Review of Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan

The supremacy of storytelling.

A fantastic and magic realist tale about a giant, a movie theater and a lot of other things. The author managed to conjure a surreal setting, painting sympathetic characters I will never forget and tying seemingly disparate events together through unbelievable, but clever, coincidences. The writing was super smooth throughout. I often forgot I was reading and felt like I was watching an indie film. Unformulaic, but rewarding in its never-ending vortex of event and conflict. A love story, a business venture, a down-to-earth everyman and a vicious family conspire to wreck havoc upon one another’s carefully orchestrated lives. Prophecies ballooning into an epic unfolding beyond the reasonable limit of the contents of one human being’s life. Positing that life is extraordinary in all its manifestations. While the narrative is beatific, it can often strike chords of tragedy. An astounding feat of organization and reconteurship. Will we ever get more English translations from this author? Instead there have already been 3 or more translations of this masterpiece. A rich and disturbing story. An instant classic. A must-read.