First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

In 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea, Lee Woo-cheol was a running prodigy and a contender for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. But he would have to run under the Japanese flag.

Nearly a century later, his granddaughter is living in Japan and training to run a marathon herself. She summons Korean shamans to hold an intense, transcendent ritual to connect with Lee Woo-cheol. When his ghost appears, alongside those of his brother Lee Woo-gun and their young neighbor, who was forced to become a “comfort woman” to Japanese soldiers stationed in China during World War II, she must tell their stories to free their souls. What she discovers is at the heart of this sweeping, majestic novel about a family that endured death, love, betrayal, war, political upheaval, and ghosts, both vengeful and wistful.

A poetic masterpiece that is a sprawling family saga and a feat of historical fiction, full of mind-bending storytelling acrobatics, The End of August is a marathon of literature.

And cut! That is another work week in the books. Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone is ending the week on a high note. I hope that the week went well for everyone. I hope everyone was able to complete all the tasks they had at the start of the week. I hope that we are all diving into the weekend free of worries. If the work week went the other way, I hope that the weekend will provide you a badly needed respite. We have two days to recuperate and spend time pursuing the things that we love and are passionate about. Oh, by the way, today is the first day of the third month of the year. I hope that the first two months of the year have been kind to everyone. I hope that the rest of the year will shower everyone with good news, blessings, and happiness. More importantly, I hope everyone will be healthy, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

March is also International Women’s Month. Happy Women’s Month to all ladies out there! You are all doing great. Before I dive into the weekend, let me cap another week of blogging with a new First Impression Friday update. An essential part of my weekly blogging routine, First Impression Friday updates allow me to slow down. It provides me a breathing room that allows me to reassess where I am with the book I am reading. Some of my weekly updates have also provided me a backbone for my subsequent reviews of the books I featured. So, here I am again with a new update. For this week’s update, I am featuring Yu Miri’s The End of August, the third consecutive translated novel I read.

It was midway through 2023 when I first came across The End of August. Originally published in Japanese in 2004 – oh, nearly two decades ago – the book was finally made available to English readers last year. It was warmly received by literary pundits; Miri, after all, won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2020 for Tokyo Ueno Station. I surmise this success was also a window of opportunity for making more of Miri’s work available to Anglophone readers. Although I have come across Tokyo Ueno Station, it took me some time to connect the two dots together; I thought that The End of August was originally published in Korean. Anyway, The End of August is the third book in my 2024 Top 24 Reading List I read. This is also the first book originally written in Japanese I read this year. It might be the precursor for another Japanese literature month; I am now having second thoughts if I should dedicate March to female writers instead.

The End of August is a work of historical fiction. The novel, however, starts in the present, with Yu Miri – uncannily resembling the author, or perhaps not – commissioning a shamanistic ritual to get in touch with the spirit of Lee Woo-cheol, her deceased maternal grandfather. Miri was preparing to participate in a marathon. Her grandfather was a renowned runner who trained for the 1940 Tokyo Olympics. Unfortunately, the 1940 Olympics was canceled due to the Second World War. Nevertheless, with the mudangs – a priestess – assisting in channeling the dead, the readers are treated to a rollercoaster ride that takes them to the first half of the 20th century.

The year was 1925. The setting was the Korean city of Miryang. The main storyline commenced with the birth of Lee Woo-gun whose birth was witnessed by his 12-year-old brother, Woo-cheol. Woo-cheol has a passion for running. His ability was known throughout Miryang. The news of his extraordinary talent soon spread beyond Miryang. He would pass on his love for running to his younger brother. Woo-cheol also took on the fatherly role as the patriarch was more preoccupied with his mistress than with his family. Woo-cheol also dreamed of running at the Olympics, representing Japan because the Korean Peninsula was, by then, occupied by the Japanese empire. To fulfill his dream, Woo-cheol joined race after race, winning many of them.

Unfortunately, it was a period fraught with uncertainty. Over the West, Adolf Hitler started his occupation of continental Europe. He was unstoppable. It didn’t take long before the Japanese Empire started its own campaign to occupy Asia. As history books would refer to it, this marked the start of the Second World War. The War would end but Woo-cheol’s aspirations were once again thwarted when the Korean War imploded. But it was not Woo-cheol’s fate that we read about. We read about the lives of his parents, siblings, friends, and even neighbors. The first half of the book was also dedicated to depicting the Korean colonial era. Japanese, instead of Korean, was taught at school. Anyone speaking Korean within the classroom is punished. The relationship between the occupied and the colonizers was strained.

Of the many characters that populated the novel, one character that immediately held my interest was Namiko. Like Woo-cheol, she was born in Miryang. Interestingly, her spirit crashes Yu’s family ritual. She grew up watching the Lee brothers running along the banks of the river. Unfortunately, she was tricked into becoming a “comfort woman” for Japanese soldiers serving in the Second World War. This is quite interesting because this subject seems taboo within the ambit of Japanese literature; this is the first time I am reading a Japanese (although Miri is Korean by nationality) book that directly references this subject. Namiko’s story is an iteration of the evils of the war. Miri did not hold back with the graphic details – ironically, Namiko worked in a brothel called Paradise – and the inconvenient truths.

The historical and cultural touchstones enriched the novel. The novel also contains several cultural touchstones. Korean traditional music and Japanese military music interjected all throughout the story. Miryang Arirang was a song that repeatedly appeared in the book. This is also where some of my concerns with the book arise. Some texts were not translated into English nor did Miri provide a glossary of terms to at least guide the readers. Some words and phrases were preserved in their original form. Among them are eomoni (other), abeoji (father), gamsahamnida (thank you), and ilbon saram (Japanese). While some of the words can be understood through context clues, someone who has no understanding of the Korean language will have a challenging time. Thankfully, I know these words. Personally, I don’t find preserving the Korean term necessary nor did it add value to the book.

Anyway, I am nearly done with the book. I know there are still some actions remaining and I surmise these will bring the present-day Miri some sort of closure, or maybe an understanding of her own complex family history. I am looking forward to how Miri will steer the story forward. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you going to take with you this weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!