This is a man's world
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Description
Book Introduction
Cheon Myeong-gwan returns with a full-length novel after four years, an even more powerful page-turner! A thrilling roller coaster ride, a feast of male commotion and banter. Cheon Myeong-gwan, arguably Korea's greatest storyteller, has published his new novel, This is a Man's World, through Yedam. It's been four years since my uncle Bruce Lee. Having demonstrated the power of a bold narrative through the bizarre life story of a man set against the backdrop of turbulent Korean society, he now presents a black comedy about the commotion of back-alley gangsters. The story of a group of men searching for a silver lining in life, centered around a seasoned gangster boss in the back alleys of Incheon, is vivid and three-dimensional, as if watching a movie. Cheon Myeong-gwan's characteristically witty banter that drives the narrative remains intact, but more than anything, the men's rough language and jokes that unfold around the dialogue create a precarious ripple as if riding a wave. The conversation continues without us knowing whether it is a joke or serious, whether he is really stupid or just pretending to be stupid. As the title of the novel suggests, "This is a man's world," the moment we define it, we are reminded of how flimsy and shallow the man's world is, made up of such shallow desires. The series of zany questions and absurd actions that unfold one after another are laughable, but the characters who deal with the events before them with a rather serious attitude even bring about a sense of pathos. A vile world where you can't tell if someone is righteous or evil, or on your side or the enemy's side. But there are those who persevere and want to prove their success. In this novel, Cheon Myeong-gwan ridicules the lives of gangsters by making them look like a joke, but at the same time, he testifies that this is our story. |
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Preview
index
This is a man's world
Benz
diamond
A cruel love
word
cat
actress
tiger
Epilogue
Author's Note
Benz
diamond
A cruel love
word
cat
actress
tiger
Epilogue
Author's Note
Into the book
This is a man's world
People say that if you go in and out of the house, you'll ruin your life.
I didn't see anyone making money there.
If you look into it, it's all a scam.
But still, there are people who go to places like that and shove money in.
Isn't it strange? Someone gave this absurd phenomenon a name: the Manhole Law.
The Law of the Manhole: What's that? If you leave a manhole cover open, someone is bound to fall in. That's it.
So, you shouldn't have left the manhole cover open in the first place, but what can you do? It's already gone.
Swish!
--- p.21
He felt he could no longer keep up with the pace at which the world was changing.
During that time, I had a wonderful wife and even owned a famous meat restaurant in Yeonsu-dong, but at some point I started feeling depressed.
In short, the fun of living has disappeared.
Around that time, what he was interested in was nice cars and nice suits.
When I went out dressed up in an expensive Italian suit, I felt a little better for a moment.
Still, sometimes I miss the days when I used to run around the racetrack frantically, holding a bundle of betting tickets.
A man's life is usually like that.
--- p.126
Genie always thought of her past life as being like a small planet orbiting a star.
From a young age, she had been wandering around the entertainment industry, dreaming of happiness that was elusive, but she didn't even know what that happiness was or what it felt like.
So, no matter how much I drank, I always felt thirsty.
I was always wandering, yearning for the star, but I was never able to approach its center, and I was also never able to leave the star and freely travel between stars.
And finally, she thought she was approaching the center of the star, but it was too hot for her to bear.
It was a situation where everything would melt away.
--- p.269
President Yang suddenly missed his father.
Looking back, everything he learned about life was taught to him by his father.
How to set the bait, what current to cast the line into to catch the fish, where to hit to knock the opponent down in one hit… … .
While he was alive, he hated his father from head to toe, but he could not deny that fact.
The only difference was that Mr. Yang loved himself too much, while his father hated himself too much all his life.
It was only relatively recently that I came to understand my father's life.
But his father, who should have understood him, had already died a long time ago, so he was alone in the world.
Mr. Yang realized that he was living longer than his father was when he died.
And I felt like living was a lonely thing for everyone, no matter who they were.
The West Sea came into view in the distance.
After staring out the window with blank eyes for a while, President Yang suddenly began to cry, his shoulders shaking.
People say that if you go in and out of the house, you'll ruin your life.
I didn't see anyone making money there.
If you look into it, it's all a scam.
But still, there are people who go to places like that and shove money in.
Isn't it strange? Someone gave this absurd phenomenon a name: the Manhole Law.
The Law of the Manhole: What's that? If you leave a manhole cover open, someone is bound to fall in. That's it.
So, you shouldn't have left the manhole cover open in the first place, but what can you do? It's already gone.
Swish!
