Horse's Eye
mouse
The rain that hit the railing poured into the house,
blind spot
Uncanny Valley
Without a sound or rumor
bone and flesh
The remaining child

Commentary | Electrification
Author's Note
Announcement page of included works

“Here, you see.
“What you see is not the answer.”

A harmony of tension and anxiety quietly exploding from within

The author delicately depicts the everyday life filled with a sense of tension and the individual emotions that lie in the blind spots of perception, and creates a deep sense of immersion with a dramatic development that instantly shakes up the situation.

"The Horse's Eyes," placed at the very beginning of the book, is told from the perspective of Su-yeon, who moves to a townhouse on an unfamiliar island to help her daughter, Seo-ah, recover from school violence.
While living on the island, the mother and daughter gradually recover, but anxiety grows when Ji-hee's daughter, who helped Soo-yeon settle down on the island, gets involved in a school violence incident and Seo-ah is pointed out as the only witness to the incident.
One day, when a typhoon is predicted to move north, water begins to leak from the roof of Suyeon's house, and the situation only gets worse as thunder, lightning, and wind and rain begin to pour down.
The repairman who came to fix the roof said, “All townhouses are like this.
We would never live in a house like this.
He reveals his hostility toward those who have immigrated from the mainland with the words, “Only idiots live here” (page 29), and Suyeon is precariously burdened by the leaky roof and the anxiety triggered by Jihee demanding that Seoah testify at the school violence committee.

"The Leftover Child," a story told from the perspective of a mother whose daily life is shattered by a school violence incident involving her child who becomes the perpetrator, can be read in a similar way to "The Horse's Eyes" in that it realistically depicts the psychology of parents whose positions change depending on whether their child is the perpetrator or the victim.
While the speaker of "The Horse's Eyes" struggles to maintain the daily life that is just beginning to recover, the speaker of "The Leftover Child" struggles to find out the truth that he does not know.
He confesses, “I was tired of believing that there was a truth that others did not have, and I became disillusioned with myself” (page 276), but he does not stop his journey to find that hidden truth.

"Rat," which shows the extreme of anxiety that foreshadows the collapse of everyday life, is the story of Yunjin, a wife whose husband is a naval officer.
In the naval residence complex, where the husbands' hierarchy is reflected among the wives, Yunjin struggles to raise her two children alone.
One day, while feeling frustrated because her husband returned home earlier than scheduled and did not tell her the reason, Yunjin hears from the colonel's wife that there are rats in the apartment, and also a story about how accidents that occur in the unit are covered up, and how those who are not involved in the cover-up have disappeared.
In the novel, the rat does not appear until the very end.
A rat reveals its presence only through sounds or movements.
In fact, the author seems to be saying that the anxiety and threats that shake our lives are invisible.

"Uncanny Valley" and "Without a Sound" are works set in a fictional wealthy neighborhood called "Cheonghan-dong."
In this secret space, symbolized by the 'mansion', the people who work there every day and the people who belong to it coexist.
First, the 'I' in "Uncanny Valley" is a croquis artist who makes a living as a taxi driver.
When he hears from the police that a female passenger he has admired has become a victim of an acid attack, he suspects the old lady who lives in the mansion where she worked as the culprit.
At the end of the novel, 'I' climbs up the wall of the mansion, which feels like a huge castle wall, and tries to get closer to the truth.
"Without a Sound" shows what happens to 'I', a piano major at an arts high school, while living in a boarding house in Cheonghan-dong.
'I' wants to distinguish myself from the housekeeper who lives there and does housework, but on the day of the house party held at the mansion, the professor who is the landlord asks me to pretend not to exist, and I become coldly aware of my position.
This kind of covert and insidious discrimination that social inequality creates pushes those who do not belong in the "townhouse" out of the boundaries, causing fear and shame.

Meanwhile, "The Rain That Hit the Railing Poured Into the House," which tells the story of a couple who lost their son in a sudden downpour, unable to erase the ill feelings they held for each other, but finally showing signs of recovery; "Blind Spot," which shows an ophthalmologist who has made money by exploiting the blind spots of the law, facing the blind spots in his own life and moving forward; and "Bone and Flesh," which tells the story of an artist who once framed a junior out of jealousy of his talent, but eventually finds his own path by keeping him by his side. These are masterpieces that show Jeon Ji-young's outstanding sense of balance in life and the complex inner world of humans with her own solid prose.

In this way, rather than trying to heal the conflicts and wounds that the characters experience in situations where they are on either side of the fence, Jeon Ji-young focuses on revealing the distorted perceptions and prejudices that emerge in the process.
In the process, a cross-section of deeply buried old emotions is revealed, and the bitter hardships of modern people living with doubts and anxieties are revealed.
Additionally, the author's skill in fitting unique and distinctive elements into a realistic world with a smooth plot adds tension and appeal to the work, piqueing readers' curiosity.

The speaker of “The Leftover Child,” who was doggedly pursuing the truth, said, “I am doing what I can do.
To look at what you see as it is.
“I finally accept that this is the only truth that has been bestowed upon me” (page 278).
Perhaps this realization is nothing other than the writer's attitude toward accepting life and the writer's novelistic attitude toward writing the scenes and stories of ordinary daily life.
Even so, what will the weak gestures of the person who struggles to climb the wall of the mansion to see the hidden side unfold before our eyes?
It's time to take a look at the new world of Jeon Ji-young, who possesses a solid writing style, a well-crafted narrative structure, a sharp intellect, and a thoughtful eye.