The Descendants of Cain is one of the great stories of the society-shredding arrival of communism to North Korea and it is strongly informed by author Hwang Sun-won’s personal experiences at that time and in that situation. Hwang was a landlord’s son during the time of post-war social turmoil and his family was forced to…
For those of you who have missed my voice! Discussing Hwang Sun-won’s Sonagi, Trees on a Slope, The Moving Castle, and Descendants of Cain, among other things. One of my favorite Korean writers for his breadth of topics, clear and symbolic writing style, and really well-thought out and realistic characters https://www.ktlit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HwangSunWon.mp3 for iPhone and…
Hwang Sun-won’s The Moving Castle is a brilliant work, which aspires to achieve much, and achieves it. The Moving Castle is literary fiction in the best sense of the phrase. It is Dickensian in scale, attempting to describe an entire society and its interactions, even, with the larger world, and at the same time populating…