Sang Yi (1910–1937)

This slender volume of stories is by a famed Korean author from the colonial period, who died at age 27 with TB in Japan. He came to fame because his writing incorporated influences from French existentialism and Dadaism. As such, the stories are redolent of Cocteau and even Kafka, with an unreliable, not necessarily likable narrator, who merely reacts to the moment and lacks the traditions of male ambition and desire. At times the translation is a bit clumsy, but the deadpan and detailed voice of this unique modernist writer shines through.… (mais)