Tag Archives: Feminism

BOOK: “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” by Cho Nam-Joo

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Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Simon & Schuster / Scribner

This fictitious biography explores the tribulations of being a woman in modern-day South Korea. It tells the tale of the titular lead from birth through a middle-aged motherhood. It discusses issues ranging from disappointment at having girl children to feelings of anxiety in a world laden with horny boys to the subtle sexism of the modern workplace.


The book blurb calls this book “riveting, original, and uncompromising.” I’ll give it “uncompromising,” and I have insufficient experience with the book’s “peers” to challenge the “original” claim, but I do have to call BS on the “riveting” bit. In fairness, the point of the book seems to be to offer a brutally typical life experience — not the novel-shaped extremes of a rollercoaster existence. The fact that the book is not riveting doesn’t make it unimportant or unworthy of reading. However, this is not the book one should pick up expecting to read on the edge of one’s seat. It’s well-crafted literary fiction with an important message, but “compelling” is not an appropriate descriptor. The book suffers from a progressive increase in drag as one reads onward.

Still, I’d recommend it for readers of literary fiction interested in varied cultural experiences. It’s a quick read with fine character development.

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BOOKS: “The Meaning of Travel” by Emily Thomas

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The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers AbroadThe Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad by Emily Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

Of late, I’ve been reflecting upon the philosophical divides that exist between travelers and others (I call them “tribals,” but they are by far the majority of people — i.e. those who either don’t travel [unless required to] or who travel only in a tourist-like fashion.) As I’ve done so, I’ve been surprised to find how limited the literature is on the subject. I was, therefore, pleased to find this book. While Thomas confirmed my preliminary findings that there isn’t much of a travel-centric subdiscipline of philosophy, she also shows that it’s not for a lack of philosophers traveling and pondering travel.

While I’ve spent considerable time thinking about a philosophy of travel, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a number of topics in Thomas’s book to which I’d hardly given any thought. These were the most personally fascinating topics because they involved such uncharted territory. They include: maps as propaganda, the importance of travel to scientific discovery, the domination of male perspective in our collective understanding of travel, and the ethics of doom travel (going to vanishing places.)

The book also advanced my understanding of subjects that I’ve often contemplated — e.g. aesthetics and travel, innate / universal ideas v. culturally-tinted ones, and the connection between minimalism and travel.

If you’re interested in philosophy, travel, and the intersect of the two, this book is definitely for you. The author takes a light approach and the book’s readability is high — i.e. while it is thought-provoking, it’s aimed at a general readership rather than a scholarly one.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Amazing Camel Toe by Claire Duplan

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The Amazing Camel ToeThe Amazing Camel Toe by Claire Duplan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: May 16, 2023

This graphic novel tells the tale of a misandrous artist who draws a comic book superhero who is meant to be a hero to harassed and harrowed females everywhere. From reading the blurb, one knows this is going to be a book with a message and a bit of edge. However, one hopes from the apparent whimsicality of title and cover that there will be enough humor to balance the anger and vitriol and make it an entertaining read. There is not.

I use the term misandrous not based on the dastardly characters her comic’s heroine kicks around, but rather based on the protagonist’s interactions with her “boyfriend.” This is the one man in the book who isn’t presented as a complete jerk, and, perhaps, the only man on the planet the protagonist doesn’t want to straight up murder (all the time.) Still, this “nice guy” can do nothing right except to always apologize and except full responsibility for every argument. The couple has a falling out at one point, and I suspect the author saw their reuniting as some sort of rom com “awe” moment, but the reader knows it’s a doomed relationship because the protagonist has a seething contempt for the boyfriend character and the fact that he went away once before means he’s probably got an iota of self-esteem in there somewhere that will not go gently.

If you enjoy the emotional pacing of being stuck in an elevator with a tantrum-prone two-year-old, this book may be for you. Otherwise, it’s kind of a one-dimensional character who’s angry all the time, and not that fun to read.


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BOOK REVIEW: M.O.M.: Mother of Madness, Vol. 1 by Emilia Clarke & Marguerite Bennett

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M.O.M: Mother of Madness #1M.O.M: Mother of Madness #1 by Emilia Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Out: December 14, 2021

This graphic novel uses a story about a single mother who develops superpowers tuned to her emotional states as a means of exploring a wide range of social justice issues. On the positive side, the story has moments of humor and moments of poignancy, and it takes efforts to avoid being purely divisive in the way socio-politically themed works often are. On the other hand, the book becomes bogged down in preachiness at times, and would likely have been much more effective if it’d used story to convey ideas, trusting the audience to grasp the takeaway without hammering them with ham-fisted dialogue. To be fair, the book, using fourth wall breaks, sometimes acknowledges its own exposition dumps and other clumsy and clunky elements.

The artwork was clear, if sometimes a bit bizarre and quirky. (e.g. See cover)

Unfortunately, as I read the book what the story most reminded me of was the Halle Berry “Catwoman” movie, which no one [even, I suspect, Halle Berry] wants to be reminded of. One reason for this comparison was that both stories decry objectification and shaming while featuring only beautiful people, and they definitely [unconsciously, I suspect] perpetrated the “ugly equals evil” notion ubiquitous in storytelling.

It’s not a bad story and has its admirable qualities, but I think it could have been better if it were a bit more focused and less heavy-handed with the commentary. At times it seemed as if the author thought, “Oh, and I want to say something about this social travesty,” and then she inserted dialogue that seemed to have little to do with what was going on with the story at the moment. Or, perhaps, there was a list of disparate social issues that needed to be touched upon in the single volume.


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