Seong-nan Ha

I've felt for a while now that some of the most interesting contemporary short fiction can be found in Korean literature, and this collection certainly demonstrates the point. Ha Seong-Nan's collection, Bluebeard's First Wife takes fairy tale canon and subverts it: ghosts walk in and out of the frame, the dangers are both, magical and very real, and she walks the line between horror and morality play very deftly. The collection opens with 'The Star-Shaped Stain' - a group of parents show more travelling to a memorial for their primary school children, who were killed in a fire during a school trip. Encountering a local drunk cafe owner who insists that he saw one child walking in the vicinity after the incident, the narrator, a mother, becomes obsessed with the idea that it could have been her own daughter: a child so entirely normal and ordinary that she's difficult to pick out from class photos, distinguished only by a chocolate stain on her uniform. It's a very difficult but powerfully told story, never falling into maudlin sentimentality but packing in grief with the force of a punch. 'O Father' tells of similar themes, but narrated by a daughter, wavering between her faith in a divine father, and her very mortal one, whose secrets she learns, to her detriment.

The titular story, 'Bluebeard's First Wife,' and two others, 'Joy to the World' and 'The Dress Shirt' delve into marital relationships. In Bluebeard's First Wife, a woman rushes into a marriage and moves abroad: despite being warned never to go into her husband's office, she does - and much like Perrault's bride, she suffers for it. Her Bluebeard holds the purse strings, won't let her get a job, refuses her autonomy, and eventually permits her a degree of freedom if only to keep her out of his affairs: a modern account of a very old story. 'Joy to the World' carries on this theme: a woman discovers her fiancee's group of friends, tightly-knit, like a pack of wolves, were apparently unaware he was married at all, and explores the implications of the discovery, and 'The Dress Shirt' inverts this, exploring how an husband's negligent absence haunts his wife's existence.

Of these stories, the ones that cross the line more closely with fairy tales are 'Night Poaching' and 'On That Green, Green Grass'. In 'Night Poaching' a city cop investigating a rural murder is warned never to go into the woods: a warning he naturally ignores as he investigates the town's secrets. 'On the Green Green Grass' deals with a child who is nearly a changeling: unlike his perfect, preppy parents, he is content to sit quietly, alone, in a way that they find increasingly out of sync with their idea of a perfect home. Like in all her stories, the horrors that lurk around the borders are very real: accidents, neglect, intimate violence, and so more terrifying that the ghosts and monsters of fairy tales. Recommended. show less

‘’Teacher, I want to fly, but the ground keeps pulling me down.’’

Korean Literature is rapidly flourishing thanks to a plethora of wonderful women whose work is finally presented to us through excellent translations. They are unique in connecting the daily reality to a hazy world that lies beneath the surface, resulting in an almost hallucinatory marriage that presents all the right challenges for the readers. Flowers of Mold captivates with its title and binds us to an array of show more stories that will hypnotize and confuse us in the finest manner possible. For what is a perfect read if not challenging?

Through daily situations, the working environment, the family, the educational process, characters of all ages, women and men discover that darkness is lurking. We, the readers, are faced with an almost overwhelming uncertainty developed within the heavy atmosphere of the ten stories. What could go wrong with a girl who wants to fly, a salesman who falls in love, a new neighbour who is as kind as can be? What could be of interest in the lives of ordinary people with ordinary jobs in ordinary situations?

In the ten stories that unite the surreal with the unsettling, the ordinary with the shock, the answer to these questions is one: everything!

Waxen Wings: A girl desires to fly and tries just about everything. Gymnastics, hang gliding, her life is full of orders and personal struggle. An extremely powerful story of the strength of the human spirit and the misfortunes that define our lives.

Nightmare: A young woman is put into grave danger by the filthy so-called ‘’workers’’ hired by her father. Plagued by nightmares that veer between reality and hallucinations, she decides to take matters into her own hands and face the beasts.

The Retreat: A story of family obligations, ageing and drinking.

‘’According to him, my head’s stuck in the clouds. That’s why I’m always floating around in space, never touching solid ground.’’

The Woman Next Door: One more heinous husband who looks down on his wife. A ‘’man’’ who believes that any unmarried woman over twenty is a whore. One more woman who desperately needs to escape the mundane reality of a psychologically abusive marriage. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I’d rather die than find myself married in Korea or Japan or any other country in South-East Asia, excuse me.

‘’The power went out late last night, at ten past midnight. While people were still sleeping, the electrical appliances stopped working. The children who woke were cranky; they missed the hum of the refrigerator and the whir of the fan, sounds as comforting to them as a lullaby. Housewives who opened the refrigerator to prepare breakfast found blood dripping from the frozen pork they’d left to thaw, the meat turned a dark red.’’

Flag: The strange findings on an electric pole lead back to a young man’s dreams and disappointments.

Flowers of Mold: Is it possible to find beauty in the dirt? Is it possible for flowers to grow from rubbish?

Early Beans: This story of the fuss and mess between a man and a woman made absolutely no sense to me. I failed to see how this connected to the rest of the collection, it seemed the product of a different writer.

Onion: Possibly the darkest, strangest and most fascinating story in the collection. A tale where a woman who works in a daycare centre and a man who owns a restaurant try to make sense of the lot life threw in their way. Brilliant, mind-bending, disturbing.

‘’Not just anyone can become a magician’s assistant. It only works between a father and daughter, brother and sister, or husband and wife. Or lovers.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less

Overall, I liked the stories. “Nightmare” is especially interesting; I can’t get it out of my head and I’ve re-read it three times now trying to uncover whether the girl was raped, or if the whole series of events were just in her head (like her parents suggest). I also enjoyed “The Retreat,” where tenants of a building and their landlord grow mistrustful of each other, to potentially murderous ends.

But I too was lured in by the reviews that suggested the book had dark motives show more and disturbing themes. While some of the stories left me unsettled (like the two I mentioned above), for the most part I didn’t feel like anything was particularly outlandish. show less

This collection of short stories share a tone. Each story is stark, surprising, and to some extent, despairing. Characters surprise one another with dark thoughts and yearnings. Contemplation of death is a frequent frame of mind. The writing is succinct and engaging. Each story hooked me in quickly so that I felt unable to look away from the dark, often bizarre, actions taken by characters. It was a fascinating and somewhat disturbing collection.