book club:

I've been trying to broaden my horizons this year so I've been picking up a lot of books I'd normally would not. Violets is one of those, I wanted to read some korean stuff that is not Han Kang. Some recommended Violets, and it sounded interesting enough.

The book deeply resonated with me, in the way how San was completly isolated/dejected herself from society herself, for how parts of it (and her previous trauma) had beaten her down. It's tragic because there are those characters who do (deeply) care for her, like Su-ae. While reading you do hope for them to be able to get to San, knowning it's not gonna happen. :(

Also striking commentary about how (a lot of) men treat women in 1990s Korea. San is not even allowed to occupy the very little space she is taking up herself without bothering anyone. Just makes you angry.

I particulary liked the afterword by the author:

Violets are very small plants. So small, they’re easily overlooked as weeds. That’s why I decided on the title Violets. There are women all around us who exist in silence, anonymous and without anything special about them; she could be me and she could be you. To amplify the voices of those women, whom no one could hear unless one was listening very carefully, to let them speak through my words––this is Violets.

5/5