Violets
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Average rating3.3
In this novel by Man Asian Literary Prize winner Kyung-Sook Shin, a neglected young woman experiences the violence and isolation of contemporary Korean society. Set amidst the frenzied modernization of late-twentieth-century South Korea, Violets is the story of San--a protagonist so unsure, ostracized, and odd by society's ruthless standards that she barely registers as stumbling through life. Following a violent childhood rejection, San is set upon a troubling path of stifled desire and isolation. One hazy summer in 1990s Seoul, she finds work at a flower shop. There, she meets a curious cast of characters: the mute shop owner, her brash coworker, and sexually aggressive male customers. Fueled by a quiet desperation to jumpstart her life, San plunges headfirst into obsessing over a magazine photographer and spirals into danger. In her signature stark prose, bestselling author Kyung-Sook Shin explores psychic deterioration, misogyny, and marginalization, and lays bare the agony of erasure.
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“San wears an expression of melancholy, perhaps, but also of loneliness. It is an expression that is not hers alone. A young woman on an escalator, a young man silently walking from building to building with a résumé in hand, salarymen on the subway at dawn-the same expression appears and disappears from their faces” p. 41
“When perfectly healthy plants began to drop their petals or buds, Su-ae would say, That's because you've overwatered them; if you love things too much, they die. She said the same thing when the spider plant's long blades turned yellow” p. 67
“Just like Su-ae says, Koreans are particularly susceptible to superstitions flowers and plants; the inquirers often end up taking lucky bamboo with them. Sometimes they walk in with gloomy expressions, but seem to leave refreshed” p. 98
“No one at the table is more surprised than San. Every sound in the room dies down and soon falls completely silent. The clashing of beer mugs, the sound of people entering the café, the voices of the other patrons, the music-it all stops. Like the world has been paused. It would've helped if someone had said something to break the spell, but no one speaks. Finally someone points to her rising blush and teases her, saying, “Look at that, her face is turning red.” p. 115
“Violet: Noun, a plant, a swallow flower... purple, the color, also used to describe... an oversensitive person, a shy person (“shrinking violet”)” p. 137