--- p.21
He felt he could no longer keep up with the pace at which the world was changing.
During that time, I had a wonderful wife and even owned a famous meat restaurant in Yeonsu-dong, but at some point I started feeling depressed.
In short, the fun of living has disappeared.
Around that time, what he was interested in was nice cars and nice suits.
When I went out dressed up in an expensive Italian suit, I felt a little better for a moment.
Still, sometimes I miss the days when I used to run around the racetrack frantically, holding a bundle of betting tickets.
A man's life is usually like that.
--- p.126
Genie always thought of her past life as being like a small planet orbiting a star.
From a young age, she had been wandering around the entertainment industry, dreaming of happiness that was elusive, but she didn't even know what that happiness was or what it felt like.
So, no matter how much I drank, I always felt thirsty.
I was always wandering, yearning for the star, but I was never able to approach its center, and I was also never able to leave the star and freely travel between stars.
And finally, she thought she was approaching the center of the star, but it was too hot for her to bear.
It was a situation where everything would melt away.
--- p.269
President Yang suddenly missed his father.
Looking back, everything he learned about life was taught to him by his father.
How to set the bait, what current to cast the line into to catch the fish, where to hit to knock the opponent down in one hit… … .
While he was alive, he hated his father from head to toe, but he could not deny that fact.
The only difference was that Mr. Yang loved himself too much, while his father hated himself too much all his life.
It was only relatively recently that I came to understand my father's life.
But his father, who should have understood him, had already died a long time ago, so he was alone in the world.
Mr. Yang realized that he was living longer than his father was when he died.
And I felt like living was a lonely thing for everyone, no matter who they were.
The West Sea came into view in the distance.
After staring out the window with blank eyes for a while, President Yang suddenly began to cry, his shoulders shaking.
--- p.280
Publisher's Review
This is a man's world
Anything that was really profitable always smelled good.
A light and refreshing scent, like a high-end cologne! That's exactly what it was like right now.
Ultra, a young gangster who dreams of becoming a full-fledged member of an organization and works under his older brother, goes to get horses groomed on the orders of a boss who has invested in a private horse racing business, but accidentally steals a stallion and secretly raises it.
But who would have thought that stallion would be worth 3.5 billion won?
The frightened Ultra begins to run away, dragging his stallion along.
Meanwhile, gangsters from all over the country begin to gather around Yang, the president of the Incheon coastal faction, in order to target smuggled diamonds… … .
The moment of decisive battle is approaching, with everyone from long-time, big-time gang leaders like Chairman Son of Busan and Chairman Nam of Yeongam to rookie thugs who have caught wind of it gathering together.
Who will finally get their hands on the diamond?
Will Ultra be able to escape safely with the 3.5 billion won stallion? A group of lowlifes, including gangsters, thugs, third-rate porn directors, designated drivers, con artists, and masseuses, begin a gamble where they each risk their lives.
Although this novel is not an epic, it features a fairly large number of characters.
Still, as if watching a tightly woven script for a caper movie, the main characters form teams and move toward the same target.
Of course, there is no trust or negotiation in this situation.
Only the one who gets the target first is the true winner.
The story of Cheon Myeong-gwan, who spreads out without hesitation even within the tangled network of gangsters, unfolds with thrilling twists and turns like riding a roller coaster.
How will life unfold? This time, too, I can't guess.
Just like the story of Cheon Myeong-gwan, who doesn't know where he will go!
This is a Man's World first met readers through a four-month pre-serial run on Kakao Page.
Despite the platform's nature of favoring works centered around popular genre fiction rather than literary works, it received strong support from over 80,000 readers and was flooded with comments asking for it to be made into a movie.
As Cheon Myeong-gwan has built up his narrative skills outside the solid framework of Korean pure literature, he is bound to have a large intersection with the public.
Cheon Myeong-gwan, who develops his own story by thoroughly delving into the essence of storytelling rather than the tastes of a literary genre, is the writer who most faithfully conveys the context of traditional narrative.
The whimsical imagination and boundless power of storytelling that began with whales expanded into the possibility of realism with a socially critical consciousness through my uncle Bruce Lee, an aging family.
This novel is more popular and cinematic.
It is simple and concise enough to appeal not only to traditional literature readers but also to young readers familiar with web novels and smartphones.
But in those concise lines and stories, Cheon Myeong-gwan's unique way of speaking, which captures the sorrow and irony of life, still lives and breathes.
The men in this novel did not inherit a smooth life.
