Smile
Albatross for fun
Left
Ciao
Corpse on vacation

Author's Note

Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award, Young Writer Award Grand Prize, Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award,
Winner of the Dong-in Literary Award and the Sim Hun Literary Award

“Anyone who can’t remember the last line
“It makes you laugh and that’s the end of the game.”

The last expression made with all one's might, looking back on life in the face of death

Kim Jung-hyuk, who has built a unique literary world with unique characters and witty narratives, has published his fifth collection of short stories, Smile (Munhak-kwa-Jiseongsa, 2022).
This is the first new work by an author who has swept the country's top literary awards and solidified his influence, winning the Dong-in Literary Award for his previous short story collection, "A Hug with Fake Arms," ​​seven years afterward.
This book brings together five works that have been carefully written and polished, including the title work "Smile" and "A Corpse on Vacation," which won the Sim Hun Literary Award.

Kim Jung-hyuk, who said, “I needed the courage to face what I fear and look at it for a long time, and I tried to gain that courage while writing the novel” (Creative Notes, Corpse on Vacation), seriously addresses the essential issue of death along with the lives of exceptional beings in this collection of short stories.
Without losing the author's characteristically lighthearted and humorous style, it captures death as an undeniable fate and the new possibilities that arise from it.
Therefore, 『Smile』 is the result of Kim Jung-hyuk's diverse talents and intellectual curiosity, which he has displayed since he began his literary career with "Penguin News" in 『Literature and Society』 in 2000, reaching a more mature level.
It is filled with the author's affectionate gaze and deep insight toward those who survived an incomprehensible tragedy.

Can we be sure that we are living beings who have never died before?
Can you be sure that you won't die while you're asleep?
When someone who was snoring in their sleep stops breathing and starts breathing again with a 'gasp, gasp, gasp' sound, they may have died and come back to life.
Death and life may be repeating themselves without us even knowing it.
(「The Corpse on Vacation」, p.
201)

People wandering in the shadows of fate

The characters in 'Smile' are each experiencing similar crises in different situations.
It is the long shadow cast by the death of another on the lives of those left behind.
In the film "Smile," Dave Hahn is on a plane when he discovers that one of his passengers has suddenly died.
He hears from Jack, who is sitting right next to him, that the dead man is probably a smuggler.
He said he died when the heroin he swallowed filled a condom and burst in his stomach.
Jack then urges Dave to look at the corpse's face.


People express their whole life through their last face.
The beautiful memories of childhood, the pain of difficult times, and the regret of the last moments are all reflected in that face.
It expresses at least 30 years of time with one face.
If you can see it, you should see it.
(p.
33)

Dave, unable to resist the urging, sees the body through the curtain for about five seconds as he gets off the plane.
But as time passes, “the man’s face does not disappear and remains in Dave’s eyes” for a long time.
Because there was an unexpected “strange smile” on that face.


I will always remember it.
It will be remembered for a long time, even as time passes.
That's the last power a dead person has.
The final expression I made with all my might so that it wouldn't disappear from my mind.
(p.
40)

Scenes like this, where death imprints itself on the living, can be seen throughout the novel.
While observing Kali and the tribe for research in "Left," Kiha witnesses a duel between two tribesmen.
However, the duel was interrupted by a sudden typhoon, and the man found dead the next day was discovered to be one of the tribesmen yesterday.
From then on, Giha spends his days with the scene of their duel remaining as an “indelible image” and “constantly playing before his eyes.”
He is troubled by the fact that he cannot fathom not only the cause of the death he witnessed, but even its meaning.
So, what was the author trying to express through the sudden appearance of death in the characters' lives and the incomprehensibility it leaves behind?

A single step taken with difficulty on a vast road

In "A Corpse on Vacation," Joo-won travels around the country, living on a bus with the words "I'm going to die soon" written on it.
'I', who happened to see him on television, was overcome with the feeling that he saw "me in the mirror" and went to find Joo-won.
It was because “that person’s face, especially his eyes, never left my mind.”
During the bus trip we took together, I discovered that Joo-won was constantly running away from the mistakes he had made in the past.


Making mistakes isn't simple.
All those records are erased in an instant, all at once.
So I have to die here.
“This is my coffin, my grave, my heaven, my hell.” (p.
197)

After breaking up with Joo-won, who I considered to be my 'other self', I made a very different choice from him.
By burning the conversation records with Joo Won, he “ends his first life and moves on to his second life.”
It is a decision to break free from the abyss of helplessness and inexplicable apathy and move forward toward a new life.
Therefore, "Smile" shows not only the inevitable tragedy of life and death, but also the courage of those who decide to willingly endure the time that follows.
The novel shines with sublime values ​​that only those who have overcome the inevitability of life can discover.


The point where you think everything is over and falling apart can be a new beginning.
(「Ciao」, p.
141)

Author's Note

Sometimes, when I start writing a novel, I start playing music, but then I come to my senses and the music is off.
I love that moment.
The music had disappeared, and I was talking to the main character in the novel without even realizing it.
Even after we realized the music was off, neither I nor the protagonist in the novel needed it anymore.
We continued talking with the music off.
Should I play some music? No, just leave it.
Let's just talk a little more like this.
I talk to people who slap themselves in the face, people who swallow strange substances in their stomachs, people who are trapped on plastic islands, people who are trapped in cars, and people who shake hands for a long time.
To encounter the moment when the music stops and the story continues, I listen to music and write novels.