Your Utopia: Korean Short Stories Book Recommendation

Posted On February 18, 2024

Hi Readers! I recently read Bora Chung’s second book Your Utopia. I was absolutely fascinated by her first book Cursed Bunny. And this time as well the translator is Anton Hur. So, reading this duo’s work again was very anticipated.

~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

By the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from the Korean by Anton Hur, Your Utopia is full of tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality. These stories are suffused with Chung’s inimitable wry humour and surprisingly tender moments, too — often between unexpected subjects.

In ‘The Center for Immortality Research’, a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors, only to be blamed for a crime she witnessed during the event, under the noses of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. But she can’t be fired — no one can. In ‘One More Kiss, Dear’, a tender, one-sided love blooms in the AI-elevator of an apartment complex; as in, the elevator develops a profound affection for one of the residents. In ‘Seeds’, we see the final frontier of capitalism’s destruction of the planet and the GMO companies who rule the agricultural industry in this bleak future, but nature has ways of creeping back to life.

If you haven’t yet experienced the fruits of this singular imagination, Your Utopia is waiting.

~~THOUGHTS~~

I read Cursed Bunny a few years ago but it still hasn’t left my mind. On random morning walks or while sipping my afternoon tea or while drifting to sleep at night, I start to think about how great Cursed Bunny was and how I haven’t read anything like it since. It was a different kind of genius, so I was pleasantly surprised when another random day I was thinking about it and the same day I found out that the duo’s new book is out! So, of course I read Your Utopia immediately.

This book is a collection of eight short stories, each story thrilling, unpredictable and stunning in its own unique way. The Center for Immortality Research (4/5) is fun and quirky. With utmost subtlety, it talks about how a job feels the same no matter what kind of job it is. The End of the Voyage (5/5) is a wild adventure set in outer space. It’s probably the longest story but you will want it to be longer. A Very Ordinary Marriage (4/5) is definitely an unordinary story. I felt that it reflected on the many ordinary marriages around the world which seem ordinary to others but are extraordinary to the people in them. Maria, Gratia Plena (4/5) was a remarkable story. It took a while to get into it because the narration was a bit tricky. But when you get the hang of it, it’s truly rewarding. Your Utopia (5/5) was correctly named as the title of the book. I loved it! It is a mix of a lot of things. But, my key takeaway was how the robot behaved humanly but in the most robotic way possible. It also made me realize that we are like trees because we have roots but we are also like birds because we have the freedom to fly. A Song for Sleep (5/5) was perhaps my favorite story of the lot. I think the writing flawlessly captures the element on how AI will lack something crucial no matter how perfect its database is and how smart the technology. Seed (5/5) brilliantly captures the autocracy of big corporations and their ways of destroying the planet in a necessarily blatant manner. To Meet Her (4/5) was again a wild story to read and just the perfect one to end the collection with. It is followed by the author’s support towards Anti-Discrimination Act and Serious Accidents Penalty Bill.
 

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

To review a book like this is hard, because you want other to read the book but you also don’t want to give anything away. I tried my best with two sentences for each of the story, but here’s why you should read it. Your Utopia captures several themes at once, but at its heart, it is about the humanity in humans. We always want to survive and we have always survived. Whether it is monotonous jobs which we don’t love or the fear of AI taking over our monotonous jobs which we don’t love or global pandemics or rising temperatures or failing ecosystems or rising inflation or untreatable diseases or unexplainable intrusive thoughts of our own creation. We have survived, and life has always found a way. Yet after reading this book, you will be forced to wonder when will we stop surviving and really start living. When will we reach a place of ideal perfection for our humanity? I have rated Your Utopia by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur at 4/5 stars!

Until next time,