This was horrible. It was one of those artsy books with no plot, and all the characters did was have sex and kill themselves. If that's what South Korea considers literature, I'll pass. (

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meggyweg | Mar 6, 2009 |

a very dark read, and fairly confusing to boot. (

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melancholycat | Feb 26, 2009 |

This was a short sparsely written book. The narrator finds people who seem to have an inclination towards suicide and helps them accomplish the task. I kept wondering if this person was an assistant to the Grim Reaper himself. The story was told around the lives of brothers C and K. They meet strange, hopeless, attractive young women who eventually kill themselves. Sex is compulsive and void of any real passion.

It was an easy read and very compelling. Discussions of art and the business of capturing images - do we do this out of fear of the blank canvas, or to hide behind. All in all, not very uplifting stuff. (

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MichelleRose | Feb 26, 2009 |

This novella is a deftly written foray into a person's decision to end their life... and an "assistant" who assists with that decision. I thought the author did an impressive job of examining the differing perspectives of people whose lives are all, in some way, intertwined. He managed to both set apart the differences of the characters into separate tales, and then knead their similarities back again into a single story. I've had limited exposure to Korean literature, but if this is a fair representation, I can't wait to read more! (

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avanders | Feb 10, 2008 |

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

University of Rochester Best Translated Book of 2007 longlist

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

I'm looking at Jacques-Louis David's 1793 oil painting, The Death of Marat, printed in an art book.

Quotations

But they can't fool me; I catch the glimmer of possibility in their empty words, I unearth clues from the types of music they prefer, the family histories they sometimes reveal, the books that hit a nerve, the artists they love. People unconsciously want to reveal their inner urges. They are waiting for someone like me.

Judith likes Chupa Chups lollipops. When she isn't smoking she constantly sucks on them. She doesn't take the thing out of her mouth, even during sex. Every time, C is scared that the stick will poke his eye out. Actually, one did stab his left eye once. He worried he might go blind, and he was afraid to have sex with her for a few days.

Sometimes fiction is more easily understood that true events. Reality is often pathetic. I learned at a very young age that it was easier to make up stories to make a point. I enjoy creating stories. The world is filled with fiction anyway.

I thought of the movie Mannequin. It was about a man who loved a plastic model who turned into a person. Are humans that much better than mannequins? Why do cartoon monsters and cyborgs want so badly to become human?

He cherished the time he spent waiting for someone to show up. During that time, he wasn't obligated to do anything. He could read a book or people watch. This was the only time he didn't suffer from a sense of debt to himself. He was free from the compulsion to be productive.

Last words

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Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

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Wikipedia in English

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▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0156030802, Paperback)

In the fast-paced, high-urban landscape of Seoul, C and K are brothers who have fallen in love with the same woman—Se-yeon—who tears at both of them as they all try desperately to find real connection in an atomized world. A spectral, nameless narrator haunts the edges of their lives as he tells of his work helping the lost and hurting find escape through suicide. Dreamlike and beautiful, the South Korea brought forth in this novel is cinematic in its urgency and its reflection of contemporary life everywhere—far beyond the boundaries of the Korean peninsula. Recalling the emotional tension of Milan Kundera and the existential anguish of Bret Easton Ellis, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself achieves its author’s greatest wish—to show Korean literature as part of an international tradition. Young-ha Kim is a young master, the leading literary voice of his generation.

(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:08:27 -0500)

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