#bookclub Last week we held our first book club meeting of this year at the Korean Cultural Center during which we have discussed Lee Geum-yi’s novel Can’t I Go Instead. This book was translated by An Seon Jae and was published by
@scribepub in 2023.
Can’t I Go Instead is an epic tale, written by Lee Geum-yi, about the eventful lives of two women against the backdrop of Korea’s turbulent modern history. These two women are Kim Sunam and Yun Chaeryeong. The latter is the daughter of the viscount Yun Hyeongman, who collaborates with the Japanese Colonial Forces, and the former is a servant, whom the viscount bought from a lowly peasant’s family and gave to his daughter as a birthday present when she turned eight.
The two women are each other’s opposites: Chaeryeong is entitled, opportunistic and conceited, and longs for romance and the grandiose lifestyle of a movie star. Sunam, on the other hand, is humble (though not without boldness), principled and naïve, and is driven by a unending curiosity to learn new languages and skills.
Being a servant, Sunam is treated as an object. The only member of the Yun family who sees her as a person is Ganghwi, Chaeryeong’s half-brother. His gentleness towards her sparks in her a love for him, which she immediately self-sabotages because of the social divide between them.
Sunam and Chaeryeong have different personalities, but similar looks and it is this similarity which propels the plot and makes the two female protagonists travel the whole world. When the viscount finds out that his daughter is having a love affair with a Korean Independence activist, which might taint his reputation as a pro-Japanese collaborator, he forces Chaeryeong to change identity and to travel to San Francisco and subtly manipulates Sunam into assuming the identity of Chaeryeong and joining the Women’s Brigade for the Imperial Army’s Consolation in his daughter’s place (a reference to the title of the book), telling her she will receive a training as a nurse and obtain money and freedom upon her return from Manchukuo.
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