Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-yongMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I really don't know what to think about this book.
I appreciate the idea very much, but in a way I feel like it was too much to tackle with one normal-sized novel. Had it been an epic, like The Odyssey, or Journey to the West, I think it might have worked better. Although maybe that's just in my head.
As it was, some scenes just seemed random, or forced. Like the fire on the mountain, or some of the dream sequences. I got the impression they were inserted just to conform to the Princess Bari myth.
This book had the depressing parts that any book about exodus from North Korea will have, but they did not seem gratuitous.
However, the story arc with Xiang was probably what bothered me the most (Spoilers ahead!!). I mean, once Bari gains some comfort in life, she doesn't think to check on the one person who made it all possible (and lost her husband and got raped in the process). Instead, this friend shows up years later, a prostitute hooked on drugs, by her own admittance. And right away Bari thinks it's a good idea to leave her alone with her infant while she does laundry and grocery shopping?? I'm actually surprised child services didn't report her once the hospital found out about it (the book doesn't specify how much she tells the doctors about the accident).
Anyway, maybe I'm being too "realistic" there. In my old age I guess that happens.
I enjoyed other books by Hwan Sok-yong much more (see At Dusk and Familiar Things, both also translated by Sora Kim-Russell).
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