- Overview
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This is a romance novel that criticizes the appearance-centric culture in Korean society.
- Book Intro
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Park Minkyu, recognized for his unique imagination and experimental writing, published the romance novel Pavane for a Dead Princess. The novel is about an ugly woman and a man who loves her, in the form of a coming-of-age story for those in their twenties. As Park stated that the novel is “a typical vintage romance from the 80s," the story begins with the protagonist recalling his first love against the backdrop of Seoul in the 80s when capitalism began.
In the winter of 1999, the 34-year-old narrator is listening to Pavane for a Dead Princess by Maurice Ravel, as he always does. He thinks of one woman, his old lover, who gave the record to him as a present. Back in 1986 when the country was heading toward rapid economic growth and when he turned 20, he met his spiritual mentor Yohan, the woman who was so ugly that everyone tried to avoid looking at her, while doing a part-time job at a department store. The narrator, who was abandoned by his father, fell in love with the ugly woman. But she left him after being hurt by her own appearance. After more than a decade, the narrator became a novelist and tried to find out her whereabouts.
- About the Author
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Park Mingyu
Park Mingyu was born in 1968 and graduated from Chungang University Department of Creative Writing. In 2003, he won the Munhakdongne Writer Award with Legends of the Earth Heroes that exposed American imperialism through a story of heroes created in America and their daily lives. In the same year, he published The Last Fan Club of the Sammi Superstars about a sad baseball team that loses more often than it wins, which won the Hankyoreh Literary Award and the praise that deemed it "the most refreshing and shocking event in Korean literary history."