Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop: A Novel

This is a sweet simple wholesome book. I loved how the author discusses the mental health and work life balance of the Korea system and how the main character faces the taboo. Following the main character from the opening of her book shop to the first two years, it was interesting to hear her roller coaster attachment to success and how her self drive would subconsciously motivate her. This would be a great vacation read.

An easy-to-read comforting book. You may see parts of yourself in many of these charming characters. If you're going through a hard time in your life, pick this book up, and I hope you find some comfort

2.25/5

Isn’t that what life is about? Forging forward with the answer you have – stumbling along the way and picking yourself up – only to one day realise that the answer you’ve held on to for a long time is not the right one. When that happens, it’s time to look for the next answer. That’s how ordinary folks, like herself, live. Over our life span, the right answer will keep changing.

There's an independent bookshop in a quiet neighbourhood in Seoul where the coffee is always hot and the company peaceful. Its owner is Yeoungju, who recently went through a terrible divorce following a spectacular burn out. She's still finding her path and happiness, opening the bookstore was the first step into reclaiming her life, but she's struggling not only with herself but with the demands of running a business and keeping it afloat. As we follow her efforts we get to meet all the locals and repeat customers who each bring a reflection about life and the problems of modern living.

There is something that a book can be that is worse than bad, and that is being boring. I was completely uninterest in this. If I had to make a list of reasons I would start by saying that the first problem is me (it's me, hi, I'm the problem it's me). I tried and tried but could not connect at all with this. The second item would be how low stakes the plot is. Nothing happens, absolutely nothing. The protagonist is supposedly in the red with this new business, yet she rarely struggles. You might hear a mention or two of having to come up with ideas to draw in more customers or her vaguely worrying about keeping the lights on yet nothing ever comes out of that. Now, I understand that's the whole fucking point of this book, this isn't an intense plot heavy tale, it's one about reflection, slow living, mindfulness, etc, but man I just needed a tiny bit of conflict, anything. It didn't even have to be external, it could have been internal.

Third, everyone was too self aware. Are you honestly telling me that all these people are in the same boat and capable of calmly articulating their feelings and experiences to total strangers? Painful to read at some point with how long one person spent talking about the same thing. Which brings me to point number for: the author kept stoning me to death with the same conclusions. Yes, I got it the first two times, please stop. I felt tricked into reading self help. My last issue was the way it was written, although this could be a problem with the translation. English and Korean are quite different, they don't even share the same alphabet, and perhaps some of the prose was lost in the adaptation. It was so simple and dull.

Some reflections: Therapy really impacted my enjoyment of this. The central theme of the book is something that I have discussed endlessly with my therapist. I've talked it out, I've understood it and now I've moved to the doing part, the getting out of the hole bit. I don't need this book. Other people do and, from what I've seen as an outsider, Koreans very much have need of something like this. Maybe you will find something here for you. As the writer themselves said: “As with everything in life, reading is about the right timing.”

I love how thought-provoking and absolutely healing reading this book is. It made me reflect a lot on my life. Every scenario was somewhat familiar, and it helped me draw parallels to my life and made me wonder how I could handle things differently. The characters are all relatable, and they all go through different struggles. To read about how they develop over the course of the book was delightful, and it gives me hope.

I enjoyed this book so much I want to immediately start it over again. And why shouldn't I? I will.