문학과 지성사

Some days, we just want to flip ourselves to show what’s hidden on the other side.

Lim Sol-A’s first essay collection, Back to Side B, recites the author’s lived experiences as a literary polymath who has alternated freely between poetry and prose. Published quite a long time after her debut, this collection attests to the author’s patient, careful, and gradual writing process. Lim, who said in an interview that one day she realized while working on her novel that one of her characters lacks the back, establishes in these essays retelling everyday events a theoretical base for her work that highlights the “back” of the characters in her stories. A compilation of diverse writing, ranging from pieces that appeared in literary journals and anthologies to exhibition catalogs and newsletters, Back to Side B is “a collection of unsent letters turned into a work of literature,” the author confides to her readers. As such, the book presents readers with the courage to face our most intimate moments and read through the layers of times past with all our hopes and pains intact.