Description
Set in 1980s South Korea amid the tremors of political revolution, I'll Be Right There follows Jung Yoon, a highly literate, twenty-something woman, as she recounts her tragic personal history as well as those of her three intimate college friends. When Yoon receives a distressing phone call from her ex-boyfriend after eight years of separation, memories of a tumultuous youth begin to resurface, forcing her to re-live the most intense period of her life. With profound intellectual and emotional insight, she revisits the death of her beloved mother, the strong bond with her now-dying former college professor, the excitement of her first love, and the friendships forged out of a shared sense of isolation and grief.
Yoon's formative experiences, which highlight both the fragility and force of personal connection in an era of absolute uncertainty, become immediately palpable. Shin makes the foreign and esoteric utterly familiar: Her use of European literature as an interpreter of emotion and experience bridges any gaps between East and West. Love, friendship, and solitude are the same everywhere, as this book makes poignantly clear.
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I wish I could have liked this book more. I'll Be Right There is truly a poignant book. Let's say 3/4 of the book revolves around the misery of each character's life. I love how the book is set in 1980s; the situation in South Korea at that time reminded me of my own country. Besides, the premise and atmospheric narrations are the only things that hooked me.However, I felt like ... lost my empathy? I lost my excitement due to the abundance of over-dramatic scenes/dialogues and unnecessary long-winded descriptions (is it realistic for someone to keep talking with overly detail like that?). Also, each character stands out only because of their pain. Yes, I feel sorry for them, but sadly I only could see them as 'poor fictional characters' instead of 'humans'. Not to mention that I didn't like how this book kept jumping here and there. For some chapters, I felt like the writer 'forgot' about the existence of other characters or plot aspects that could've made this book a complete unity. So ... yeah, let's end this review with a conclusion that I quoted from author's note—because I was already too tired to think: I'll Be Right There is a story of young people living in tragic times. It is also the story of people who find themselves separated, despite their love for each other, because they carry wounds that are too deep to overcome, and who struggle to come back together.Even though, I didn't shed a single of tear, this book is too depressing to be fictional. I'll give an extra star for that.