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WORK TITLE: The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
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PERSONAL
Male.
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CAREER
Writer and novelist. Formerly worked as a journalist.
AWARDS:The Investigation was long listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
WRITINGS
Also author of The Gospel of the Murderer; The Deep-Rooted Tree, 2006; and The Painter of Wind, 2007.
Novels have been adapted into movies, television dramas, a musical, and a play. The Deep-Rooted Tree, and The Painter of Wind were made into television miniseries.
SIDELIGHTS
J.M. Lee is a Korean writer of historical fiction. His novels have sold millions of copies in South Korea and have been adapted in plays, movies, and television series. When Lee was twenty-nine years old he was working as a journalist but began to question himself about what he had accomplished in life. He ended up training for marathons in the morning and, at about the same time, began writing fiction at night. Three years later he finished both a full marathon and a novel.
“I want a fiction that reveals the truth of history, rather than the fragments of it,” Lee noted in an interview for the Banana Writers Website, adding: “I dream about a fiction that can highlight the truth. Truth always has two contradictory sides: light and darkness. Men bear their own light and darkness too: good and evil. No one can avoid them.”
The Investigation
The Investigation is Lee’s first book published in English. Inspired by the real life story of Korean poet and dissident Yun Dong-ju, The Investigation begins in 1944 at Fukuoka Prison. World War II and Korea’s own civil war are raging when young prison guard Watanbe Yuichi is conscripted into service as a guard. He is ordered to investigate the brutal murder of another guard named Sugiyama, who was feared and despised by all the inmates.
Watanabe, who narrates the story, has just begun his investigation when a prisoner confesses to the murder. Watanabe, however, is not convinced. Watanabe is surprised to find that the the fearsome guard who was killed was not only a decorated war hero but a man who also likes poetry. Watanabe discovers a poem by the young poet Yun Dong-ju inside of Sugiyama’s uniform. As a result, he decides to interrogate both the confessed murderer and the poet, who is serving a two-year prison sentence for writings criticizing Imperial Japan. Huffington Post website contributor Steven Petite noted: “Lee fictionalizes Dong-ju …by scattering the poet’s work throughout the prose, at times to drive the plot, and at others, to showcase the talent of a prominent Korean Resistance poet whose dedication to advancing his education deemed him too dangerous for society, and led to his imprisonment.”
Watanabe’s investigation eventually uncovers secrets about the horrible prison where so many inmates die. He also comes to believe that the imprisoned poet may hold the key to the person who really murdered Sugiyama. The story includes a prison nurse who becomes Watanabe’s love interest a greedy governor, and a prisoner who is intent on escaping. Eventually, the bombs begin falling closer and closer to the prison as Wantanabe sets himself the task of saving Yun Dong-ju.
“Readers will find Lee’s novel to be a satisfying mystery supplemented by rich historical detail,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Christine Tran, writing in Booklist, called The Investigation an “intricately layered story of integrity and the struggle to regain identity in a violent, authoritarian wartime era.”
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
In his novel titled The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, Lee presents the odyssey of Ahn Gilmo, a young math savant. The story begins with Ahn sitting in a New York City prison cell. He has been accused of murder and terrorism as authorities believe he is a North Korean agent. When Ahn was arrested, the police found nineteen pages of mathematical formulas as well as four fake passports.
It turn out that Ahn escaped from North Korea, the most isolated country in the world. After escaping he set out in search of the only friend he has left. Ahn sees the world in terms of mathematical formulas and theories. He was arrested when found near an unidentified body and scribblings of numbers and symbols in blood. A CIA operative named Angela Stowe is assigned to pose as a prison nurse to try and understand Ahn’s unique mind.
Before long Ahn’s story is revealed. Ahn is only eleven years old when his teachers become aware that he is a math savant. He ends up being relocated to North Korea’s capital city, Pyongyang, to live a life that only a few North Koreans can even dream about. However, the North Korean regime discovers tha Ahn’s father, a well-known doctor, is a Christian. As a result, both Ahn and his father are imprisoned. Living under harsh conditions, Ahn meets his only friend there, a young woman named Yeong-ae. When Yeong-ae escapes, Ahn decides to follow her. The novel tracks Ahn as he tries to find Yeong-ae and navigates the dangerous underworld in east Asia, mostly relying on his unique mathematical skills.
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise “deals not only with mathematical truths and whether they can be manipulated, but also with the deceptions and connections of languages,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Christine Tran, writing in Booklist, remarked: “Lee creates a dignified and moving portrait of North Koreans’ struggle for freedom … and intertwines it with a rogue-genius adventure.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2015, Christine Tran, review of The Investigation, p. 38; October 15, 2016, Christine Tran, review of The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, p. 19.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2016, review of The Boy Who Escaped Paradise.
Library Journal, August 1, 2015, Terry Hong, review of The Investigation, p. 87; November 15, 2016, Terry Hong, review of The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, p. 79.
Publishers Weekly, June 22, 2015, review of The Investigation, p. 118; September 26, 2016, review of The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, p. 63.
ONLINE
Banana Writers, http://www.bananawriters.com/ (July 21, 2017), P.P. Wong, “J M Lee Interview.”
Counterpunch, https://www.counterpunch.org/ (February 3, 2017), Charles R. Larson, review of The Boy Who Escaped Paradise.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (August 14, 2015), Steven Petite, review of The Investigation.
Jen’s Book Thoughts, http://www.jensbookthoughts.com/ (September 24, 2015), review of The Investigation.
Korean Literature Now, http://koreanliteraturenow.com/ (July 21, 2017), brief author profile.
Paste, https://www.pastemagazine.com/ (December 29, 2016), Bridey Heing, review of The Boy Who Escaped Paradise.
Shots, http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/ (July 21, 2017), Ayo Onatade, “Investigating Lee Jung-Myun,” author interview.
