A global phenomenon and a book I have heard a lot about, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is one of those novels I have seen floating around bookish social media for some time now. It is also a novel that has never been shared without a good word in my circles. In hopes of expanding my everyday reading more broadly (a practice I mention in my reading books from around the world discussion post), I knew this book would be one to add to my tbr list.

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirty-something-year-old “millennial everywoman,” she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist. In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behaviour is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first. Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning” birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?

From the get-go, I knew Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was going to be something sharp, emotive, and thought-provoking, and I was right. There are so many themes, ideas, historical norms, and social behaviours mentioned throughout the read that had me itching to grind my teeth. They genuinely annoyed me, and the references to acts, articles, and various other cited works gave so much gravitas and weight to the punchy prose Cho Nam-Joo has written. This outlines so much misogyny and systemic sexism that has plagued South Korea’s industralisation and current social climate, from education and schooling to work-place treatment and mistreatment, and throughout the novel the traditional views of gender bias in the family rang loud and clear. This isn’t a phenomenon unqiue to South Korea by any means, but the studies referenced show it is certainly most evident in South Korea.

That ending makes all the reactions and emotions built up inside me all the more eager to be unleashed too, and I couldn’t have pictured a better way to draw Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 to a close. That may surpirse some people, but honestly if it had gone any other way I don’t think I would have had this strong a reaction, nor been so fired up to write this review. It is exactly what Cho Nam-Joo has shown throughout the novel, proven in the citations and made you aware of as each chapter passes by. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the themes this book is known for come back in full force.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is one of those books everyone needs to read. I don’t care how old you are, where you grew up, where you live, or how you think you view others in your life. This book will make you reconsider it all, all the way back to your roots, and you will experience an enlightenment. It is a powerful book, one that can bolster change and one that sheds light on the voices of those often overlooked and dehumanised: women.