Same Bed Different Dreams

It seems such a minor detail, but I wasn't enjoying this read until I started over with the understanding that the historical events and people in the Dream portion of the book are all real. And the opening refrain of the book begins to make sense. After all, what is history? Turns out it's a collection of unlikely coincidences, vastly connected events, tiny moments that ripple and collide, a three-way standoff, a memory of rain, a cure for insomnia.

Korean history is easily reduced to Japanese occupation and the Korean War until its soft-power explosion that offered the world k-pop, k-dramas and k-beauty — but it's obviously much more than that and Park explores its wild nooks and crannies, giving us the cut finger club, assassinations, and oblique poetry written in architectural magazines. From Jack London dismissing Koreans as “the perfect type of inefficiency - of utter worthlessness” to Ian Fleming's Goldfinger claiming Koreans “are the cruelest, most ruthless people in the world” it hasn't been easy changing the minds of the Western world.

And the 3 sections of the book begin to converge as you read. Elements echo across stories and tiny connections are made while characters evolve and mutate before our eyes. It rewards close attention even as it plays with expectation and indulges in a bit of fun. From the 1999 Stanley Cup final between the Buffalo Sabres and Dallas Stars to Friday the 13th and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il. It's all connected and it's a blast to read.