Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. But the story perfectly captures misogynies large and small that will be recognizable to many.Ī compelling story about a woman in a deeply patriarchal society.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. There is not a single move to recognize anything outside of a binary gender. Jiyoung wonders, as she catalogs the ways in which the world is built to accommodate “maximum output with minimum input.who’ll be the last one standing in a world with these priorities, and will they be happy?” To be clear, there’s nothing revolutionary here-it’s basically feminism 101 but in novel form, complete with occasional footnotes. The central critique of patriarchy is clearly-and necessarily-tied in to that of capitalism. The pressure of the patriarchy is so incessant that she starts to dissociate, transforming into other women she’s known, like her mother and her college friend. With clinical detachment, the book covers Jiyoung’s childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, first job, and, finally, marriage and motherhood.
The book’s strength lies in how succinctly Cho captures the relentless buildup of sexism and gender discrimination over the course of one woman’s life. Though her mother encourages and supports her in myriad ways, including making sure she goes to university and follows her heart, Jiyoung grows to realize that in every aspect of life and work, women are dehumanized, devalued, and objectified. At school, she’s told that boys who bully her just like her. At home, her brother gets preferential treatment and less responsibility. Born the second of three siblings, with an older sister and younger brother, her experiences with patriarchy begin early. Kim Jiyoung’s life is typical of a woman in South Korea. A 33-year-old woman in Seoul slowly breaks under the burden of misogyny she's been facing all her life.
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