Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories by Ch'oe, Myŏngik
Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories by Ch'oe, Myŏngik

Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories

Korean writer Ch'oe Myŏngik was a lifelong resident of Pyongyang, a city his short stories masterfully evoke...
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
SKU: 9780231202718
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 420 left in stock
Author: Myŏngik Ch'oe
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: $94.38
10 customers are viewing this product
Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories by Ch'oe, Myŏngik

Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories

$94.38
Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories by Ch'oe, Myŏngik

Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories

$94.38
Author: Myŏngik Ch'oe
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description

Korean writer Ch'oe Myŏngik was a lifelong resident of Pyongyang, a city his short stories masterfully evoke in exquisite modernist prose. His career spanned decades of tumult, from his debut in the 1930s while Korea was under Japanese colonial rule through the Asia-Pacific and Korean Wars and the early years of the Democratic People's Republic. As Pyongyang transformed from Korea's second city, peripheral to the Seoul-centered literary scene, into a socialist capital in the late 1940s, Ch'oe briefly ascended to the center of North Korean culture. Despite the vitality and originality of Ch'oe's writing, Cold War politics and censorship, including South Korea's anticommunist laws, consigned his work to obscurity.

Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories presents a selection of Ch'oe's short fiction in translation, including later works from hard-to-find North Korean publications. These cinematic, keenly observed tales explore Pyongyang in meticulous detail, depicting the city's transformations and the conflicts between old and new. They pay close attention to the lives of the disaffected and the marginalized: a drifter confronts a former revolutionary dying of heroin addiction; a sex worker is trafficked across the border aboard a train, amid the indifference of her fellow passengers. Later stories provide a striking glimpse of the Korean War--the occupation of Pyongyang, U.S. fighter jets bombing civilian refugees, guerrilla heroics--from a North Korean perspective. Hidden treasures of world literature, these stories offer new perspectives on Korea's turbulent twentieth century, across political divides still in place today.

Author: Myŏngik Ch'oe
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 04/09/2024
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780231202718


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2024

About the Author

Ch'oe Myŏngik was born in Pyongyang in 1903 and resided in the city all his life. The son of a merchant, he ran a small factory while pursuing fiction writing as a sideline in the 1930s. His writing was acclaimed for its modernism and explorations of a city and its inhabitants in flux. His date of passing is unknown.

Janet Poole is chair and associate professor of East Asian studies and distinguished professor of the humanities at the University of Toronto. She is the translator of Yi T'aejun's Eastern Sentiments (Columbia, 2009) and Dust and Other Stories (Columbia, 2018).
Shipping & Return

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Review

Related Products

Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD
Example product title
$94.38 AUD
$94.38 AUD

Recently Viewed Products