She makes her team coffee, remembers each member’s preferences, orders their takeaways, clears their dishes, and is passed over when it is time for promotions. Jiyoung is told her brother needs a room of his own, while she and her sister can share theirs. We all know women have to play the hand they are dealt. It does not matter whether one is a wife, mother, sister, or employee. Each chapter of her memory feels sharply familiar. Jiyoung lives as a daughter, sister, student, friend, girlfriend, employee, wife, and mother. It is easy as women have similar experiences universally and difficult because the familiarity is too painful. It is both easy and difficult to relate the story of Jiyoung, the protagonist of Cho Nam Joo’s 2016 novel Kim Ji Young, Born 1982, which was translated into English in 2018, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most important works from South Korea. The mother chided Jiyoung for crying and complaining over a classmate ‘just messing around because he wanted to play.’ But there was nothing she could do about it besides running and crying to her mother and sister Eunyoung. The pranks felt more like harassment or violence. Kim Jiyoung’s first obstacle at school was the ‘pranks of the boy desk-mate’, which many schoolgirls experienced. Each chapter of protagonist Kim Ji-young’s memory Kim Ji Young, Born 1982, feels sharply familiar Kim Ji Young, Born 1982 is widely acknowledged as one of the most important works from South Korea.

Kim born in 1982