소년이로
- Page
- 256
- Publication Date
- April 29, 2019
- ISBN
- 9788932035338
Will we be able to find the answer to this ever-elusive riddle of life?
Pyun Hye-young is at the vanguard of Korean thrillers, making ceaseless leaps toward excellence. Published after a six-year hiatus, Pyun’s fifth short story collection, The Youth Age Easily, includes “Phytophile,” which first appeared in the New Yorker, and “The Youth Age Easily,” the winner of the Contemporary Literature Award. The author has also won the 2017 Shirley Jackson Award for her novel The Hole(2016).
Pyun Hye-young’s stories usually begin with a murky atmosphere that literally and figuratively obstructs the characters’ vision. As the investigation into the problems that drive the plot progresses, the fog gradually retreats to reveal the truth. Made alive in Pyun’s writing, the characters allure readers into the suspenseful whodunnit narratives that lock everyone in until the problems are solved. Will we be able to solve the puzzles in this book—or rather, in life? The eponymous story, “The Youth Age Easily,” is titled after a line from Zhu Xi’s poem, 소년이로학난성(少年易老學難成), meaning that it is easy for the youth to grow old but difficult to learn. By shifting the weight onto the first part, emphasizing the becoming of an adult, the book hints at the chilling truth of life where nothing is predictable, and everything can collapse in the blink of an eye.