Winter in Sokcho

It's a weird bit of cognitive dissonance in that it totally reads like a translated Korean novel. Simple sentences with lots of room to breathe, a bare atmosphere driven by the merest whisper of a plot, and a melancholic air to the whole thing. I'm thinking Untold Night and Day or the short stories of Ha Seong-nan, except this was translated from the French.

It is set in Korea however in the the seaside town of Sokcho, mere minutes from North Korea. We're introduced to a 20 something French Korean woman working as a receptionist at an aging guest house. She's back home after a stint at university and mostly bored. Her mother is working the nearby seafood market waiting for her to marry her absent boyfriend who's off modelling in Seoul.

Meanwhile she bides her time during the quiet winter off season cooking and cleaning for the few patrons still remaining at the guest house. The young girl recovering from plastic surgery and an enigmatic visiting French cartoonist. That's about the extent of it.

The whole thing, as slight as it is, still manages to get under your skin.