Pan Macmillan Web site, https://www.panmacmillan.com/ (February 12, 2013), “An Interview with Jung-Myung Lee.”*
J M Lee Interview
“I want a fiction that reveals the truth of history, rather than the fragments of it. I dream about a fiction that can highlight the truth. Truth always has two contradictory sides: light and darkness. Men bear their own light and darkness too: good and evil. No one can avoid them.”
J M Lee is a bestselling Korean author who has written eight novels which have been made into movies, TV dramas, a musical and a play. In 2015, his novel The Investigation was longlisted alongside heavyweights Haruki Murakami and Karl Ove Knausgaard for the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
In an interview with BW, Lee shares his delightful musings about the evils of human nature, freedom, imprisonment and hope.
B is for...book. What is your favourite childhood book?
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
A is for… animal. If you could transform into one animal for one week, what would you be?
A bear in hibernation.
N is for… necessary. If you were banished to a desert island and could only bring two items, what would they be?
1. The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, 2. New running shoes.
A is for… authentic. How would you describe yourself in three words?
Writing, running, writing…
N is for… novelist. Which writer do you most admire?
Albert Camus.
A is for… appetite. What is your favourite banana themed food?
Banana itself!
How did J M Lee the author come into existence?
When I was 29, I was working as a journalist and wanted to write something for myself. One day, I came back from work late at night, and then suddenly thought, "What have I accomplished so far?" So I decided to do something within the next three years, not necessarily for public attention but for myself. So I started to run marathons before dawn and write novels at night. And three years later, I finished a marathon and my first novel.
Your latest novel The Investigation has some brilliant depictions of the evil side of human nature. Yet, there are also facets of hope within the narrative. Do you find it easier to write about darkness or light?
I want a fiction that reveals the truth of history, rather than the fragments of it. I dream about a fiction that can highlight the truth. Truth always has two contradictory sides: light and darkness. Men bear their own light and darkness too: good and evil.
No one can avoid them.
And I don’t want to be one-sided. It is said that the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Men can be forgiven as they are evil, and can be saved as they are good. I believe we can balance ourselves by revealing good and evil, and misgivings and repentance all together, and facing both positive and negative aspects of our society.
Your novel talks about freedom and imprisonment. What is true freedom to you?
Korean history for the last century was that of a taken freedom and fights to take it back. In the early 20th, Imperial Japan forcibly occupied the Korean peninsula. Many young men were enlisted in the Japanese army and died in World War 2. Many young women were forced to become sex slaves for the Japanese army. Korea was liberated in 1945, but soon it divided into North Korea and South Korea, fighting against each other for 3 years. South succeeded to rise from the ashes of the war, but military dictatorship constrained its people’s freedom again. Even after the prolonged fights for democratization were finally rewarded, neo-liberalistic capitalism still restricts people's freedom in many ways; not physically but socially and mentally. I hope this tactful but merciless kind of restriction disappears from the world.
In The Investigation you cover the topic of censorship. Do you believe that censorship should ever exist in any circumstance in the writing world?
Of course I strongly believe that censorship should disappear in the field of literature. I want the word to be deleted from dictionaries. Indeed, many countries have minimized censorship and now guarantee writers' freedom of expression. However, some authoritarian states still restrain the right to write with many legal languages such as law of contempt or defamation. Moreover, it is often seen in the modern capitalist society that many multinational conglomerates use the power of capital to encourage or discourage writers to write certain pieces. Not a single attempt to limit or warp writers' conscience should be allowed in any circumstances. Many great writers in history have proven that no political authority can harm writers' conscience nor take away the right to read from ordinary readers. Those great writers’ works demonstrate their pursuit of a writing that is entirely free from any political authority and the power of capital.
Your novel was first written in Korean, before being translated into other languages. Do share with us about the process in getting a novel translated.
The final draft of The Investigation came in 2008. And my agent asked translator Chi-Young Kim to translate the first 30 pages of it. Chi-Young Kim is well-known for translating Shin Kyung-Sook's Please Look after Mom, which was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize.
When translating The Investigation, she did not simply change Korean sentences into English, but also successfully delivered the subtle emotion and lifestyle of ordinary Koreans in Japanese Colonial era. My agent introduced the partial translation and synopsis at the London Book Fair 2012. Macmillan and other publishing companies from five different countries bought the publishing rights. After that, the Korean version of The Investigation was released in June 2012, and the full translation work was finished in late 2012. Two years later, the English version was published in the UK. Thanks to Chi-Young Kim’s tremendous efforts, The Investigation was listed on the longlist for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. I deeply appreciate her.
A Korean academic from a well-known university shared with me that many Asian writers still see being published in the West as validation for their work to be seen as a “success.” What are your insights on this matter?
Asian literature is increasingly gaining its voice among Western societies. Asian writers such as Haruki Murakami have become a familiar name to Western readers. The writers of many different nationalities are delivering political, cultural, and religious aspects of their own countries in their writings, and it’s bringing new inspirations to Western literature.
For Korea, the last century was full of extreme ups and downs: Japanese Colonial era, Korean War, military dictatorship, democratization and rapid economic growth. Korean writers, who have acted as observers of that turbulent history, have been able to portray the nature of power and humans, human rights and
Your novel talks about freedom and imprisonment. What is true freedom to you?
Korean history for the last century was that of a taken freedom and fights to take it back. In the early 20th, Imperial Japan forcibly occupied the Korean peninsula. Many young men were enlisted in the Japanese army and died in World War 2. Many young women were forced to become sex slaves for the Japanese army. Korea was liberated in 1945, but soon it divided into North Korea and South Korea, fighting against each other for 3 years. South succeeded to rise from the ashes of the war, but military dictatorship constrained its people’s freedom again. Even after the prolonged fights for democratization were finally rewarded, neo-liberalistic capitalism still restricts people's freedom in many ways; not physically but socially and mentally. I hope this tactful but merciless kind of restriction disappears from the world.
freedom, and the power of capital and greed. If their works strike chords with Western readers, it is because they can find their own stories from the works. Though each of us leads different lives in different places, we can understand and sympathize with each other through this work of fiction.
