Inho Ch'oe

Behind a facade of peace and tranquility they were deceiving him, they were preying on his frailties.

3.4 Stars

My first novel of 2015 was appropriate, one both disorienting and quotidian. Dalkey's Korean endeavor is an encouraging one. Another Man's City is a brilliantly weird snapshot of a world in flux, featuring K an out-of-joint protagonist -- one besieged by the numbing details of life, yet plagued by minutiae not entirely his own. Identities become blurred, K is convinced that cheap show more actors are portraying people in his life, his wife and child are imposters, several roles in his life are "being played" by the same bit stand-ins. I experienced something similar in Miami a few years ago. For a few seconds it was as if everyone in a cafe was an actor, contributing to some epic farce of my life.

K is emblematic of 21st Century Korea, one outpacing its traditions, one augmented by plastic surgery, haunted by regional tensions. There is a noir sensibility to this, sort of like Philip K. Dick (so I imagine) or Memento, even. show less