Because I’m broke, and because I feel that supporting your local library is very, very important in this age we’re living in, I’ve been going to the library a lot lately.
The last time I went, I brought my previous books to the return counter and wandered over to the new arrivals section. I usually just let my eyes go over all of the books, and whichever spines jump out at me are the books I’ll look at to see if I want to take them out. That’s how I discovered Joe Meno, and I love everything he writes, so I figure I can’t go wrong that way.
The spine of Tongue jumped out at me right away. Then I saw the author’s name, and I hesitated. Would Kyung Ran Jo’s book be a badly translated version of her original work? Since reading The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God, one of Etgar Keret’s short story collections, I’ve learned to appreciate foreign literature. Sure, some of his stories were translated a little awkwardly, but they were pretty damn good.
I turned Kyung Jo’s book over and read the description: a cook who, after a horrible breakup, loses her will to cook. She rediscovers her love for cooking when she goes back to the first restaurant she ever worked out, and then she works out a plan to get revenge on her ex through food.
I love food, and revenge via food sounded damn intriguing. Plus, I told myself that I should delve deeper into foreign literature. Reading stories and novels from around the world gives me a feeling of being in touch with those parts, and I feel that, as a writer, I can learn a lot from these authors.
I opened the book to the first page and read the table of contents. The book is laid out in seven parts: January, February, March, April, May, June, and July. I thought that was a really interesting way to divide the book (and I think I’m going to try that for my NaNoWriMo novel this year).
Two days passed before I started reading it. (I had to read the next Landover book first, but that’s another post.) This afternoon, I opened to the first page and read the first chapter.
I don’t know the main character’s name yet, but I do know that she loves cooking. She was very close to her now deceased grandmother, where it seems she learned her love of cooking from. She teaches a cooking class and the class in the first chapter is the last class, because she and her partner are no longer together. He broke her heart and now she doesn’t even want to teach the class she used to love so much. She has been spending less and less time in the kitchen, and she’s pretty depressed.
I can relate; I’ve been dumped before, and as a result of having my heart broken I became very depressed. I stopped doing things I loved for a while, and even neglected some responsibilities like the main character of Tongue seems to be doing.
Ran Jo wrote Tongue in the present-tense, first-person point of view. Her words are sweet and she describes things very vividly; I could easily envision myself standing in Grandmother’s kitchen and in the main character’s teaching kitchen. Ran Jo’s words were translated by Chi-Young Kim, who did a fantastic job.
I wish I could have read more, but I have to go get ready for tonight’s festivities: hanging out with my little cousin, aunt, uncle, and mom, then meeting up with a friend and her kids to go trick or treating! After that I may be going to a costume contest, so wish me luck!
Happy reading, and happy Halloween!