LAND OF EXILE: Contemporary Korean Fiction ...

LAND OF EXILE: Contemporary Korean Fiction translated and edited by Marshal R. Pihl, Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton (M. E. Sharpe/UNESCO: $14.95; 304 pp., paperback original). The stories in this anthology mirror the sorrows and struggles the Korean people endured during the Japanese occupation, two wars and partition. “Kapitan Ri” by Chon Kwangyong presents a devastating portrait of an amoral doctor who is willing to serve anyone in power to save his own skin. Many of the authors focus on the efforts of ordinary people to reclaim their prewar past: In the title story, Cho Chognae follows a wretched old man’s journey to his home village, which has been transformed beyond recognition. The urban woman visiting a country guest house in Pak Wanso’s “Winter Outing” receives the vital, unspoken message, “By no means have you lived in vain!”