Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

“You’re right. In a world where doctors can cure cancer and do heart transplants, there isn’t a single pill to treat menstrual cramps.’ Her sister pointed at her own stomach. ‘The world wants our uterus to be drug-free. Like sacred grounds in a virgin forest.”

Kim-Jiyoung Born 1982 by Cho Nam Joo is a novella that follows an ordinary woman whose very being is nothing short of unremarkable. That is, until she begins to exhibit signs of a gradual descent into 'madness'. She starts to entirely embody and mysteriously transform into the other ordinary women in her life; at times her mother or her husband's ex-girlfriend. The narrative then delves the readers into the very beginnings of Jiyoung's girlhood, till her maturation into a woman with a child, essentially framing the novel around the banality of Jiyoung's life.

This is a book that should be required reading for everyone, regardless of gender. The mere simplicity and conciseness of the Cho's language makes it accessible, whilst still piercingly conveying the complexity of our societal structures and its unfairness towards women.

The dry and somewhat lacklustre tone conveys how unsurprising and normalised the experiences recounted in the novella are in the lives of women; dealing with predatory men on buses or being harassed by a male classmate on the pretext of 'having a crush.' Having to work jobs far beneath your qualifications just for the sake of keeping your familial life intact. The relaying of these events are done with little dramatics or eloquence, it is simply thrown at the reader in a matter-of-fact way, with no empathy shown towards Jiyoung or the other women in this novel. This narrative choice is strong, clearly reflecting society's indifference towards women or the hostile situations they are meant to simply deal with.

Furthermore, Jiyoung's lack of strong characterisation makes her the ideal 'Ordinary Woman', perfectly serving the purpose of conveying that her story does not differ much from that of the rest of us 'Ordinary Women.' All of us can see a little bit of ourselves in Jiyoung, or the other female characters in this novel, who must continually make sacrifices and twist and turn and bend themselves backwards to fit into their prescribed role as a woman. Perhaps my only complaint with this novel was the jarring interjections of statistics throughout, because although the intention behind it was to highlight the gender inequalities in South Korean society, the interspersing percentages and factual descriptions of Government Data and Bureau Reports made for interruptions in the flow of the novella itself.

Overall, Kim Jiyoung is most certainly a novella I would say is worthy of all the acclaim and prestige it receives. Whilst it is a straightforward and simple narrative, it manages to wonderfully evoke the ordinary struggles and systematic sidelining of women in society, and has managed to capture and convey that message to over a million readers. That itself is worthy of applause.

Source for thumbnail image: Elle Singapore