My Brilliant Life by Korean author Ae-ran Kim is about appreciating life while facing your own mortality. Told from the perspective of a bright and wonderful young boy with loving parents.
Location: mostly set in Bucheon, South Korea.
My Brilliant Life synopsis
Despite being house-bound due to an accelerated-aging disorder, Areum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang—his sixty-year-old neighbor and best friend, and through the books he reads to visit the places he would otherwise never see.
For several months, Areum has been working on a manuscript, piecing together his parents’ often embellished stories about his family and childhood. He hopes to present it on his birthday, as a final gift to his mom and dad; their own falling-in-love story.
Through it all, Areum and his family will have you laughing and crying, for all the right reasons.
Book review
“Mom, according to this writer, the world’s most terrifying person is someone who might vanish forever.” This quote somehow summarizes my feelings while reading this book.
The main character, Areum, likes to read. At sixteen he looks like an 80-year-old. Even though this is a cause for sadness, he and his parents make funny jokes about it. At the start of the book, you can see the strength and determination that his parents showed when they got him at the young age of sixteen. Even though their situation was not ideal, they persisted.
If only reality and daydreams could merge as one for Areum. He’s a wonderful and bright young boy with loving parents. He keeps trying to cheer them up but how do you cheer someone up that is about to mourn a child? Still, we can all learn from him how to live in the present. But even this boy sometimes needs a gentle reminder from his mom that he can take his sweet time to do something.
The first part of My Brilliant Life is the most intriguing. I like Ae-ran Kim’s use of perspective: the storyteller Areum uses ‘I’ to add the baby’s perspective – his perspective – to his parents’ story. This is nice and refreshing to read and places the story both in the past and the present at the same time.
The later parts are less special and make me feel like the author was trying too hard to make the conversations deep and meaningful. Musings about life are always interesting, but make more impact when included naturally and space is left “to create a hidden something to be found”. What I miss in the latter part is the inclusivity of the other family members, even though this is a logical consequence of Areum’s illness progressing as he can’t narrate what he can’t perceive.Â
I didn’t enjoy reading the email conversations. They went on for too long and felt like a let-down after reading the very good narrative before (and, looking back, also the part after). Kim Ae-ran is a good writer and I hope that more of her works will be translated in the future. While the topic of this book is in no way new or innovative, the author is a skilled writer who can tell a story.
Translated from Korean by Chi-young Kim.
Interested?
Pre-order your copy of My Brilliant Life from Amazon (available 26 January 2021).
Many thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
