“To the Moon” by Jang Ryujin / Courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing
What if someone dropped a fortune in your lap, sufficient to allow you to depart the job you hate, cease struggling simply to outlive and reside life for a change? Jang Ryujin’s bestselling slice-of-life novel “To the Moon” brings this unimaginable fantasy, one grounded in realism, to life.
“To the Moon” tells the story of three extraordinary girls working dead-end workplace jobs in downtown Seoul. They’re informal work pals, maintaining one another at arm’s size however gathering at lunchtime or when gossip is within the air. Eun-sang, the eldest and most bold, spends her free hours searching for methods to earn cash exterior of labor. Jisong, the youngest, buries her head within the sand, selecting to provide her all to a long-distance relationship that has no future. Dahae, the middle-of-the-road protagonist, retains a low profile and dares solely to dream of small issues. The trio trudge by the each day grind, pushing paper in an infinite loop.
This boring monotony is shattered when Eun-sang hits upon her newest moneymaking thought: cryptocurrency. Pouring her financial savings into Ethereum, she watches with glee as her wealth climbs to surreal heights. Satisfied that that is the way in which out, Eun-sang begs the opposite two to hitch. After some debate, Dahae does, however Jisong flat-out refuses, banning them from even mentioning the subject round her. Because the three pals are swept up within the exhilaration of a monetary journey, their relationship morphs and twists, and all three come out the opposite finish irrevocably modified.
The brilliance of this story is that as an alternative of providing an escape right into a magical land far faraway from actuality, it dangles a extra tantalizing fantasy in entrance of you. This one is so clearly conceivable, so deceptively shut which you can’t assist however ask your self: If I took the identical leap of religion, might this occur to me?
When interviewed on the 56th Fashionable Korean Literature Translation Awards, Jang confessed that her personal daydreams had been the inspiration behind the e-book. For years, she herself lived from paycheck to paycheck, despite the fact that she labored full-time at a good IT firm. The week earlier than payday was at all times essentially the most harrowing, and when life weighed on her, she’d suppose to herself: If solely somebody would give me one million gained out of the blue!
Creator Jang Ryujin speaks throughout a e-book speak on the 56th Fashionable Korean Literature Translation Awards in central Seoul, Nov. 4. Korea Instances photograph by Shim Hyun-chul
By providing her characters an opportunity at what she’d wished for and extra, Jang was aiming to fulfill her personal fantasies. On the identical time, the e-book indulges anybody who’s seemed jealously at headlines of people that hit the jackpot in a single day with fortunate investments.
However what goes up should come down. Or does it? That’s the query that loomed bigger in my thoughts the additional I progressed within the e-book. Is that this the half the place they crash and burn? Will they be introduced again right down to earth, stripped naked of what meager means that they had and with nothing to point out however a jaded pat on the again? Just like the hapless passenger pressured to fill the primary row of a roller-coaster trip, I discovered myself flinching with every flip of the web page, terrified that the following one could be the place the drop begins.
Past the emotional turmoil and the surreal plot twists, what left essentially the most lasting impression on me was the shrewd manner Jang depicted the shifting dynamics between the three pals as their monetary conditions modified. The novel rigorously picks aside what occurs when three individuals start an the identical start line, however two strap boosters on whereas one retains going on the identical tempo. Because the wealth hole between the coworkers widened, friction slipped into the previously pure friendship, festering emotions had been delivered to the fore, and phrases higher left unsaid had been sharpened into weapons, propelled by frustration and jealousy.
Equal elements heartfelt and laugh-out-loud comedic, “To the Moon” is the proper dose of “delulu,” within the fashionable vernacular. It sweeps readers straight as much as the sky in a giddy spiral, however not to this point that they lose sight of what’s actual — simply shut sufficient to see that prime above the mud and dirt of each day life, the moon glimmers brilliant with a dream.
“To the Moon” is accessible for buy on-line at dbBOOKS.
Faye Leung runs @the_bibliocracy, an Instagram account devoted to sing ng out reads for savoring. She often posts e-book critiques and suggestions, and has a selected fondness for Korean literature.
