I Went To See My Father [아버지에게 갔었어] is the third novel by Shin Kyung-Sook [신경숙] translated by Anton Hur. It follows Hon–Honnie–, who returns to J– two years after the death of her daughter to take care of her father while her mother is hospitalised in Seoul. During her stay, she retraces her father's life story and discovers the many family secrets that rest in the past.

After reading Violets last autumn, I wasn't expecting Shin Kyung-Sook's new novel to be an easy read. And indeed, it wasn't.

Throughout the pages, Hon finds in her memories and others's the tools to map her father's own past. Each relative becomes a standing point in time and space, a new layer of the father's story to unfold. As the layers reveal themselves, we readers discover the underlying trauma of loss, war time, as well as the difficulties of a man to sustain his family during the emergence of a capitalist world.

The strong relationship between Hon and her father made me very emotional, for it displays two persons deeply scarred by grief and loneliness, and having the story centred on these two felt like an invitation for being alone together. This was something I would relate to a lot, for my relationship with my own father is very simple and often wordless. But sometimes, connections with your loved ones need no words to be beautiful and meaningful; this story made me remember that.

I know too little of Shin's works to make assumptions, but the countryside and nature seem particularly pervading the landscape of her novels. There is this feeling that she wants herself and her readers to be grounded, to return to their roots, and to explore the genealogy of their family–their hi-story.

Again, that was a success for my part. Being French, I was very impressed by how impactful France appears in this novel of hers. If I had the opportunity to meet Shin and discuss IWTSMF with her, that would perhaps be the first question I'd ask her: "Madam Shin, what makes me feel so connected to you? What makes South Korea and France so connected in this work?" Yes, that would be my question(s).

The novel is so versatile in itself in terms of genre that it is difficult to summarise it in a few words: a memoir? an autobiography? autofiction? fiction? Shin blurs the lines between all, so much so that we can't really put a label on her work. What I think readers should know in advance is that it is relatively slow-paced. The narrator processes to an endeavouring work of archiving memories, of finding out those archives through letters, recorded discussions, taped responses, etc.

Last but not least, I want to praise Anton's work again! Some of the stylistic choices were very interesting and made me curious. I mentioned earlier the importance of France in the novel; one of the first things that struck me was the use of dashes for dialogues, which is something French writers use, unlike American and British authors. I wondered if Shin's work used them initially or if Anton chose them himself, and if so, why? Also, again I know very little of the Korean language but I do know that subjects are sometimes not specified in a sentence because the sentence is clear enough for people to get who's talking and to whom. That's something I found in the book, too, especially in Jung Darae (the mother)'s part.

OK, I should stop there, shouldn't I? Overall, I would strongly encourage you to take up this book and discover Shin Kyung-Sook's works! I really really enjoyed this one and will surely read it again in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for the opportunity to review the novel in advance! It was an immense pleasure!

Unlike Please Look After Mom (which I absolutely loved!!!!) — I Went To See My Father starts on a much slower and tender pace. Daughter moves back to home to care for her father while her mother is in town, and the two are awkward and don’t know how to act around each other.

As they start getting use to each other’s company — the two begin to share and open up. When you see your parents, they’re just your parents right — but they were also adults and children long before they became “mum and dad”.

In this one, the father recollects his memory of his childhood post-war, all the loss and sacrifices he took to get to where he is today, and uncovers secrets and regrets l that he might have wanted to keep hidden.

I definitely enjoyed Please Look After Mother more as it was more fast paced with multiple POV, but this one is still a roller coaster ride of emotions.

I didn’t finish this book for a couple of weeks.

First, I think the formatting wasn’t correct on the kindle version… there were some parts of dialogue broken up and really really long paragraphs.

Second, it was really hard to follow such an unstructured book format with such long chapters. It wasn’t always clear to me who was talking or if we were in a diff timeline. The first two chapters were a third of the book.

While it covered a lot of topics, I might need to try again with the printed copy.