I just inherited the law of survival that says you have to attack your opponent before you get hit, while showing off your presence by jumping around like a bad guy.
The author describes the lives of males who go into battle armed with lies, boasts, and harsh words as weapons, with a mixture of cynicism and humor.
But even for those whose lives are vain, dreams and innocence are secretly stirring.
Yeonhee (Genie), the only female character to appear, displays unrivaled magical powers among savage and violent men.
As the author quotes James Brown's lyrics in the introduction to the novel, "Men are nothing without women," this expression also symbolizes the emptiness of these shabby men's inner selves.
The story of Cheonmyeonggwan, which you cannot let go of once you grab it, continues.
The story is given life and moves on its own, free from expectations and speculations.
There is no way to guess what the characters' fate will be.
If there is an author who writes our lives, I would like to ask him.
So we wait for Cheon Myeong-gwan's next story.
Anything that was really profitable always smelled good.
A light and refreshing scent, like a high-end cologne! That's exactly what it was like right now.
Ultra, a young gangster who dreams of becoming a full-fledged member of an organization and works under his older brother, goes to get horses groomed on the orders of a boss who has invested in a private horse racing business, but accidentally steals a stallion and secretly raises it.
But who would have thought that stallion would be worth 3.5 billion won?
The frightened Ultra begins to run away, dragging his stallion along.
Meanwhile, gangsters from all over the country begin to gather around Yang, the president of the Incheon coastal faction, in order to target smuggled diamonds… … .
The moment of decisive battle is approaching, with everyone from long-time, big-time gang leaders like Chairman Son of Busan and Chairman Nam of Yeongam to rookie thugs who have caught wind of it gathering together.
Who will finally get their hands on the diamond?
Will Ultra be able to escape safely with the 3.5 billion won stallion? A group of lowlifes, including gangsters, thugs, third-rate porn directors, designated drivers, con artists, and masseuses, begin a gamble where they each risk their lives.
Although this novel is not an epic, it features a fairly large number of characters.
Still, as if watching a tightly woven script for a caper movie, the main characters form teams and move toward the same target.
Of course, there is no trust or negotiation in this situation.
Only the one who gets the target first is the true winner.
The story of Cheon Myeong-gwan, who spreads out without hesitation even within the tangled network of gangsters, unfolds with thrilling twists and turns like riding a roller coaster.
How will life unfold? This time, too, I can't guess.
Just like the story of Cheon Myeong-gwan, who doesn't know where he will go!
This is a Man's World first met readers through a four-month pre-serial run on Kakao Page.
Despite the platform's nature of favoring works centered around popular genre fiction rather than literary works, it received strong support from over 80,000 readers and was flooded with comments asking for it to be made into a movie.
As Cheon Myeong-gwan has built up his narrative skills outside the solid framework of Korean pure literature, he is bound to have a large intersection with the public.
Cheon Myeong-gwan, who develops his own story by thoroughly delving into the essence of storytelling rather than the tastes of a literary genre, is the writer who most faithfully conveys the context of traditional narrative.
The whimsical imagination and boundless power of storytelling that began with whales expanded into the possibility of realism with a socially critical consciousness through my uncle Bruce Lee, an aging family.
This novel is more popular and cinematic.
It is simple and concise enough to appeal not only to traditional literature readers but also to young readers familiar with web novels and smartphones.
But in those concise lines and stories, Cheon Myeong-gwan's unique way of speaking, which captures the sorrow and irony of life, still lives and breathes.
The men in this novel did not inherit a smooth life.
I just inherited the law of survival that says you have to attack your opponent before you get hit, while showing off your presence by jumping around like a bad guy.
The author describes the lives of males who go into battle armed with lies, boasts, and harsh words as weapons, with a mixture of cynicism and humor.
But even for those whose lives are vain, dreams and innocence are secretly stirring.
Yeonhee (Genie), the only female character to appear, displays unrivaled magical powers among savage and violent men.
As the author quotes James Brown's lyrics in the introduction to the novel, "Men are nothing without women," this expression also symbolizes the emptiness of these shabby men's inner selves.
The story of Cheonmyeonggwan, which you cannot let go of once you grab it, continues.
The story is given life and moves on its own, free from expectations and speculations.
There is no way to guess what the characters' fate will be.
If there is an author who writes our lives, I would like to ask him.
So we wait for Cheon Myeong-gwan's next story.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of publication: October 18, 2016
- Page count, weight, size: 288 pages | 360g | 140*200*20mm
- ISBN13: 9788959130665
- ISBN10: 8959130664
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카테고리
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