An exploration of Seoul — its
landscape and its stories
by Nobel Prize winner J. M. G. Le Clézio
The French writer and Nobel Literature laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio has harbored
a keen interest in Korea that not only prompted him to learn and master the
Korean language on his own but also inspired his new novel. Bitna: Under the Sky of Seoul is Le Clézio’s
portrait of Seoul—its people and its places—rendered with an intimate
familiarity and attention to detail that few non-Korean writers, not to mention
non-natives of the Seoul, could replicate. It is a story of life in the city as
it is being lived today.
Five stories tied
together in a frame narrative on a single theme
A drama about lives and
connections that traverse reality and fantasy
The eponymous main character, Bitna, is a nineteen-year-old in her
first year at university, and a recent transplant to Seoul from Jeolla-do,
where her parents work in the fish market. As it was for Le Clézio, the city is
for Bitna an unfamiliar, crowded, and lonely place. By chance, Bitna gets a
part-time job telling stories to Salome, a woman with an incurable illness who
now spends her days at home, waiting to die. Bitna’s stories open up a world of
adventure for both Bitna and Salome.
Bitna tells Salome five stories in
all: the story of Mr. Cho, a retiree who raises pigeons and imagines the home
he left behind in North Korea during the war as a baby on his mother’s back;
the story of the mysterious traveler Kitty and the messages she delivers to
bring once-distant neighbors together in community and friendship; the story of
Naomi, abandoned as a baby, and Hana, the woman who raises her, and their
encounter with life and death; the story of the singer Nabi, who rises to
stardom but falls victim to the greed and lies of the people around her; and
Bitna’s own story, about her life in the city and the fear she comes to
experience as a result of a faceless stalker. Each story is layered with
diverse themes that have attracted the author’s interest over the years,
including Korea’s traditions, religions, history, and cuisine, as well as
intergenerational conflict, inter-Korean issues, and sociopolitical issues.
Through these stories, Le Clézio
takes the reader on an extensive journey through Seoul, from the back alleys
around Sinchon and Hongdae to landmarks like Gyeongbokgung Palace,
Cheonggyecheon Stream, Bukhansan Mountain, and the Hangang River. Bitna is in fact a personal account of
sorts, interwoven with the writer’s own memories of the neighborhoods he has
gotten to know, the people he has met along the way, and the stories they have
shared with him.
At a certain point, the reader will
discover that the stories in Bitna
are intertwined, and that they resonate in real ways, whether their substance
is true or imagined, fact or fiction. They are stories that reflect the
intersecting experiences of all who live, like Bitna, under the Seoul sky.
Experiences of life,
death, despair and hope in the vast city of Seoul
Bitna is a picture of life in Seoul as it is
experienced by various different kinds of people, with different parts of the
city as backdrops. Le Clézio masterfully ties the individual stories together
into a stirring and lyrical portrayal of the profound human capacity for warmth
and compassion. And yet, as is true of the writer’s past works, the characters
in Bitna are no strangers to sadness.
Their lives are plain, unembellished accounts of the feelings of despair,
sorrow, estrangement, and frustration that pervade the city and settle into its
crevices like layers of dust.
At the same
time, the character Salome, who, at the end of her life, yearns only to be told
another story, and the stories of Bitna, meditations in their own right on life
and death, are a testament to not only the preciousness of life but also the
possibility of a courage that treasures life and refuses to give up on it. Life, the author seems to say, is something
that must be lived to its end, in cries and fits and shudders and a fierce,
constant struggle, until the soul takes its leave. The life that has been
thwarted by defeat and disappointment is more luminous, and the future that
awaits it brighter.
About
the Author
J. M. G. Le Clézio
is a French writer dubbed “the living legend of French modern literature.” Born
in 1940 in Nice, France, Le Clézio holds dual French and Mauritian nationality.
In 1963, he achieved success at the age of 23 when his first novel Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation) won the Prix Renaudot. In 1980, Le Clézio was
the first winner of the Grand Prix Paul Morand, awarded by the Académie
Française, for his novel Désert (Desert).
Le Clézio also received the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 2008. The
writer has written more than 40 novels including Poisson d'or
(1997) and Hasard suivi de Angoli Mala
(1999).
About
the Translator
Brother Anthony
of Taizé (An Sonjae) was born in 1942 in the UK. He studied Medieval and Modern
Languages at Oxford and in 1969 he joined the Taizé Community in France. He
taught English literature at Sogang University, Seoul, for nearly three
decades. He is emeritus professor at Sogang University and chair-professor at
Dankook University. Since 1990 he has published more than forty volumes of
translated works by such esteemed Korean authors as Ku Sang, Ko Un, Cheon
Sang-byeong, Shin Kyeong-nim, Park Yuhui, Yi Mun-yol, Do Jong-hwan, and Jeong
Ho-Seung. Since January 2011 he has been president of the Royal Asiatic
Society’s Korea branch. He received the Korean government’s Award of Merit, Jade
Crown class, in October 2008 for his work to spread knowledge of Korean
literature throughout the world. In 2015 he was awarded an honorary MBE by Queen
Elizabeth for his contributions to Anglo-Korean relations.