“The love that I chose, that I opened, that I started and that I intend to complete.
“How many people get to experience this kind of love in their lives?”

Lee Hyuk-jin's full-length novel, "The Madman," was published by Minumsa.
From "The Lying Boat," to "Understanding Love," to "The Managers," Lee Hyuk-jin has established himself as an unrivaled writer in revealing the vulgarity of relationships, society, and the world to readers by starkly exposing the abyss of human nature.
From social novels to romance, Lee Hyuk-jin's sharp gaze, which seems to dissect the world, is his unique style that permeates all genres, while freely moving between various genres.
The novel he has finally released, with such determination, is the most venomous story about love! Its title is simply "The Madman."
Am I crazy in love, or is love crazy?

"The Madman" is not only the longest novel written by the author, but also stands alone among the novels recently published in Korea.
Emotions are no exception when it comes to preferring things that are short and fast.
But is there anyone who would prefer the short and quick in love? If so, wouldn't that attitude harbor a certain hypocrisy and deception? The choice to depict the emotional vicissitudes so meticulously likely stems from the author's challenge to confront love from birth to death, and perhaps even more profoundly from a human curiosity.


"The Madman" depicts the love, friendship, jealousy, and desire of three men and women in a world of whiskey, music, and money, using new language and tension.
This novel, which some may read as a romance novel, others as a psychological novel, some as an artist novel, and still others as a crime novel, is all of these novels, yet it is amorphous and cannot be categorized into a single category.
The narrative of love and friendship, romance and marriage, which walks a tightrope between love and madness, and is sometimes likened to the world of alcohol, sometimes to the world of music, and sometimes to the world of money and capital, presents dark conflicts that are rather unfamiliar to me because they are my own within the familiar romantic structure.

“I laughed and drank the next glass.
It was a whiskey with a burst of refreshing flavor.
But it wasn't just spicy.
A refreshing scent that burst like a cherry in a sweet stimulus brightly refreshed my mouth, and what hit me underneath was the rich taste of sugar that was pressed down like dalgona.
“The scent of the wood was subtle and fine.”
--- p.89

“All love is the same love.
When we all love, it seems like it will last forever, you know.
That doesn't happen like that.
There are not always times when you can love and there are not always objects of love.
When love ends, it just ends.
As if something were dying.
Even if we do it again, we can't love with the same heat and vibration as before.
Like putting broken dishes back together, marks always remain and they never go away.
“You can only pretend not to see it, but if you get shocked again someday, the cracks will always start from there.”
--- p.122

“I nodded.
As Hajin said, I didn't know at the time.
Because I was young, I didn't know much and knew little, but my thoughts were always the opposite.
I thought I knew everything, that people didn't know what I knew.
The truth is, I didn't know what other people knew.
“Knowing something doesn’t mean that I know it alone, it just means that I know a little more than other people know.”
--- p.128

“It’s usually translated as longing, loneliness, or depression, but if you think about it, it’s all because of longing.
Wanting and hoping like a thirsty person.
Sometimes I wonder if not doing that isn't love.
“The last part, where they’re waving and smiling at the harbor, also feels like that to me.”
--- p.145

“I didn’t believe in marriage.
From what I have experienced, from what I see around me, and from what I think.
Love was the same.
Even for married people, love is something that wears out and is lost.
Love eventually ends in separation.
Plus, it's a long-distance relationship from the start.
“I have enough experience to not even want to say things like, ‘When the body grows distant, the heart grows distant too.’”
--- p.185

“Right now, I think of it as a flower pot.
Raising and raising them, we hurt them and make mistakes, but we keep going together.
Doing my best.
Because we all make mistakes and do wrong.
Because it can't be helped.
Because I don't know anything, because I'm clumsy.
“We too are still growing, like plants in a flower pot.”
--- p.265

“Because I keep looking forward to it.
It's not that I love something because it's special, and it's not that I love something because it's special, but I keep pinning my expectations on that specialness.
I want to think that Haewon and I are just different people, like each of our different flower pots.
Even the love that makes someone special is not special because it is something that everyone does.
“Love, this relationship, this time, it’s just what I wanted, without any expectations or hopes.”
--- p.272

“Beauty is what is alive and what passes away.
So we make it.
If you don't create it, it won't exist, it will just disappear.
To create also means to accept that it will disappear.
That's the beauty of making it there.
Because nothing proves you're alive and in love as much as creating something knowing it'll disappear.
People say that beauty is useless and useless, but I don't think so.
Because beauty reminds us of our usefulness and uselessness.
We love beautiful things.
I can't help but love beautiful things, so I can't help but create beautiful things.
Creating beauty, that's our ability.
“Our abilities are unique to God, and are not found in any other creature.”

--- p.280