to be clear: i did not like this book. but i think that's the point. it was cold, deeply detached, and cruel at times; lacking emotional depth in some points and in others i was drowning in grief. maybe because that's what the soldiers were in gwangju. or maybe because that's the only way the author and her characters can handle their grief; store it away in a root cellar until they can't anymore. i did not like this book, but i don't regret having read it.