Through literature we encounter different nations, different languages, and different lives, and find reflections of ourselves in a different world. That difference assures us that we are all same humans sharing truth, goodness and beauty. The fact that we are different makes us believe that we are not different at all. And that’s why literature is powerful.
George Orwell said: “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” What is your writing process like?
I suppose that he mentioned his pain as a writer to highlight the sense of accomplishment. It is often said that the greater the effort, the sweeter the reward. Writing is indeed a struggle. But the fact that it’s a struggle makes it worth more. Writers are the people who are willing to face that struggle. They are like marathoners standing at the start line. They fear the upcoming 26 miles of running track, but when the whistle blows, they run out to the finish line. There’s no one waiting for them at the finish line. All they can get is the fact that they have just finished running 26 miles.
When I work on my writing, I go to a small office nearby my house at 9 am and write until 6 pm. Sometimes I write a full 250 words, and sometimes I can’t even finish a single sentence. And I love those hours full of solitude and agony.
The Investigation is set in a prison – a nightmarish place. Do you have any re-occurring nightmares or dreams?
I often dream about going back to army training camp after being discharged. One day I even dreamt it four times. I felt very relieved when I woke up.
Your previous novel Deep Rooted Tree became a successful South Korean TV series. Many authors dream about having their novel made into a TV series or film. What was the process like for you?
I've written eight novels so far. Two of them were successfully made into TV dramas in Korea. Another three will be made into movies, and the other two will be made into a musical and a play respectively.
I don't actually think about making my novel into movies or TV dramas in advance while I'm writing. In my personal opinion, written letters or sentences should be the first medium to connect a novel and its readers.
Typically, production companies or film directors first show their willingness to make my novels into TV dramas or movies. Once I accept their suggestions, I try not to influence the production processes, since I’m not a film language expert as they are. Some producers stick to the original characters and storyline, while others try some bold changes in terms of the personality or line-up of the characters. It is the original writers’ privilege to watch how everything changes.
Where does the next unlocked door in J M Lee’s life lead?
Now my English translator is working on the next novel which was published in Korea two years ago. Its English title is The Boy Who Escaped from Paradise. It is a story about an autistic boy who escapes from a political prison camp in North Korea, and wanders around the world. The boy is naturally gifted in mathematics, and he fights against the world full of lies and evil intentions with his talent. I hope to see the readers of Banana Writers again soon. Thank you.BW
Lee Jung-myung
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jung-Myung Lee is a Korean writer. A popular writer of historical fiction, his books have sold millions of copies in his native South Korea. Several of his books have been adapted into successful TV miniseries, e.g. The Deep-Rooted Tree (2006) and The Painter of Wind (2007). Other books include The Gospel of the Murderer, The Boy Who Escaped Paradise and The Investigation.[1] The last-mentioned novel was translated by Chi Young Kim and was nominated for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.[2] The book was inspired by the real-life experiences of the Korean poet and dissident Yun Dong-ju.[3]
INVESTIGATING LEE JUNG-MYUNG
Written by Ayo Onatade
Lee Jung-Myung has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his books in his native Korea. One, Deep Rooted Tree, was made into a popular TV series.
Ayo Onatade – What made you decide to write a novel using Yun Dong-Ju’s poetry in The Investigation?
Lee Jung-Myung - In 1989 during a trip to Kyoto I didn’t at that time understand Japanese very well but I met a student and he became my guide and subsequently my friend. He took me to Doshisha University where I saw a statue that has been raised in memorial for him. My friend was a junior student to Yung Dong Yu at the university but had never heard of him. Yung Dong Yu was arrested by Japanese police and died in jail at the age of 27. I went to the Doshisha Library and found two collections of poetry one in Korean and the other translated into Japanese. I had to read the poems in the library and my friend also felt that he should have known about Yung Dong Ju and read his work. I then felt that I should study both the Japanese and South Korean versions of his poems more closely. After I left the university I never for got the experience. Whilst I worked as a journalist I was determined to find out why he died so young but I never expected to write about him. He is quite famous in South Korea and there is nothing new to write about him.
After writing seven novels I realised that I still hadn’t forgotten about him so I decided that if I was not going to write about his life then I should write about his death instead. There was no information available about his death and that only a few people knew about him.
AO – Comparisons have been made with your novel to Carlos Ruiz’s Shadow of the Wind & Shawshank Redemption. Do you think this is fair?
LJM - In some ways it makes sense. I think there are common themes within each book but there are other themes in The Investigation. The story is about silence and the victim, crime and punishment, humanity and barbarian. I like the fact that my book is being compared to Shadow of the Wind and Shawshank Redemption however I also hope that UK readers will enjoy the book and the themes.
AO - How would you like The Investigation to be remembered?
LJM - I hope that it comforts and heals readers because we live in a harsh world. The difficult situation that we have and live in with the economic crises with the rich verses the poor, racial discrimination and poverty. All society’s problems are characteristic of the book. The characters confront one another but by the end of the novel confront the cruelty together. They didn’t have anything to use but poetry and music to confront guns and knives. I believe that readers can be healed.
AO - What are your views on the war and had they changed by the time you had finished writing The Investigation.
LJM - It was the darkest history in most of Korea as the Japanese invasion lasted thirty-six years and they banned the use of the Korean language. It was the harshest period. There was however a tiny slip of light as most Koreans expected independence. Young Koreans registered to join the Japanese. Yung decided to study in Japan. He wanted to study the military technique and wanted to fight the Japanese. South Korea is now seen as a developing country. Personally the war should not have taken place under any circumstances.
