VOL.69/2024.04

 

Writer Lim Kyoung-Sun

A Figure of Diligence who Shifts Between Emotion and Reason

 

2023.08.07

 

Writing for 19 years and publishing 20 books, Lim Kyoung-Sun is a sincere and genuine writer. She has recently published Living as Myself (Maumsanchaek). She spent her childhood in several countries, and she used to be an office worker for 12 years before she decided to become a full-time writer. Writer Lim has been writing candidly about work, love, human relationships, and attitudes toward life based on her experience. While she releases novels and essays alternately and interacts with her readers in a sometimes emotional and sometimes rational manner, following is an interview about her story of being a writer who never stops writing new works, just like her daily running routine that has been kept for 4 years.

 

 

It’s an honor to have you with us on K-Book Trends. Please introduce yourself to our readers.

 

Hello, everyone. I’m a Korean writer of novels and essays. As I spent my childhood in a number of countries around the world, I feel nostalgic about introducing myself in English.

 

You recently released a book. What kind of book is it?

 

The book Living as Myself is a deeply reflective essay about staying centered as you age, sustainable writing and being a writer, and the choices you make to create a life that is your own. I felt that all three of these topics were essential to maintaining your unique color in the rapidly changing environment.

 

 

The photo of you wearing sneakers in the introductory image catches our eyes. You seem to enjoy running. So, what does running mean to you?

 

I began running outside at night to feel freedom when the pandemic hit. Running became a daily routine for me over the past 4 years. I think I realized why many writers, including Haruki Murakami, run as a hobby. Running is the most effective cardio exercise to facilitate your brain. Not only that, for me, it’s a time when I can be completely alone and quiet with my music and be as emotional as I want to be, which keeps me mindful. Running gives me the sense of being completely alone, free, and alive.

 

 

I have been constantly writing and releasing books as a writer.

 

 

You have been writing for 19 years now, and you have published more than 20 books. That’s more than one book a year. What was the driver behind such diligence?

 

I worked for a large company for 12 years before I became a full-time writer in 2005. I’d gotten used to working at a set time every day, and I felt like I had to be as committed to my writing as I was to my job. I didn’t write as a hobby but for a living. And I had to keep writing and publishing to make ends meet.

 

Your essay On Attitude (Hankyoreh Publishing Company), published in 2015, is a steady-seller that sold over 180 thousand copies and is picked as your representative book. You have released its revised edition as well as a special edition. So, is there any change in your “attitude” from when you first published to now?

 

In the book On Attitude, I talked about the five attitudes that I regard as the most important in life: spontaneity, generosity, honesty, diligence, and fairness. Nothing has changed in the basic idea that those five attitudes are the main pillars of life, and that together they ultimately lead to the pursuit of “freedom.” I’m a very consistent person. But yet, the book’s revised edition contains more stories about how “fairness” changes in my family and how I felt about life as I watched my father pass away.

 

 

While you have mainly written essays, you have released six novels as well. While essays and novels are categorized under the larger genre of literature, you must have different mindsets when writing them. What are the commonalities and differences in your mindset when writing an essay and a novel?

 

Writing a novel and writing an essay seems to use different muscles, like using your left and right brain. I feel like I get more emotional and honest when I write a novel, and more rational when I write an essay. My essays vary in tone from the emotional to the rational, but my novels tend to be more emotionally vulnerable as they deal with love and deep relationships between people, and I find happiness in talking about such sad and beautiful complexities of humanity.

 

Your book When I Fall in Love with Mom (Maumsanchaek) underwent a makeover through the re-cover project “Again, This Book” at the 2023 Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) held in June. The readers must have felt refreshed by the book’s new cover, but you must have felt something different as well. How did you feel about the new cover?

 

Well, above all, I can’t believe that 11 years have passed since 2012, when the book was first published. I’m thankful for the love that the readers gave the book, too. Unlike the original book cover that featured a photo of me and my child, the new cover has plants growing, reaching out energetically. And that gives off a fresh, healthy vibe. Besides, we are all growing up, reaching out somewhere.

 

 

You gave a lecture at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, in May. You spoke in Japanese, too. What inspired you to give a lecture in Japan, and what was it like to be meeting readers in another country?

 

Being the first Korean to give a talk at the “Haruki Murakami Library” - which is like his sanctuary to me as he is my literary mentor - was a great honor and an inspiring event for me. When I could finally set foot in Japan after the end of the pandemic, I thought of going to the place first, but unfortunately, the library was closed due to the college entrance exam. But as I talked to the staff member at the library about it, she (a Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo, majoring in the literature of Haruki Murakami) told me that she read a translated book of mine, and gave me permission to enter the library. She even suggested that I give a lecture there. So, on May 19, the day of my lecture, so many readers came to the hall at the Haruki Murakami Library, thankfully, and I was so happy to see Mr. Terajima there, who was the editor in charge of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls.

 

 

I become more emotional when I write a novel,
and more rational when I write an essay.

 

 

We heard that you spent your childhood in a number of countries, such as Japan, the US, Portugal, and Brazil. It must have affected your writing. Is there a book of yours that international readers might relate to?

 

I recommend reading Hotel Graf and Five Short Stories (Toast), my latest novel. With the event taking place in a classic hotel that is about to shut down, the book is a short-story collection featuring the story of the guests and the staff members. The issue of how to deal with parting with familiar beings and the changes it brings, is a universal topic that we all face in this era, regardless of our nationality. I also recommend reading At Lisbon (Media Changbi), an essay about my trip to Lisbon in honor of my father, who passed away in 2018. I lived in Lisbon for a year with my father when I was 10 years old, and the trip to Lisbon to honor him was with my daughter, who was 10 years old, just like myself and my father back in the day. So, the book is a story about loss and regeneration, and talks about the love and pain that family gives.

 

 

We look forward to your next works as you are a writer that never stops going forward, traveling across the boundary of fiction and non-fiction with various topics. What are your future plans or goals?

 

As I published an essay recently, I think it’s time to write a novel. I write fiction and essays alternately, and I’m currently working on a full-length novel that delves deeply into the nature of love and life. I’m sure that we all have been in a crazy, toxic love affair at one point or another!

 

 

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