Broken Summer

tags: drama, Korean, mystery, revenge

⭐⭐

From Goodreads

A death, a lie, a secret. For twenty-six summers he didn’t have the courage to face the past.

Lee Hanjo is an artist at the peak of his fame, envied and celebrated. Then, on his forty-third birthday, he awakens to find that his devoted wife has disappeared, leaving behind a soon-to-be-published novel she’d secretly written about the sordid past and questionable morality of an artist with a trajectory similar to Hanjo’s. It’s clear to him that his life is about to shatter and the demons from his past will come out. But why did his wife do it? Why now?

The book forces Hanjo to reflect on a summer from his youth when a deadly lie irreversibly and tragically determined the fates of two families.

First time I read a book written by a South Korean set in Korea, one of the free books on Amazon First Reads and the only worth reading. I didn't download books last month because they are waste of my time. I thought this will be different but I was wrong. What else is new? 

The premise is interesting but I was put off right away by the short sentences that remind me of David and Ann reading primers in Kindergarten. Like See Ann run. See David run. Something like that. It's boring. Once in a while there are longer sentences that are more descriptive but too flowery for my taste. Then the author goes back to David and Ann mode. Very frustrating. Lost in translation maybe? 

I liked the mystery enough of the wife's disappearing act and the novel she wrote to be published that might ruin her husband. The book then shifts back and forth from the present to the past 20 plus years. A teenage girl neighbor and friend of Hanjo didn't come home one night and was found dead a few days later. Hanjo's father confessed to the killing and was jailed. So I continued to read regardless of David and Ann distractions until I finished and it is underwhelming. 

Stupid drama annoyed me. It read like a typical Korean TV drama, mystery, incompetent police, social disparity, perceived sexism, love pentagon (oh give me a break!), alcoholism (the ever present soju), suicide, and unnecessary revenge because of misunderstandings and presumptions of the characters. Contrivances abound. The 2 stars are for Hanjo's success story as a painter because that's the only interesting part in the whole novel. How he became successful regardless of his mediocre talent is worth reading but his wife's reason for her actions is unbelievably shallow. 

If you can tolerate David and Ann style of writing, go ahead and download from Amazon First Reads.