AO - What are you working on at the moment?
LJM - I am working on a novel with the title The Boy who Escaped from Paradise. It is a story about a North Korean who escaped a North Korean prison camp. The hero is a twelve-year-old autistic boy who is a gifted mathematician who escapes to China and then wanders around the world for a period of 8 years. He confronts the world filled with evil with his own talented insight. He solved problems with numbers and maths. Numbers are the key clue.
AO - Why Paradise?
LJM - Paradise is a metaphor for North Korea. North Korea insists its country is “Paradise” whereas this is not the case. More and more people are trying to escape that paradise. I think that the second book is more interesting than The Investigation.
The Investigation by Lee Jung-Myung
Publisher: Mantle (27 Mar 2014)
BUY IT
Fukuoka Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls the war rages; inside a man is found brutally murdered. Yuichi Watanabe, a young guard with a passion for reading, is ordered to investigate. The victim, Sugiyama - also a guard - was feared and despised throughout the prison and inquiries have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses. But Watanabe is unconvinced; and as he interrogates both the suspect and Yun Dong-ju, a talented Korean poet, he begins to realise that the fearsome guard was not all he appeared to be . . . As Watanabe unravels Sugiyama's final months, he begins to discover what is really going on inside this dark and violent institution, which few inmates survive: a man who will stop at nothing to dig his way to freedom; a governor whose greed knows no limits; a little girl whose kite finds her an unlikely friend. And Yun Dong-ju - the poet whose works hold such beauty they can break the hardest of hearts. As the war moves towards its devastating close and bombs rain down upon the prison, Watanabe realises that he must find a wayto protect Yun Dong-ju, no matter what it takes. This decision will lead the young guard back to the investigation - where he will discover a devastating truth . . .
Photo © Ayo Onatade 2014
LEE JUNG-MYUNG
Lee Jung-myung is a writer of historical factions. His novels include The Painter of Wind, The Deep-rooted Tree, and The Investigator.
An interview with Jung-myung Lee
12 February 2013By Pan Macmillan
Jung-myung Lee, can you tell us what your novel The Investigation is about?
The Investigation is a story about censors who burned the poetry of a prisoner. It begins with the murder case of a prison guard in Fukuoka Prison, 1944. A Japanese prison guard was found hanged in the main corridor of the prison. A young guard starts to investigate the murder case and serving a secret cause of writing. He uncovers the conspiracy of Japanese imperialists.
What inspired the friendship between the Japanese guard and the Korean prisoner?
It was 1989; I was on a trip on Kyoto, the second biggest city in Japan. I met a Japanese friend and he became my guide. We were going to his college and to look around the campus, and I found a marked stone. I read what was printed on it and I realized it was the memorial stone of the Korean poet. I realized that he had spent his last student period at that college. We went to the campus library and found two poetry collections, one each in Korean and Japanese. We read the collection in each language. After that we went out of the library and my Japanese friend said that he should have known about him. After I graduated university I worked as a journalist. I have long collected reports and information about the young poet, and I decided to write after 20 years. The inspiration came 25 years ago.
History seems very important to you, why is this?
I am always amazed by the history from between the lines of the record, in other words the unprinted record. I always focus on the unrecorded history. When I read a record, a historical record, I imagine the real side of the history. I think there are three perspectives of history. One is the historiographical, the facts; it focuses on when and where. The second one is the history of the records; it includes the writers, memoirs, and a lot of different things. The third one is a history of interpretation; it depends on the perspective of the historian and the historic research. It consists of the whole history. But I’d like to add one more perspective to that list: the history of imagination. I love to imagine a blank of the untold history. Of course it is fiction, not a fact or historical truth. But I believe that the fiction appears more sincere than the historic truth. I dream of fiction which highlights the historical truths, and highlights the whole history; the fiction that shows the whole historical truth, not a fragment of histories. And I dream of fiction which the people may want to believe is the fact. That is my opinion.
The act of reading and the act of writing are both very important to your characters. How important do you believe it is for people to read and write?
I think reading and writing, as a sentence, or a written work, in other words a book, I think a book can change people, humans, from their hearts. Sugiyama, who dies in this story, shows that, shows how books or reading can change the human being. He was an ignorant and violent prison guard who was slowly but clearly moved by writing. The pure Yun poet makes him change through the writings of Shakespeare and Tolstoy. I think books and writings and music can make the world better. Without them we can only exist in one singular minute.
Every year the London Book Fair focuses on a particular country. This year, 2013, that country was Korea. Why do you think so many English-speaking people are becoming interested in Korean literature?
We have made great economic progress since independence in 1945. We suffered from colonization and the Korean War, but we started again from the ground of the first world. After that we made great progress, but the Western people are aware of our economic progress, our IT, and our life. But the culture of our country is not well known, and they don’t know about our culture. Some of them don’t know about our culture. So the Korean government tried to show it, to let foreigners know about our culture. And a lot of artists in pop songs, or games, and sports made progress in Western countries. So more and more foreigners became aware of Korean culture and they needed more information about our culture. I think that literature or the novel is the best way to know about the heart of a certain culture. So it is timely for the Korean culture to join the market, to be at the book fair.
