VOL.74/2024.09

One-Liner Quotes

BookTuber’s Pick:
A Book-to-Read During Summer Vacation

2021.08.02

Autopsies appear very often in today’s detective and thriller dramas. Yet, how would it have been hundreds of years ago? Would they have also conducted an autopsy to reveal innocent deaths? Indeed, in Korean history, there were “gumhum sanpas,” coroners who disclosed causes of death by examining dead bodies during the Joseon Dynasty. The book On a Moonlit Night, at Hansungbu is the story of Aran, a female gumhum sanpa.
One day at dawn, a fire breaks out at Mokmyeoksan mountain. This fire uncovered a cave hidden deep in the mountain, and six horribly murdered bodies are found lying inside. Aran finds out that they were all killed for different causes. Meanwhile, one of them was wearing particularly expensive silk clothes, who was found out to be Heo Chung, the only son of the minister of defense. Aran went to the minister to tell him about his son’s death, but he doesn’t seem to bother that much about his gone son.
Some days later, Aran hears a story about a puppet show popular in Hansungbu. As she watches the show, each of the puppets talks about why they were killed, hoping to resolve their grudges. One puppet with the voice of a middle-aged man says he was strangled, and another one with a young man’s voice moans that his Adam’s apple was cut. Aran realizes that they are talking about the bodies she examined in Mokmyeoksan mountain. Only the examiners have the knowledge of dead bodies’ causes of death. Then, who could the murderer be? The puppets say that they will reveal the killer next time.
Aran tenaciously digs into the truths behind the murders, and she faces the moments from her past where she lost her parents for unjust reasons. Aran is an impressive character who lives up to her destiny regardless of the fact that she is a woman and a daughter born of a concubine. And her efforts to put to rest the victimized souls continue amidst the situation where she is unable to punish the murderer after discovering the truths.
Summer vacation is the perfect time to read detective fiction. How about meeting Aran, a bold and courageous coroner, and feel the chill down your spine as she solves the case?

Books might be the most unbiased, open-minded media in popular culture. You can read about what the LGBTQIA has to say without reserve, and there are many cases where the unique stories of the minority are more loved than universal stories in society. Recently, I was particularly impressed by a couple of new-styled books about family and fell in love with them. They were Two Girls Live Together (Wisdom House) by Kim Hana and Hwang Sun-Woo, who are not a couple but roommates, and I Live With Two Partners (Little Mountain Publishing) by Hong Seung-Eun, a story about three people in a polyamorous relationship living together. And the book I would like to introduce today is Three of Us Live Together in a House We Built, where a couple and a friend live together under the same roof.
Hold on. Don’t misunderstand that the three are in a close relationship like polyamory. They are just roommates who built a house outside the urban area and run a bookstore. As friends, they had been thinking so hard about how to live a life they want at the book-reading meetings they had. As a result, they chose to live in nature in the suburban area near Seoul rather than in expensive apartments in the city. Yet, as beginners in society, they needed money. They had to get a loan as much as they could, and they also needed much time and patience. This book is a record about the alternative life they chose and a realistic guide for those who dream of building a house of their own.
It’s been only a generation or two, and now there are more single-households or families without children, dismantling the traditional family structure. This led to new types of households that are not bound to kinship or marital relationships. There could be communities where they have fewer responsibilities and duties as a traditional family but have more fun and happiness in the future.
Why not add a book that might break your stereotype to your book-to-read list during summer vacation? Perhaps it might be able to expand your mind.

Written by Lee Ga-Hee (Owner of Youtube channel “Chaekilkjjira (Reading Jiaxi)”, Head of NEWDHOT)