Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Banned Book Club

 Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook, 198 pages.

When Kim Hyun Sook started college in South Korea in 1983 she expected to study English Language and Literature and expand her worldview. It was quickly expanded far more then she ever imagined, as she quickly got pulled into the student protest movement through the titular "Banned Book Club." This graphic memoir takes place during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that was very heavy on censorship and very quick to brand any criticism of the government as communism. This memoir is not only Kim Hyun Sook's coming of age memoir, but also a story of people coming together to defy impossible circumstances, often with mixed success.  

This was a very exciting memoir, and it also made me realize I don't know very much about Korean history, even relatively recent Korean history. This is a fast, efficient read that I think is definitely worth the time.


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