Lee, J.M.: The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
Terry Hong
Library Journal. 141.19 (Nov. 15, 2016): p79.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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* Lee, J.M. The Boy Who Escaped Paradise. Pegasus. Dec. 2016.288p. tr. from Korean by Chi-Young Kim. ISBN 9781681772523. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9781681772936. F
"There's magic in this world. And miracles." In his second translated work to hit stateside (after The Investigation), best-selling Korean author Lee will make you believe. His silent protagonist sits in a New York City cell, accused of murder and terrorism, his more notable possessions including four fake passports and 19 pages of mathematical formulas written in an unidentifiable language. The nurse in charge interrupts the aggressive FBI interrogation to care for his gunshot wound. Under her ministrations over the next seven days, the suspect will prove how "[n]umbers reveal our secrets," divulging a quest that originates in North Korea and lands in North America, with stopovers in China, Macau, South Korea, and Mexico, as the protagonist moves through a prison camp, casinos, hotel rooms, action flicks, and international markets--all to fulfill a childhood promise of everlasting care (and love). The narrative is again linguistically enabled by gifted translator Kim. VERDICT Channeling timeless quests from The Odyssey on, while highly reminiscent of the contemporary cult classic Vikas Swarup's Q&A (the literary inspiration for celluloid sensation Slumdog Millionaire), Lee's latest should guarantee exponential growth among savvy Western audiences searching for a universal story with global connections. In a phrase, read this.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
Christine Tran
Booklist. 113.4 (Oct. 15, 2016): p19.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
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The Boy Who Escaped Paradise. By J. M. Lee. Tr. by Chi-Young Kim. Dec. 2016. 288p. Pegasus, $24.95 (9781681772523). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Gil-mo, a North Korean defector, is found huddled beside the brutalized body of Steve Yoon, a fellow defector, respected advocate for North Koreans in New York City, and key informant on Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities. Yoon's body is covered in perplexing mathematical expressions, which earns noncommunicative Gil-mo a trip to an FBI detainment center, where he is treated for stab wounds and aggressively interrogated. Noting both Interpol's profile of Gil-mo as a murderous gangster and the mysterious formulas found on Yoon's body, the FBI suspects that Gil-mo is a revenge agent sent by the North Korean government. Gil-mo refuses to speak until his nurse draws him out through complex mathematical puzzles. In their talks, Gil-mo slowly reveals his story, beginning in a North Korean prison camp and leaping to Shanghai, Seoul, and New York City. In sharp contrast to the FBI's theory, Gil-mo is unveiled as an autistic mathematical savant who's used his unique skills to survive a journey through Asia's underworld in order to honor a childhood promise. Lee creates a dignified and moving portrait of North Koreans' struggle for freedom at home and abroad, and intertwines it with a rogue-genius adventure--all without sacrificing the appeal of either plotline. Another outstanding thriller from Lee (The Investigation, 2015), whose novels have garnered massive acclaim in Korea. --Christine Tran
Tran, Christine
J.M. Lee, Chi-Young Kim: THE BOY WHO ESCAPED PARADISE
Kirkus Reviews. (Oct. 15, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
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J.M. Lee, Chi-Young Kim THE BOY WHO ESCAPED PARADISE Pegasus (Adult Fiction) 24.95 ISBN: 978-1-68177-252-3
A North Korean whiz kid tries for a slice of the happiness pie, and complications ensue.Child geniuses, in literature, are sometimes frightening, as in Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai or maybe David Seltzer’s The Omen. As often, they’re simply strange and sometimes pathetic. That’s the case with Gil-mo, who’s no longer young; he says he’s 6, but that’s because he was born on the leap year day of Feb. 29. Numbers are everything to him: “Two unknown variables and one constant—c1 is death and c2 is the murderer, and I am the constant,” he thinks as the book opens, in a scene where, once again, he is in a cell, this time in New York. Once again because, back in his homeland of North Korea—a place Lee, well known as a pop novelist on the other side of the DMZ, describes with aching nostalgia (“the city of weeping willows, the one I left long ago…”)—the young mathematical genius ran afoul of the regime for reasons entirely not of his doing, there to be caught up in an elaborate scheme. Throw in murder, the coefficient of drag, scams, the Fibonacci sequence, and the clink, and you have a Venn diagram in which The Shawshank Redemption and the script to Darren Aronofsky’s first film, Pi, overlap. There are some fleetingly funny moments, some of them building on cultural misunderstanding—as when Gil-mo tries to get across the U.S. border, following the immigrant trail in Arizona, and, as he telepathically tells his Christian father, “[meets] Jesus,” who “dip[s] me in the river and promise[s] me he would take me to America.” It’s nice to have a G-man named Russell Banks, too. Still, as the improbabilities in this probabilistic tale mount, the story begins to look ever more artificial and perhaps even allegorical, a tale in which capitalism and communism alike are found to be more than a little absurd. Read straight, it doesn’t quite work, but as a Candide-like satire best read with a calculator to hand, it has its moments.
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
Publishers Weekly. 263.39 (Sept. 26, 2016): p63.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
J.M. Lee, trans. from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim. Pegasus, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-168177-252-3
Lee (The Investigation) begins this novel of lies and truths with a news story and a mystery: the body of a former North Korean citizen is found in Queens, N.Y., with mysterious numbers etched in blood around the body, and Gil-Mo, a mathematically gifted immigrant from North Korea, is arrested for the crime. Gil-Mo is unable to remember whether he did the murder, or how he arrived at the crime scene. Although he is reluctant to talk, he opens up to Angela Stowe, a CIA operative posing as the attending nurse. As a child in North Korea, he was a math prodigy before being sent to a prison camp with his father, where he falls in love, uses his mathematical skills to get close to a fearsome warden, and eventually escapes. Lee's novel deals not only with mathematical truths and whether they can be manipulated, but also with the deceptions and connections of languages: "A beautiful thing in one language became something tragic in another." Gil-Mo uses math to maintain his connection to the larger world while his own culture slowly dissipates. "The disappearance of our language means that a world, an entire universe, is vanishing." Lee's brilliant narrator is, paradoxically both unreliable and incapable of twisting the truth; despite a sometimes-halting pace, the novel is a smart, riveting read. (Dec.)
