Shin Kyung-Sook, the “First Snowflake” of Korean Literature Falling in American Readership.

On April 5th, an interview was done with the Korean bestseller Shin Kyung-sook, who published her book <Please Look After Mom> in the United States. Her book caused the ‘mother syndrome’ three years ago and has also succeeded in captivating the American and European readership. One hundred thousand were published for the first editions of the book, followed by three thousand second editions. It was selected as Amazon’s Bestselling Books of the Month for April, 2011 and was also selected as one of the 15 books at Barnes and Noble’s “Discover Great New Writers: 2011 Summer“ program.

    

Picture copyright: Left from Shin Kyung Sook; Right from munrobooks.com

1. What led you to take interest in writing?

I grew up in a typical rustic home with many children. I read the books that my brothers brought home and started dreaming about writing from then. Writing was a natural thing for me, and becoming a writer was my dream from a very early age. I did not know for sure whether I wanted to write poems or novels, but I just vaguely hoped of becoming a writer. During high school, my room teacher was Korean-language teacher. I did not go to school for some period and had to write a letter of apologies to him. After the teacher read the letter, he suggested me to consider career as a novelist, and that was when I settled my future as a novelist.
 

2. How did your youth affect your writing?

I did not have a normal youth. In the day, I worked in an audio manufacturing company and attended schools at night. In those days, Korean society was in a industrial stage. The hopes and dreams of the people living in poverty then strongly influenced my writing. One of my novels “The Secluded Room(외딴방 in Korean)” was based in that period.

3. The subject of <Please Look After Mom> is ‘mom.’ How did you choose this subject matter, and how do you usually choose the materials for your writing?

One night when I was sixteen, I was on a train heading to Seoul with my mom. As I looked at my mom’s weary face, I first promised myself that I would one day write a novel about my mom that I could dedicate to her. Although this promise took 30 years to keep, I finally managed it in the end. I mostly find the subject matter in my natural surroundings in the lives of the contemporary people. I hope that my works can be a company to those people who are living in sorrows of life.

4. What do you do when writing does not work out so well?

I just think that it is not the right time and don’t write. I meet people and go traveling. Reading books and taking a stroll are parts of my daily life. After I finish a piece, I sometimes just sleep for two or three days.

5. What was your opportunity in publishing the English version of <Please Look After Mom>, and how did you feel when you first heard this news?

I was thrilled. The fact that KNOPF of Randomhouse was my publisher that had published many of the books that I had spent my childhood with made me even happier. This also made me think about the audience outside Korea for the first time. <Please Look After Mom> led me to many new people and relationships when it was shown in Korea. Now, it's a piece that has yielded me so many valuable experiences outside Korea.

6. Like you said, you are like the ‘first-snow’ of the Korean literature that has fallen on the foreign readership. What advice would you give to those students who hope to one day become a “global" writer like yourself?

This is a complex question. You should write about subjects that you want to write about. If you try to follow the ideas of others, you yourself will grow irritated and easily give up. I advice that students take interest in the society and the lives of the people in it, always participating and communicating with a sincere heart. If you write thinking “I need to move people’s heart,” you are unlikely to do so. The foremost process in writing would be really understanding the subject inside the writer’s mind and heart . Unlike poems, writing novels requires personal efforts as well as talent. I suggest that students keep an open mind that is ready to communicate with the world and take interest in how it is going around.

7. Is there a particular reading you suggest to Korean students?

I read the Collection of Sixty Korean Literature en route to age twenty from nineteen. That reading has been the most secure field of knowledge throughout my writing career. I suggest that students read the books one by one when they have time.

Shin once compared the publishment to snow by saying “The book is the first-snow for both myself and the Korean literature in foreign publishment. I hope that more beautiful works will accumulate over it.” Following the publishment, the American critics praised on her ability to catch the truest feelings of all humanity regardless of the language or culture.

We often assume that different cultures and traditions make emotions differ from one culture to another. This might be true, but the novelist Shin Kyung-sook has proven that the truest feelings are borderless. She provided a chance for all Korean daughters, sons, and husbands to reconsider the existence of “mom” for once, and has also succeeded in making the Americans hold onto the Kleenex box during their reading. As an author, as well as a person, Shin Kyung-sook is a true global leader who has opened up both the Korean literature to the foreign audience and the world to their deepest, most forgotten and regretful emotion.

Shin is currently staying in New York, and this interview was done over e-mail. She has finished her book tour in the States and is preparing another one around 8 European countries that will also publish her books soon.