A review in the Korea Herald (by Clare Lee) of Chae Man-sik’s truly excellent My Innocent Uncle, which I just talked about briefly in my first article about humor in translated Korean Literature. Interestingly, it seems to hint at Chae having been a bit of a collaborator, which is something of which I was unaware.

Found on the web

Also, a review by Mark Schrieber in the Japan Times online of two Korea works . One is the excellent Your Republic is Calling You and the other is Into the Light a compilation in English of 10 novellas, short stories and free verse by members of Japan’s Korean minority.

About Republic, Schreiber says:

Young-ha Kim concocts a mixture of wickedly black humor that clashes head-on with North Korea’s dogmatic “Juche” (spirit of self reliance) state ideology, and the result is a rollicking read from cover to cover.

Finally, the Chosun-ilbo reports that Korean actor Bae Yong-joon’s book “A Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty” has been nominated as one of the best literary works of 2010 by China News, one of the largest newspapers in China. Not exactly fiction, but the wave keeps rolling.^^

MY INNOCENT UNCLE, by Cha Man-sik. Jimoondang Books, 2003, 118pp., $7.00 (paper)
YOUR REPUBLIC IS CALLING YOU, by Young-ha Kim. Mariner Books, 2010, 326 pp., $14.95 (paper)
INTO THE LIGHT: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan, by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawaii Press, 2011, 226 pp., $22 (paper)
A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF KOREA’S BEAUTY, by Bae Yong Joon. Hollym, 2010, 432 pp., $37.29 (paper)