NOTE: The original article I refer to here has Pyun’s name incorrect and I have kept it that way when referring to the article. Thanks to the multiple readers who noted this.

Also included is a short introduction to Pyun by Jo Kyung-ran (translated by Heinz Fenkl) called Necessary or True Happenstances: An Introduction to the Work of Hye Young-Pyun.  About Pyun, Jo says:

Hye Young-Pyun’s  literary debut was in the 2000 Seoul Shinmun spring literary contest with the short story, “Shaking off the Dew.” The theme Pyun confronts repeatedly throughout her work is that of the contemporary urban condition characterized by the horror of daily repetition and sameness. She dramatizes the current irony of our lives, in which the civilized is savage and the savage civilized. But Pyun’s world is not as gloomy as the dark nighttime parks, garbage dumps, construction sites, or sewers that serve as the backdrops of her stories. She reveals to us the value of confronting the abyss. When you read her work there are profoundly uncomfortable moments, but, ultimately, after you close the book, you experience that “Ah” moment when something has been illuminated.  Pyun’s stories allow us to consider stepping forward to endure the depths.