Lee, J.M.: The Investigation
Terry Hong
Library Journal. 140.13 (Aug. 1, 2015): p87.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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* Lee, J.M. The Investigation. Pegasus. Aug. 2015.336p. tr. from Korean by Chi-Young Kim. ISBN 9781605988467. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9781605988474. F
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Watanabe Yuichi sits behind bars in Japan's infamous Fukuoka Prison. After World War II, the former "soldier-guard" is now an incarcerated "low-level war criminal" under U.S. control. His written confession, which highlights two people--"one prisoner and one guard; one poet and one censor"--becomes a chronicle of "war's destruction of the human race." Still a teenager, Watanabe was assigned to investigate the gruesome murder of a fellow prison guard whose treatment of Korean prisoners was particularly vicious. One inmate claims responsibility; amid the horrifying injustice, another will harness the power of words that lead Watanabe to the shocking truth. VERDICT Inspired by the too-brief life of Korean poet-hero Yun Dong-Ju, whose surviving verses are hauntingly interspersed throughout, this work is a magnificent testimony to the profound efficacy of literature and the liberating, life-saving act of reading. If Lee's stateside debut is any indication of the quality of his other titles, English-language audiences should demand accessibility to more, also made available under the auspices of accomplished translator Kim, one hopes. For literary fiction groupies, thriller seekers, history aficionados, war voyeurs, all, this exquisite, electrifying discovery awaits.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
Hong, Terry
The Investigation
Publishers Weekly. 262.25 (June 22, 2015): p118.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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The Investigation
J.M. Lee, trans. from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim. Pegasus (Norton, dist.), $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-60598-846-7
This effective, elaborate historical novel is from Lee, a bestseller in his native South Korea. The tale opens with the introduction of the young narrator, Watanbe Yuichi, who is conscripted to be a camp guard at the Japanese Fukuoka Prison during World War II. Yuichi is tasked with investigating the hanging murder of a fellow guard, Sugiyama Dozan, a decorated war veteran. The first clue Yuichi uncovers is a handwritten poem tucked inside Sugiyama's uniform, all the more baffling given the thuggish and cruel reputation of the Butcher (as Dozan is nicknamed). The dogged Yuichi discovers that Sugiyama was a bookworm, wrote poetry, and befriended the young poet Yun Dong-ju, who is serving a two-year sentence for writing subversive literature against Imperial Japan.
The author deftly handles Yun Dong-ju, a character based on the celebrated Korean poet of the same name, but includes too many of his poems, almost to the point of distraction from the otherwise smooth storytelling. To counterbalance the grim penal setting, the infirmary nurse Iwanami Midori is introduced as Yuichi's love interest. The horrors of camp survival, such as the prisoners' escape attempts and the repulsive Nazilike medical experiments, are presented convincingly. Readers will find Lee's novel to be a satisfying mystery supplemented by rich historical detail. (Aug.)
* The Investigation
Christine Tran
Booklist. 111.17 (May 1, 2015): p38.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
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By J. M. Lee. Tr. by Chi-Young Kim.
Aug. 2015. 336p. Pegasus, $24.95 (19781605988467).
Nineteen-year-old Watanabe Yuichi is drafted into the Japanese army and assigned to guard at Fukuoka Prison. In 1944, Fukuoka houses Japan's worst criminals, including Koreans charged with terrorism for their roles in the Korean Independence Movement fighting Japanese rule (1910-45). The body of the prison's most feared guard, Sugiyama, has been found grotesquely displayed, and Yuichi is ordered to find the killer and take over Sugiyama's role as prison censor. Yuichi was raised in a bookshop and is uniquely suited but reluctant to play the role of censor when he discovers the profoundly beautiful works of imprisoned Korean poet Yun Dong-ju. Dong-ju is the key to finding Sugiyama's killer in this intricately layered story of integrity and the struggle to regain identity in a violent, authoritarian wartime era. Based on the true story of one of Koreas most revered poets, Lee's U.S. debut is a breathtakingly beautiful novel that boasts a cerebral murder mystery and a rare look at the human impact of Japan's colonialism in Korea. David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars (1994) makes an excellent pairing, providing a contrasting but also beautifully portrayed exploration of the impact of Japan's role in WWII.
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Tran, Christine
A Math Savant Defects from North Korea in J.M. Lee's The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
By Bridey Heing | December 29, 2016 | 11:40am
BOOKS REVIEWS J.M. LEE
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A Math Savant Defects from North Korea in J.M. Lee's The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
North Korea has long fascinated storytellers, including author J. M. Lee. The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, Lee’s latest novel translated into English, uses the Hermit Kingdom as the backdrop for a tale of defectors, destiny, and hope. A labyrinthine book that weaves through Pyongyang’s choreographed celebrations to Yanji’s back alleys to Seoul’s refugee community, The Boy delivers a haunting journey through the eyes of a young man with Asperger syndrome.
Ahn Gil-mo was 11 when the North Korean school system discovered he was a math genius. Because of his talent, he was relocated to the capital city with his family and enjoyed a life of relative comfort—for a short time. Within a year, his family was arrested after his father was discovered to be a practicing Christian. Separated from his family in a prison camp, Gil-mo befriends a girl, Yong-ae, and ultimately escapes the camp to search for her after she is freed.
Gil-mo’s quest to find Yong-ae takes him from the red light districts of border cities to the high-risk-high-reward world of Shanghai, where he uses fake passports, assumed names, and his math skills to survive. But the law eventually catches up with Gil-mo, and he tells his story from FBI custody as a suspect for crimes ranging from fraud to murder.
