn daughter, but with time she starts exhibiting symptoms that alarm her husband. Her symptoms keep her in psychosis as she starts impersonating the women, both alive and dead, she has known during her life. Born in 1982, Jiyoung soon becomes the unwanted middle child of her family. With one elder sister and a younger brother, she slowly becomes familiar with the harsh reality of patriarchy. Her mother, Oh Misook grew up in a family with one sister and three brothers. Both sisters worked hard in the factory to support their brothers so that they could get a chance to receive a good education and pursue a desirable career. Jiyoung's paternal grandmother bore four sons, with Jiyoung's father being the third child. She worked hard in the field to raise her sons, but once they became independent, then three of her sons abandoned her. But she continues to uphold a patriarchal mindset despite being its victim. Her daughter-in-law is the one who fulfills the responsibilities of a primary caregiver, yet the grandmother only appreciates her son for taking care of her. During her childhood Jiyoung normalizes partiality as she notices her youngest brother receiving the most favourable treatment at home, a child who is always treated like royalty with fresh servings of meals without lifting his finger in the house, while his mother and sisters always get the leftovers despite working hard every day. The preferential treatment plants seeds of indignation in her mind that stay with her during her teens and adult life as she experiences the ups and downs of life in a patriarchal yet evolving Korean society.

As a teenager, she is bullied by her deskmate and harassed by a classmate in cram school. In both cases she is the one who's reprimanded for not behaving properly. She was not friendly enough with her deskmate as per her teacher, but 'she smiled too much' and wore a short skirt in cram school to provoke the harasser. As a university student, she struggled to find jobs, but when she did, she was expected to undertake more extra work by preparing coffee and clearing tables, something only the new female employees had to do. Being forced to drink at uncomfortable team dinners, watching her male colleagues being promoted, and finding out about hidden cameras in the ladies room exacerbated her silent frustration towards an unfair system. As a married woman and new mother, she chose to leave her marketing job to become a full-time caregiver, yet she struggled to drink a cup of coffee in peace as working men in their sharp suits judged her for being lazy and spending her husband's money. Jiyoung's highlights the paradox of being a modern woman. On one hand, she tries to be a selfless daughter, sister, wife and mother by working hard to care for her family, but at the same time, she tries to stay true to feminist ideals by not reaping all the benefits of maternity leave.

The novel doesn’t try to tell a groundbreaking story with the protagonist making a breakthrough, as it’s just a recollection of Kim Jiyoung’s life events as they are being slowly unraveled in front of her therapist. But if one reads it in 2025, a world where both patriarchy and the fourth wave of feminism exist in the same world, then it can be seen as a poignant reminder of unbalanced scales in feminist discourse about working mothers. This novel stands out in particular as it justifies its narrative choices by providing statistical evidence. The evidence remains integral to the narrative as Jiyoung grows up during a time when Korea was transforming from an agricultural to an industrial economy and family planning government policies were gaining traction. Such measures damaged the male-to-female sex ratio as families had started aborting girls. The 21st century brought some feminist reforms in Korea, highlighting that Jiyoung got to live a more privileged life than her mother, as she got to complete her education and pursue a career of her interest, yet the society's perception of women did not change. The novel is a mirror of society, as Jiyoung's struggles, inspired by the author Cho Nam-Jo's experiences as a mother, backed by statistical evidence, depict the plight of the majority female population in Korea.

The last few lines of the novel really stand out for me, as it acknowledges that the male therapist who's treating Jiyoun understands the plight of working mothers to a certain degree, yet he fails to decipher the complexity of their dilemmas. He is sympathetic and understanding enough to acknowledge their struggles but fails to become a beacon of change. He does not understand why his wife enjoys working on childish math books after leaving her job to become a full-time caregiver for her son and decides not to hire a married woman to work as a counselor, as the current one chooses to leave to focus on a delicate pregnancy after years of miscarriages. I'm sure that the poignant nature of the ending will stay with me for a very long time, as it realistically hits close to home.

I'd recommend this novel to someone who wants to read a short novel set in South Korea, believes in the fourth wave of feminism (advocates for protection against sexual harassment and focuses on intersectionality), and wants relatable stories with relevant facts; then this is the ideal book for you.

Poignant, heartbreaking and grounded, I would like to give this novel a rating of 5 out of 5.