So, I got the reference of this book from the book club, of which I am a member.
The book is set in South Korea in recent times. It is about this woman called Kim Jiyoung, her life sketched from the time before she was born till she became a mother to a baby girl.
Apart from the setting and the names of the characters, there is nothing much different to her plight as mine. The timeline of her life is almost the same as mine, her choices echo mine and maybe the situations too!
It’s 2021, yet we continue to talk about basic issues like maternity leave, equal pay for women, the yearning for a male child, and women in marriage.
The book touches me on several levels, that I was not alone as I manoeuvred my way through life, career choices, how I should be living my life and expectations from society at large. Maybe I was even lucky than a few, considering the fact that I got to have a career, that I got to choose who I wanted to marry and I was blessed with a not-so-meek personality.
The book saddens me a lot thinking that how much a girl/woman has to go through, to just be. The author narrates through the eyes of the counsellor, who is now the final stop for Jiyoung after enduring much in her life battling depression and anxiety after losing her identity!
So, woman of today give this book a go as it leaves you with an anger marinating in your heart waiting to scream out the change in today’s world. Being a mother to girls I surely hope so…….
pulsingthoughts 