Jumping back and forth between Gil-mo’s years on the run and his interrogation by the FBI makes for a clunky and rushed narrative at times, but the novel still offers a fascinating story reminiscent of a North Korean Slumdog Millionaire. This, of course, isn’t a true-to-life tale, but Lee successfully reveals how fortunes can change overnight for society’s most vulnerable refugees. Gil-mo ricochets from wealth to poverty and comfort to danger numerous times, relying on the kindness of others to make ends meet.
Gil-mo’s Asperger’s adds another layer to the narrative, although one that doesn’t feel played out. His fixation on finding Yong-ae is endearing and his math abilities save the day more than once, but there is a sense of exploitation just below the surface. Gil-mo is capable but gullible, willing to retreat into numbers whenever given the chance and unable to see the people’s possible motives for helping him. This mires him in drug rings, fraudulent charity organizations, and other schemes that put him in danger.
Yong-ae herself is more a master manipulator than a damsel in distress. Having defected a few months before Gil-mo, she strings him along when she needs his help. There’s a sadness to their one-sided relationship that tugs at the reader’s heartstrings, underscoring how vulnerable Gil-mo truly is as he moves through the world by himself.
Despite a complex framework that doesn’t always do the story justice, the novel hits a satisfactory end that feels authentic. Lee’s novel touches on the literary need for character-driven stories that move beyond the strangeness and horror of life under the North Korean state. This, along with its thriller-like pace, make The Boy Who Escaped Paradise worth a read.
FEBRUARY 3, 2017
Review: J. M. Lee’s “The Boy Who Escaped Paradise”
by CHARLES R. LARSON
Although we in the West know little about the Hermit Kingdom, I suspect that our governments have shaped much of what we believe we know. That remark is not to imply that life in North Korea is open, free, or even comfortable for most of its people. It’s simply that our sources are so limited and appear to focus, mostly, on the nuclear capability of its regime, now in its third generation. The opposite (what they understand about us) is equally true. Remember the Onion’s cover shortly after Kim Jong Un assumed power? The satirical publication identified him as the world’s most handsome man. And—and this is what is important—he apparently fell for the prank. Each side’s understanding of the other’s has been a disaster, though we can certainly point out numerous reasons why this has been so.
Besides the East/West limitations, South Korean novelist, J. M. Lee, may also be contributing to the misunderstanding between the two Koreas, especially various stereotypes each has of the other. That is not necessarily a bad thing for fiction to do because there is plenty to admire in his novel, The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, particularly its suspense; yet I oddly couldn’t get Lisbeth Salander’s struggle against various evil forces out of my mind when I observed the antics, the obstacles, and the ruses Gilmo (Lee’s main character) employs to, ultimately, reach his success. Success might be defined here in the usual Western way: money, even though Gilmo appears to be uninterested in getting financial stability. But I don’t want to give away that much of the story’s outcome.
Gilmo, who narrates most of the novel and is barely twenty as the story begins, is apprehended in New York City, accused of murdering another Korean and leaving strange pictures and numbers on the victim’s body. The deceased is said to have informed Western officials about North Korea’s nuclear program. After a brief scene interrogating Gilmo, the story jumps back to the beginning of its chronological order, though that sequencing is also interrupted with additional scenes of interrogation. In the first of these flashbacks, Gilmo is in his early teens, attending Pyongyang First Middle School (earlier attended by the Great Leader), where he’s been identified as a math genius, but he’s also almost totally ostracized from the other students. Later, we will learn that Gilmo suffers from Asperger’s, he can’t stand being touched, and his mathematical skills will be elevated to math savant.
Gilmo’s father was a skilled physician but when a high-ranking official who was covered with burns died, his father was demoted to chief undertaker at the hospital. Shortly, both father and son are sent away to one of the country’s boyescapedparasecret labor camps. Contributing to the punishment was his father’s surreptitious conversion to Christianity. Life in the camp (where his father dies) is made even more humiliating than the grueling environment dictates because of a sadistic warden who complicates their lives. Another inmate, known as Mr. Kang, recognizes the young man’s math skills and further encourages him. It is mathematics that thus sustains Gilmo, plus his encounter with the other inmate, Yeong-ae, a girl who is a couple of years older and his only friend. She’s also mathematically gifted and the two of them develop a secret language that they aptly call Gilmese.
Much later, while being interrogated in the United States, Gilmo will explain that language, which he insists is not a code but a language (remember the strange numbers and marks on the body): “‘I made it up.’ It’s an amalgam of the languages I know—Korean, English, Russian, Chinese—and math signs and numbers. Sigma is used as a prefix, to mean adding or building something. ξenergy means cooperation or solidarity, and ξknowledge signifies refinement or knowledge. My language uses +, -, x, ÷, ƒ, Ξ, √ to mean something specific or, when joined with existing languages, to turn into prefixes or suffixes. I have 1,600 words, various derivatives, and a grammar system, and their location in a sentence changes their meaning.” [Note: These are the closest symbols in Microsoft Word I could use to indicate some of Gilmo’s letters and symbols.]
The world of the labor camps in followed by a panorama of international sites once Yeong-ae and Gilmo separately escape from North Korea. You might say that the rest of this intriguing story focuses on Gilmo’s attempts to be reunited with Yeong-ae in what can be described as their rather strange relationship. Remember that Gilmo can’t stand physical contact with another person. We never see the two of them touching. We move from China, to Shanghai, then on to South Korea, and subsequently to Mexico, Europe, and the United States. Gilmo’s search for Yeong-ae (whom he encounters and then loses several times) is based on six degrees of separation and game theory. His mathematical skills assist him at numerous times, typically so that he can acquire vast amounts of money (for example, figuring out the causality of gambling). The story is often breathless in its pace given the fact that only about four years are covered once Gilmo has escaped from North Korea. The translation from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim is as smooth as the surface of a pond. J. M. Lee’s cleverness as a storyteller is a continual delight.