Slow and descriptive, tender and heartbreaking. I don't usually go for books this slow-paced (or maybe it just doesn't feel that way for me) but the author did a brillant job with the atmosphere of the plot, which was almost unbearably heavy with the weight of all that was left (often intentionally) unsaid between the characters. The writing on this one is beautiful and the characters are as complex as they are loveable.

Thank you for this eARC, I'm so glad I got to read this book.

We often see our parents as just our parents, but when we are faced with the reality that they were/are full human beings we need to think about them as people, not just parents. I love the cultural part of this book and the daughters journey to reconstruct her father's life as a person, not just as her father.

"Last night, I briefly wondered if I had come to take care of Father or for me to be taken care of..."

Hon is a well established writer, returning home, after a long time, to take care of her aging father. While he suffers from severe insomnia that causes frequent memory losses, she keeps remembering and re-living things from her childhood and her father's past, that reflect so well the turbulent history of the 20th century South Korea.

But how reliable are our own memories and how factual our stories? The daughter remembers her father as hard-working and humble farmer, and a loving father of six, but is that all there is to say about him? What about his own dream and aspirations, and the secrets he kept from his family?

In her newest novel to be translated to English by Anton Hur - "I Went to See My Father" (아버지에게 갔었어) - Shin Kyung-sook returns to the topic that made her internationally famous - emotional writing about the parental love and sacrifices they make for their children.
But this book is neither a prequel or sequel to "Please Look After Mom" (2008), as the cast of characters is not the same, but the two books inhabit the same world of ageing parents, living in the countryside and finding it hard to catch up with Korea's rapid development, and their grown children, all of whom had left to study in Seoul.

The narrator shares many similarities with the author - from where she was born (North Jeolla Province in the south of SK!) to the title of her debut ("Winter Fable"). This is nothing unusual, as many of Shin's books contain details from her own life. But I still wouldn't call them autobiographical, because the author frequently questions the factuality of writing and its limitations in conveying the truth. You see, even if, at first, she seems like a somewhat "traditional" writer, with her beautifully atmospheric, detailed and emotional prose, she is very contemporary in a way she plays with the elements of her autobiography and tests the limits of storytelling and the text. I am always amazed at how well she is able to balance the emotional with the analytical, even the philosophical. But then again, this is why Shin Kyung-sook is one of the greatest contemporary authors from South Korea.

So moving and pure in emotion. This book is guaranteed to steal hearts of many, many readers. I was drawn in from start to finish, and the conclusion was just beautiful. Highly recommended.

What happens if you got to know about your father’s sacrifice and his Vulnerability during postwar in South Korea?

If you stumble upon a chest of letters and discover the truth of your father’s past and your own family history?

If you ask around about him to recollect his forgotten memories from your siblings or his friends during war or your mother?

I fell in love with Shin Kyung Sook’s writing right after reading “Please Look after Mom” and this book is another Gem 💙

Publication Date - April 2023
I would highly recommend this one!

A beautiful novel a book that drew me right in made me emotional didn’t want it to end.Will be recommending and gifting.#netgalley #astra

Unfortunately this book was not for me and I ended up DNFing. For me it was very slow and I felt that how it was written left the reader confused by what was going on with the story. I can see how people would like this though it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of I Went to See My Father.

I really enjoyed the author's first book, so I was excited when my request was approved.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this as much as I did Please Look After Mom.

It might be because I'm not in the right mindset for this type of novel but I found the narrative very slow and tedious.

I appreciated the premise, how the main character, Hon, discovers her father is more than just a parent, but a human, a man with wishes, hopes and dreams and, when she delves deeply into his background and childhood, unearthing family secrets and unspoken truths.

But, I found the writing style dull, since the narrative consists of summarizing; Hon summarizing her father's life, his childhood and seminal life events, how they spend their time together and how she feels about him.

There were some observations Hon makes I found incredibly relatable; for example, the way we see and view our parents when we come across them in a setting out of context.

I think fans of the author would enjoy this.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you for granting me access to this book. I cried at how beautiful this is. I plan to make everyone I know read this book as soon as it's out. Just, wow!

A beautifully moving novel. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.