서적소개
Table for One (1인용 식탁)
Yun, Ko-Eun / Columbia University Press / 2020.10.27
An office worker who has no one to eat lunch with enrolls in a course that builds confidence about eating alone. A man with a pathological fear of bedbugs offers up his body to save his building from infestation. A time capsule in Seoul is dug up hundreds of years before it was intended to be unearthed. A vending machine repairman finds himself trapped in a shrinking motel during a never-ending snowstorm.
In these and other indelible short stories, contemporary South Korean author Yun Ko-eun conjures up slightly off-kilter worlds tucked away in the corners of everyday life. Her fiction is bursting with images that toe the line between realism and the fantastic. Throughout Table for One, comedy and an element of the surreal are interwoven with the hopelessness and loneliness that pervades the protagonists’ decidedly mundane lives. Yun’s stories focus on solitary city dwellers, and her eccentric, often dreamlike humor highlights their sense of isolation. Mixing quirky and melancholy commentary on densely packed urban life, she calls attention to the toll of rapid industrialization and the displacement of traditional culture. Acquainting the English-speaking audience with one of South Korea’s breakout young writers, Table for One presents a parade of misfortunes that speak to all readers in their unconventional universality.
– 혼자 식사하는 법을 알려주는 학원이 있다면? 현실보다 더 지독한 상상을 꿈꾸다
재기발랄한 상상력이 돋보이는 윤고은의 소설집『1인용 식탁』. 『무중력증후군』을 통해 놀라운 상상력과 경쾌한 언어 감각으로 주목을 받았던 젊은 작가 윤고은이 자신의 단편소설들을 모아 첫 소설집을 펴냈다. 회사에서 동료들과 어울리지 못해 혼자 점심식사를 하는 사람의 이야기인 「1인용 식탁」, 21세기에 어울리지 않는 빈대 퇴치 소동을 그린 「달콤한 여행」, 백화점 화장실에서 두루마리 화장지에 소설을 쓰는 소설가를 다룬 「인베이더 그래픽」, 돈을 받고 꿈을 대신 꿔주는 「박현몽 꿈 철학관」등 톡톡 튀는 상상력으로 무장한 단편 아홉 작품을 수록했다.
– 목차
1. Table for One
2. Sweet Escape
3. Invader Graphic
4. Hyeonmong Park?s Hall of Dreams
5. Roadkill
6. Time Capsule 1994
7. Iceland
8. Piercing
9. Don?t Cry, Hongdo
– 저자소개 : Yun, Ko-Eun
Yun Ko-eun is the award-winning author of five novels and four short story collections. Born in 1980, she lives in Seoul.
– 역자: Lizzie Buehler
Lizzie Buehler is the translator of The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun and Korean Teachers by Seo Su-jin. She holds an MFA in literary translation from the University of Iowa and has studied comparative literature at Princeton and Harvard.
– 출판사 서평
A “Most Anticipated” Book of Spring 2024 ― The Millions
I was introduced to Yun Ko-eun’s utterly distinctive stories through Lizzie Buehler’s passionate, meticulous translations, and I have never forgotten them. Each of these narratives is blunt, unnerving, gripping; Yun’s prose is razor-sharp, as is her portrayal of the alienation of day-to-day life. Table for One is an exciting contribution to contemporary Korean literature in English. — Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Whereabouts
Weirdly wonderful and wonderfully weird. ― Kirkus Reviews
Table for One showcases Yun Ko-eun’s literary prowess and her ability to illuminate the subtle beauty found in the ordinary moments of our lives. These stories are intricately crafted, psychologically complex, and deeply moving. This a remarkable collection and one that I will be returning to for many years to come. — Andrew Porter, author of The Disappeared
Reflecting the quirky and dysfunctional interiority of its characters, Table for One provides a unique insight into modern Koreans. Yun has a distinct literary personality that puts her in the company of major contemporary Korean women writers like Pyun Hye-young, Jo Kyung-ran, Han Kang, and Han Yujoo. — Heinz Insu Fenkl, author of Memories of My Ghost Brother
Each of these strange, spare, cleverly imagined, and compelling tales has a strong sense of place and portrays everyday folks living in South Korea who are just trying their best to fit in, get by, and pursue a slice of happiness. ― Booklist
Surreal and comedic, this story collection mostly terrified me. I loved it. — Karla J. Strand ― Ms. Magazine
These nine subtly surreal tales depict people at their most vulnerable and isolated, dislocated from those around them . . . A strong collection. — Ian Mond ― Locus Magazine
Table for One will strike a chord with many city dwellers: some will find in it an amusing mix of reality and fantasy, while others might shudder at their own reflection. — Anna Aslanyan ― Financial Times
It is with [a] throughline of laughter and warmth that Table for One explores the teeming expanse of life, that always seems to begin just to the left of where we’re looking. — Willem Marx ― Asymptote
크리스천라이프 편집부