M. Lee: The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
Trans. by Chi-Young Kim
Pegasus Books, 278 pp., $24.95
The Investigation : J. M. Lee and The Lost Korean Poet
By Steven Petite
Just as World War II ended in 1945, the Korean War began. It’s lead up caused by the recent global war that divided Korea into North and South, and also from the rising tensions of what would become the largest mind game of a war in world history, the Cold War. Korea’s Civil War had been in the making within its own country for several years as well due to political movements and disconnected ideologies, and while most of the world focused its fighting in Europe during the early 1940’s, many Koreans were waging a battle against their own people.
This serves as the motivation for J. M. Lee’s new novel, The Investigation. In America, he is a completely unknown writer, but in Korea, his novels have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and one of them was even turned into a popular Korean television show. For the first time, one of his novels has been translated into English by Chi-Young Kim. Translations of foreign novels are always welcome additions for English language readers, and given the state of Korea today and the image that a large body of the American people project onto their culture, The Investigation is that much more important because of the current climate.
Set in Fukouka Prison in 1944, the novel is introduced to readers as a murder mystery inside the Japanese controlled prison walls. A guard is found murdered, and our young narrator, also a prison guard, is tasked to finding out who did it. It is presented as a historical novel with storytelling aspects of modern day thrillers, but Lee adds a unique layer to the hybrid genre by advancing the plot through poetry.
The narrator finds a clue on the deceased guard, a piece of paper with a poem on it which strikes our protagonist as somewhat odd given the reputation and nickname of the Butcher that the war veteran turned brutal guard was given several years back. It turns out that the Butcher had a soft spot as we learn that he had befriended an inmate of the prison. That inmate was serving a two year sentence for contributing to the Korean independence movement by allegedly being a “thought criminal,” a term that was brought to the main stream by George Orwell in his 1949 novel, 1984.
Six years prior to that book release, Korean poet, Yun Dong-ju fell victim to this abstract criminal action. Lee fictionalizes Dong-ju in The Investigation by scattering the poet’s work throughout the prose, at times to drive the plot, and at others, to showcase the talent of a prominent Korean Resistance poet whose dedication to advancing his education deemed him too dangerous for society, and led to his imprisonment. He always wanted to be a poet, but he was unable to get his collection of poetry published before he was locked away, and unfortunately, Dong-ju passed away in prison in 1945, at the height of tensions just prior to the onset of the Korean War. His poetry was not published until 1948, but over the next few decades, his writing became highly regarded and important period pieces conceived over a tumultuous stretch of our world’s history.
The Butcher was an aspiring poet himself, a quality that adds a depth to his character, showing that even the most ruthless of oppressors are capable of having a fascination with the beauty of poetry for human understanding. Lee describes the horrid realities of prison life in Fukuoka admirably, detailing the ill fated attempts at prison escapes, and the constant moral dilemma that haunted some of the more questioning guards inside its walls, including our narrator, Watabe Yuichi. Along with the passages of poetry, our narrator’s love interest with an infirmary nurse is chronicled, providing the necessary attribute of some form of normal human interaction in what is otherwise a bleak, yet honest setting.
J. M. Lee’s first English translation is a puzzling work of fiction that, at times, will feel familiar to novels that Americans are accustomed to reading, but is also distinctly different. Puzzling is welcome here as it provides a realistic look into the real life horrors of the past while displaying the work of a prominent Korean novelist. Readers interested in experiencing book culture from around the world have a new addition to add to their reading lists. The Investigation is a well paced historical novel that introduces English readers to the great Korean novelist J. M. Lee and to the small, yet powerful body of work from a Korean poet of the past. Yu Dong-ju’s poetry is breathtaking, and choosing a favorite poem featured in the novel is not an easy task, but it makes sense to start at the beginning of what he was composing before his imprisonment.
PROLOGUE
- The Sky, the Wind, the Stars and Poetry
Let me look up to the heavens
Without a speck of shame
Until the day I die.
I was in agony
Even from the wind rustling among leaves
I shall love every dying being
Singing of the stars
And I shall walk
On the path given to me.
Tonight too the stars brush against the wind.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
THE INVESTIGATION - J.M. LEE
Sorry for the sporadic posts this month. Work has been keeping me extra busy, and this review is past due for me to have it posted. My review of J.M. Lee's The Investigation first appeared as a starred review in Shelf Awareness for Readers. I am posting it here today with their permission. You're very likely to see this one on my end of the year favorites list! Hope you enjoy...
First line: "Life may not have a purpose."
A deeply touching tribute to the power of art marks Korean author J.M. Lee's first publication in the United States. The Investigation, inspired by a true story, centers on the narrator's probe into the murder of a fellow guard at Japan's Fukuoka Prison during World War II.
Sugiyama Dozen, a veteran of the Kwantung Army, patrols Ward Three with an iron fist--and a wooden club--instilling fear in the Korean prisoners housed there. He also serves as the censor. "Sugiyama considered this silent war in his office the most valuable of them all. Books and records marched forward like enemy soldiers, and within them he found the enemy that gnawed through our healthy empire like a swarm of moths."
When Sugiyama is found hanging naked with a steel stake through his heart, young guard Watanabe Yuichi is assigned the investigation as well as Sugiyama's censoring duties. Through a combination of these tasks, Watanabe uncovers a poet, a pianist, a young kite-flyer and a silent hero, each creating hope and beauty in a devastatingly hideous war.
With stunning language--enhanced by an insightful translation, painfully resonating characters and breath-catching suspense, Lee crafts a gripping, complex tale of literature's ability to transform and unite those it touches, even in the darkest of times. His story pays homage to Korean history, but his characters, their experiences and emotions are universal.
Sculpted from grotesque circumstances, The Investigation is a marvelous work of art. This is a book to savor from beginning to end.
The Investigation is available in hardcover from Pegasus Books (9781605988467).