Jiyoung’s earlier memories of gender disparity go back to when she’s six years old with an older sister and a baby brother. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel, Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang (trans) (Scribner, February 2020 Liveright, April 2020) But the reasons behind her “strange” behavior run much deeper. It’s true that Jiyoung is no longer around any adults during the day, as Daehyun works late hours. When she starts mimicking other women, such as her mother and a university friend who passed away during childbirth, her husband Daehyun worries she’s suffering from post-partum depression. Before giving birth and deciding to stay home with her baby, Jiyoung worked at a marketing firm. Kim Jiyoung is a thirty-three year old wife and mother of a young daughter. Now available in an English translation by Jamie Chang, English-language readers get a chance to understand this divide firsthand. Last year, the film version again caused controversy between those who want South Korean sexism to change and those who think the status quo is just fine. Applauded by many women, those who do not support feminism have spoken out against it. When Cho Nam-Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published in South Korea several years ago, it took the country by storm, selling more than a million copies and becoming the most popular book in over a decade.
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