Ara is her mute hairdresser who dissociates from the tragedy that led her to stop speaking by fangirling a particular K-Pop star. Kyuri is a “top-ten” room salon girl who has undergone massive plastic surgery to become one of the best in her business. We learn about the prevalence of plastic surgery in Korea-1 in 3 women will have a procedure by age 30. We learn about room salons, expensive private bars where Korean businessmen pay a premium in exchange for the company-both sexually and not-of beautiful and attentive young women. Instead, she masterfully contextualizes, using one character’s experiences from temporarily living in New York while attending school to shed light on the ways that Korean culture is different, for better or worse, than what the audience is may be aware of. Frances Cha is a Korean American author writing for a Western audience, but she doesn’t overly explain the differences between the cultures. I have been recommending this book since the day I started reading it.
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