Page 8 - Boca ViewPointe - August '20

Page 8, Viewpointe August 2020
Book Review

Two Feminist Novels From patriarchal culture. Bullying and being picked on, subject
to flashing and peeping by uncouth boys in grade school,
Turkey And South Korea unwanted advances by male teachers, condescension and
harassment in the work place, even a spycam, installed, as
Elif Shafak. 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World. a prank, in the ladies stalls in the workplace. Kim Jiyuoung
New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019. is willing to work hard and fight for advancement and self
Cho Nam-Joo. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, trans. Jamie Chang. respect. She is an average young person motivated by her
New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020. mother’s great industry and work ethic. Interspersed in the
“For people like us who believe in physics, the separation novel are so called corrections in Korean society, statistics
between past, present and future has only the importance of rendered in footnotes about efforts to alleviate the injustice
an admittedly tenacious illusion.” Albert Einstein’s epigraph of gender inequality and efforts to narrow the pay gap.
to Shafak’s novel Kim Jiyoung is fortunate to have found a man, a fellow
“For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are student Jung Daehyun whom she met in her hiking club
one.” Kahlil Gibran in university who respects and supports her, helping her
“There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the two authentic relationships, first with a childhood chum, to absorb the shocks. He listens to her needs, prepares her
interval.” George Santayana the pharmacist’s son, Sabotage Sinon, from whom she is favorite dishes, provides a reliable support but ultimately
“Though Death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.” Shakespeare separated at youth, and then a German-Turkish idealist D/ she is subject to the angst of western women. She resents
Aly a client with whom she forms a passionate bond. In the the fact that her husband earns more money in his job than
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers end, her workplace friends suffer, mourn and, in a madcap she does, feels the pressure to quit her job after her daughter
conclusion, give her a proper, respectful burial. Jiwon is born, and even her husband’s loyal support has
Two exceptional novels Cho Nam-Joo’s novel has achieved a popular first novel “pricked her heart like a short, fine needle and made a
by Asian writers offer success in Korea, translated into many languages, and also microscopic hole.” Finally she endures the disparagement
sociological studies of rendered into a film released in Asia. A psychological study of being identified as a stay-at-home mother. The quirky
their respective societies, like J.D. Salinger’s Holden in Catcher in the Rye and Philip conclusion has the psychiatrist undergoing a transformative
one celebrating the Korean Roth’s Alexander in Portnoy’s Complaint, the subjects moment reevaluating his preconceptions relating to himself
heroine Kim Jiyoung born speak in their own voices. But here the narrative is rendered as a man, husband, and employer.
1982, the other the Turkish- by her psychiatrist’s clinical notes on manifestation of Like other great novelists, Balzac, Dickens, Edith
Kurd Leila Afife Kamile psychotic behaviorism of multiple personality disorder. Wharton, these two distinctive authors show their story
dying on November 29 Kim Jiyoung is a troubled person in her thirties, and the telling skills as well as offer penetrating studies of their
1990. Both authors, gifted novel represents her effort and that of her husband to seek distinct societies. Both authors share disdain toward
story tellers, have undertaken to render the role and psychological counseling, manifesting from post-partem traditional patriarchal culture in Korea and Turkey, and
treatment of women in their different societies, and native depression after the birth of her daughter. advocate for social change as much as flaunt their talents
cultures. In Shafak’s presentation, women are subject to But the subject more generally is the condition of women in engaging the reader.
much harsher treatment, while Cho Nam-Joo recounts the in Korean society, and the typical condescension that an
more subtle sorts of discrimination in Korea. alpha society displays towards women. The girls here Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, a resident of La Paz, is Emeritus
Professor Shafak is a university trained political experience various forms of discrimination from an ancient Professor of English. 
scientist, author of 11 novels, and has taught at Oxford
University as well as lectured and authored Ted talks in B’H
the United States. Currently being investigated by Turkish Sabra Wall Decor
authorities for her unflattering representation of the Turkish
underworld, Shafak writes with a deep feminist wound
from the perspective of a British educated, Turkish author; EstimatEs
depicting the fierce harshness of Turkish-Muslim society
toward women. But she is an accomplished novelist who
can paint a realistic picture imbued with drama, moral Painting & More ...
authority and a remarkable gift for magical realism,
enjoined to a romantic sensibility.
“Tequila” Leila was born to a pious Muslim-Kurdish • Popcorn Ceiling • Wallpaper Removal
family in Van, a city one thousand miles from Istanbul,
and her very birth underscores the forsaken conditions • Knock Down
of women in her society. Her father Haroun, married to • Drywall Repair
a barren wife, takes a second wife, an illiterate peasant
from a farming community to produce a son. Instead Cell: (954) 931-4716 Licensed & Insured
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Leila is instructed that the first wife Suzan is her mother
and Binnaz known and treated as unreliable and frivolous
Auntie. Subjected to repression, raped as a child, forced
into an undesired marriage, Leila will escape to Istanbul
to undertake the only profession available to her: as a
prostitute among the down and out of urban Istanbul society.
The novel opens with her submerged in a trashcan on
the outskirts of Istanbul after being raped and abandoned.
There are notable flashbacks over the course of ten minutes
thirty eight seconds in the final moments of her life that
recount her biography from her childhood and youth to
the cast of friends that represent the substrata of Turkish
society; immigrants from countries like Africa, Lebanon,
Mesopotamia, performing as transvestites, dwarfs, fortune
tellers, chanteuses, healers, socialists, all escapees or
rejections from conventional society. Linked by their
common ostracism, their need for each other creates a
formidable bond. Her story of the exigencies of survival
and the friendship between five indomitable friends and Eye Examinations by an Independent Doctor of Optometry
their escapades and rebellions constitute the meat of the
novel. Dr. Robert Steven Horowitz
Leila is the beneficiary of a proper Muslim, pious Dr. Horowitz has practiced optometry in South Florida since 1981
upbringing; she depicts vivid sensuous memories in the
kaleidoscope of her life bringing forth the places, sights and European Frames • Sunglasses • Contact Lenses
even tastes of food in her reminiscences. She has enjoyed
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