Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
Review of Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
“On August 6, the whole world would change with the discovery that man can ignite the fire of the sun upon the surface of the earth.”
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim (2022). Published by Ecco.
I found out about Beasts of a Little Land accidentally. I usually am up to date with Korean literature and diaspora/Asian-American literature, but this book fell beneath the cracks.
The way I found out about is was through my library; on the main library site they had a banner promoting new books and there it was. I clicked on it because I knew immediately from the cover I was intrigued, I got mythology vibes from it, and I was right.
Straight off the comparison from Pachinko, I knew a Japanese-colonization era book would be right up my alley. So I checked it out immediately.
And then I devoured the book in two days. It is roughly four hundred pages, and while I initially struggled through the first fifty pages, it was smooth sailing until around the end.
More on why I thought it dragged later, but I was hooked on this story. It also hit right on the topics I was most interested in in regards to Korean history, so that’s probably why I was suckered into it so quickly.
Anyways, I’ve rambled enough, so let’s dive into this review. You can purchase a copy of the book here.
Several different stories, from the Korean courtesans, gisaengs, revolutionaries, and communists intermingle in this novel.
Beasts of a Little Land is a novel that tries to accomplish a lot in its four hundred pages; it is roughly half the length of Pachinko, but one of my main complaints about Min Jin Lee’s novels are that they are way too long. This novel has several different threading storylines, but we begin with the tiger being hunted: Jung-ho, one of our main characters, had a father who hunted tigers.
The father was rescued by a Japanese general at some point, who gives him his cigarette case. This is a big symbol for Jung-ho, who goes from being an orphan in the countryside to the leader of a gang in Seoul. When he makes the gang become communists, he finally gets to live the life he wants to live.
Our other main character, and Jung-ho’s love interest, is Jade. She is the daughter of a poor farmer family that’s sold her off to become a courtesan, or a gisaeng. Gisaengs were considered the bottom of Korean society, but they were young women trained in traditional fan dancing, art, poetry, and literature.
Jade becomes best friends with Lotus, the daughter of the head courtesan, and Lotus’ sister, Luna, is raped by a Japanese general and becomes pregnant. The three girls head to Seoul with Dani, the cousin of the head courtesan, who has her own mini love triangle going on.
Dani was loved by two men, one whom owns a publishing house and the other who is an avid communist. The one who is a communist ropes the other into helping him inspire the March 1st Movement, where he officially turns his back on the West when the Americans don’t do anything as the Japanese shoot the Korean students to death. Jade, who shows promise as a courtesan, meets the orphaned Jung-ho and they quickly become friends.
He takes her to the zoo, which plays an interesting symbol in the novel. The zoo represents these exotic animals that feel trapped, and are eventually shot during World War II.
Jade feels great sympathy for the animals as she’s trapped in her own love triangle; Han-chol, a mechanic, and Jung-ho, who becomes a dedicated communist, eventually begin to fight for her. As she becomes a famous movie star and Lotus disappears, the war begins, and the world begins to crumble around them, the life of luxury and excess crumbles all around her.
And perhaps that’s where the tiger symbolism comes in. Korean tigers are said, in the creation myths, to be the origin of the Korean people. But in the World War II era, the last Korean tiger was killed, thus metaphorically shattering any notion that Korea will be unified again from that point onwards.
Jade and Lotus are two girls swept up in the glamour of becoming famous, but both become unhappy, lacking what they truly want. They have survived one war only to enter another, and Lotus makes the decision to join Luna in America.
Luna married an American and went abroad with him, thus escaping the tragedy. She bought herself out of the courtesan guild, took her daughter, and changed her life. She was not caught up in all of this, so she was able to escape this turmoil her sister and Jade are trapped in. Jade has faith in her country, but Lotus turns her back on it, blames it for all of the problems that have plagued her in her life.
Beasts of a Little Land isn’t exactly a book with a happy ending. It seems like a romance in the beginning, but morphs into something more. And perhaps it tries to be a little too larger than life, forcing us to take a step back and look at the larger picture. It really sucks you into the world, but if you fail to get sucked in within the first seventy-five pages, I don’t think this’ll be a book you enjoy.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a good book, especially for a debut author. I think I’m going to be keeping an eye out for Kim’s future work, since I actually quite liked her prose and sense of style on the page. I wasn’t a big fan of the characters—Jung-ho, particularly, did not seem too rational towards the end.
The men also all are not the greatest, which is to be expected (we’re talking about the 1920s-1940s), but I didn’t really care for them. They got to live their lives and destroy the lives of other women with little repercussions, which is a sad truth but not something I particularly enjoy.
Rating: 4/5
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