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Cho Nam-joo, Jamie Chang: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2020, Simon & Schuster, Limited) 4 stars

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives …

Review of 'Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I don't know anything about Asian, especially Korean culture. I knew that women are treated differently, but I didn't know to what extend. It's not that misogyny, sexual harassment etc. at the work place (or in other situations) doesn't exist in the western world. Or that some men view women as less equal or that women don't get paid as much as men even if they do the same job. But in my world family members aren't sad or disappointed if the newborn is a girl (at least I've never experienced it or heard of it in the same amount I read in the book; it still is possible. In every culture there are people with old views). So, what I meant to say is, that the book is an eye-opener and discusses a very important topic.
Why the three stars then? The writing style is what bothers me. It's felt like a non-fiction (well, I think it's not entirely fiction, because the topic is real and not imagined). But every now and then there are facts about women or society in Korea which were cited with footnotes, like in an academic article. It felt out of place for me. 
At the end, I didn't know what exactly happened to Jiyoung. The book left me confused.