filesofjune

[filesofjune]

Under the Eye of the Big Bird

I've spent a few weeks of my time exploring the books on the shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2025. I like this book a lot, though it's unfolding a magical realm through the short stories, but all of them left me hanging at the end of the chapter. With many interpretations and moral values in the air, Hiromi Kawakami really let the readers own their imaginations as wild as they could. She put many odd feminist satirical messages where she made a lot of female characters in every story. A little bit matriarchy, but that's the interesting point. She created a world where the male population is endangered, yet the female population dominates almost all of the meadows. To nurture the human civilization, they need men to favor the reproduction process. The funny thing is Hiromi most likely wrote it like all of the females there took advantage of males limited to reproduction stuff only. No love, no strings attached, no deep bonding, and no soulmate connection. Hiromi said men died faster than women, which is true, though.

"We need a man for nurturing the civilization"

"But male is usually die faster than us"

They died faster. The males.

The females bury the corpse together and left the male away. Let the decease decaying.

[filesofjune]

perpetuate her 🌸

[filesofjune]

cutie pie

[filesofjune]

If I Had Your Face

book written by Frances Cha

this is such a light meal for contemporary fiction from Korean literature. the author intentionally shows the dark side of Korean backdrops in the entertainment field and societal pressure on women—the unattainable standards and patriarchy. the storyline was built in 4 POVs (all of them are women) which 4 women tactfully linked to each others.

there are; Kyuri as a lady companion for businessmen when they come for drink, i found her life was awfully unsafe and risky but her character is unbeatable and tough also sour for her upbringing—as she came from lack of fortune family. the 2nd girl is Ara, she's a mute person with hairstylist job which works on salon everyday, she has an obsession with her fave idol (like we've always met irl) and surprisingly had through a horrible childhood and she has another side that we couldn't put a trust about her being innocent. next woman is Miho, she shared the room with Kyuri, which they've never knew each others before. Miho is an artist and works for her friend that handles an art gallery, she graduated from NY funded by the scholarship and came back to Korea for her career. I found Miho was a quietly annoying character... whatsoever she's been through. the last woman is Wonna, she's a newlywed and currently in a deliberate plan on having a child, growing from a poor environment and struggling with cruel financial amidst Korea lifestyle. her life story was heartbreaking when she has to face the miscarriage.

each of them were facing their problems walking on their own path and the author tried to peel the skin of each other's. hidden sides of us that we never showed to anybody; wound, trauma, struggle, sin. unfortunately that one character didn't have her own plate, Sujin, she befriend Ara very well and i thought her insecurity was interesting to be told.

this book quite fits whoever loves strong FMC, womanhood, feminism, and the character-driven story.

[filesofjune]

Notes from Underground

book written by Fyodor Dostoevsky

first of all, please bear with my poor paragraphs composition since this book drives me crazy and i got some difficulties to arrange the words properly. anyway, you might have been hearing about Fyodor many times as you stroll around the timeline—but prolly you've missed out on one of his least popular works that should've known more than usual. as we keep seeing Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov and such, apparently Notes from Underground is a worth and fresh start for you to dive into Fyodor's masterpieces. in this book, you'll get familiarize yourself with his somehow peculiar writing. i got no idea why this novella is in least popular list of Fyodor's works even though many people knew it but barely seen anyone recommend it to the others. emotional–driven and humorous narrative with much more mixture of emotions were served very well.

by then, you won't pity the journey of yourself surfing in the ocean of Fyodor's classical works or even feel overwhelmed to understand the substance. you'll find the answer why everybody keeps talking about Fyodor being so narcissistic and judgemental, but strangely bursting his optimism out of nowhere then dropping it so low to pessimism, also the religious side of him. for me, Notes from Underground strongly linked to White Nights emotionally—that in some parts i was having an invisible dialogue with the author and i found it funny anywhomst!

in this book, the author invited us to feel the weariness and dreary day the narrator has been throughout along with the illness or disease in his body. he vented to the readers about his superstitious side, pessimism also somewhat righteous amidst the other men (the fact that he told us man is phenomenally stupid is the silliest even more).