Us, Kim
This novel collection was written by Hwang Eundeok, who won the 10th Busan Writer's Award and the 17th Busan Novel Literary Award. With her previous work, Korean Language Courses, she told stories about adoption, immigration and minorities, garnering her much interest within the Korean literary circle. Unlike her previous work, which focused on the wounds of adoption, in this collection she highlights social structures and masculine power as well as the activity and engagement among individuals concerned.
This book, Us, Kim, is a collection of seven stories, and four of them deal the issue of adoption. Along with the title piece, Mothers and the Lady of the Beach face the adoption issues directly, where readers can meet stories of complex emotions around disconnected relationships. The themes of her works center on women and society, anxiety and loneliness and life and pain. Gloria was inspired by the real incident that took place in Florida in the U.S. in 2006. The 11th Child is the story of Deoksoon who attempts to collect the shards of a scattered family. Anxiety and Soul offers a glimpse of the insecure social position and incomplete relationships that lay behind the loneliness of the modern people. Hospitality is the painful confession of a young one who lived through a life of difficulties.
The title piece, Us, Kim is a story about Kim, who was adopted by a Belgium family, goes on a journey to find her mother and meets many people. The 23 individuals she meets from the Belgium Korean Adoption Society live with their own lives and cultures. Their memory of being thrown away does not place them under depression. During the 1970s, when Korean society achieved the remarkable economic development called the Miracle on the Han River, adoptees are well aware that their existence was the most cumbersome thing for Korean society. This is where readers must pay attention. Rather than being permanently scarred by the fact they were thrown away, they understand the circumstances of their real parents and move on to build up their own narratives, beyond the branding of being an adopted child.
In fact, Hwang Eundeok began developing ideas for Us, Kim through meetings with her Belgium friends who were adopted. Like in the story, she was able to see the scars of adoptees while helping them to look for their "real parent." This is a story about the "Kims" who are scattered throughout the world and the single mothers who had to send them away. Why did they have the stigmas of adoptee and single mother engraved on their hearts?
