- Overview
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With the Seoul National University agent incident in 1984 as a motif, Good Neighbor looks back on the turbulent period through the perspectives of five people: an unknown character indicated to be the actual heavyweight of the activist group, a spy chasing the heavyweight, a young theater director and his girlfriend, and a manager who is behind all the activities of the spies
- Book Intro
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Seoul in 1980s. How did our "good neighbors" make the world so much worse!
It's Seoul in the 1980s that the pro-democracy movement was going on for some time. Kim Ki-joon, an agent from the Agency for National Security Planning (NSP), fails to capture Choi Min-seok, an activist whose face is unknown. But after persistent effort, Kim Ki-joon learns that Choi Min-seok doesn't really exist. He suspects that promising theater director Lee Tae-joo is really Choi Min-seok. Kim Ki-joon suggests to his boss, "Manager," that he use the play to catch Lee Tae-joo. With the Manager's approval, Kim Ki-joon trains a theater actress, Kim Jin-ah, who had been third-rate before meeting Lee Tae-joo. Kim Ki-joon keeps an eye on Lee Tae-joo's activities through Kim Jin-ah. Lee Tae-joo puts on a play called Electra's Excuses, with Kim Jin-ah as the main character, and Kim Ki-joon schemes for Lee Tae-joo to become famous through literary critics. On the last day of the play, Kim Ki-joon arrests Lee Tae-joo and thinks he finally caught Cho Min-seok. But at the moment, Lee Tae-joo asks Kim ki0joon to contact the "Manager" Many people sacrificed themselves to defend justice and conviction even if they did not know where the wheel of history would move...Will they be able to survive this raging gale?
The author patiently develops each character and focuses on the national struggle which is driving the individuals into the abyss of chaos and despair. Also, the author graphically describes the process whereby "justice" and "goodness" are used as tools of both sides. In particular, the shocking twist at the end of the book makes us understand how this story is true for the present just as well as the past. As such, the books message is more strongly imprinted on us.
Through this novel, the author asks, "How about us living in the present?" Between June 1987 and June 2017. How much did the world change in those 30 years and how much did we change? Good Neighbor summons our memories of standing against the tyranny of governmental power with only candles in June 2017. This book is a step beyond the typical, emotional 1980s nostalgic novel, providing a multi-dimensional perspective of the era.
- About the Author
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Lee Jung-myung
Lee Jung-myung has published the novels The Deep Rooted Tree, which depicts the little-known serial murders of the Jiphyeonjeon Hall scholars which lay behind the creation of Hangeul, and The Painter of the Wind, a mystery that unravels the secrets inside the paintings of Shin Yunbok and Gim Hongdo. He opened up a new chapter in Korean fiction, receiving an explosive response from readers for his fast-paced novels that include great period consciousness and in-depth intellectual quests. He also wrote The Investigation, which was nominated for the UK's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2015 and won the Italy's Premio Selezione Bancarella, a literary award, in 2017, a first for a Korean. Other novels by Lee include After a Millennium, The Sunflower, The Last Picnic, and Memories of Evil.
Lee Jung-Myung opened a new chapter in Korean fiction, gaining an explosive response from readers, with fast-developing stories of deep intellectual inquiry. His novel, The Painter of Wind was adapted into a TV drama in 2008, and his novel Deep-rooted Tree was adapted into a miniseries that aired in 2011.
His novel, The Investigation (2012) became an instant bestseller upon its release and was translated and published in eleven countries including the United Kingdom. In 2018, he became the first South Korean writer to receive the Premio Selezione Bancarella, the most prestigious literary prize in Italy, for The Investigation.
