BOOK REVIEW
‘I was staring at the first few lines, like a deer at a pair of car lamps. I was terrified my stomach was twisting and I felt nauseous. Then, I closed the book. I looked at the wall for help, and then at the ceiling.
After that, I opened the book again and tried to read the first paragraph. I thought I was prepared. I thought: ‘I’ve got this. We both know what’s going to happen, sis. Chill and keep reading on.’
Synopsis: Cursed Bunny is written by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur.
The book itself is a collection of 10 short stories, each story wanders in a different genre. Let it be magical realism, fantasy, science fiction or horror. Although if I remember correctly, she mentioned that she likes to think about her stories as fairy tales and after reading this book I strongly agree. Each of these stories has something in common: they are life lessons. At least that is how they felt to me. Reminding me of my 15-16-year-old self when I wrote short stories in order to amaze and shock people. To be able to convey feelings, especially my character’s feelings in a way that you could end up crying in a room full of noisy people. It didn’t happen all the time with all of my stories, obviously. But when it did, it felt just like reading the Cursed Bunny. Therefore this book became a very close part of my hidden art world. A book that I treasure deeply.
Structure: Cursed Bunny is a short, slim book. It has 251 pages and it has enough gaps in it to feel like you are literally flying through the book. It is definitely a 1-day read if you have the time and peace to finish it in one sitting. Every story had its own flavour and there were no stories that felt secondary to others. Also, I really tend to appreciate authors who only write down what matters and they don’t end up falling into the abyss of never-ending explanations. Although there is a time and place for this as well in certain types of books.
My take on it: I have to read this book again.And the reason for that is because it felt like there is much more to unpack in these little short fairy tale stories.
Even after Anton Hur did an amazing job to bring closer to us the real meaning of the book. I mean we were staring at the nuclei of this book thanks to his masterful translation. We could not get possibly closer to what Bora Chung meant when she wrote this book. And even like that, I felt like I was too fast.
This book needs savouring.
This book needs to be thought about.
Needs to be rediscovered over and over again.
You can’t just read it and be like: ‘Alright, next one in the pile.’ It was a nice wake-up call that I should read books for the joy of reading and not because I have to write a review on them and I have to post them etc… Cursed Bunny was just way too complex for me to be able to describe it with one word. With hundreds, yes, but with one, absolutely not.
Beautiful work, no wonder it is shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
Highly recommend to anyone who would like to read something different, and feel something new but strangely familiar.
Have a wonderful and peaceful day with loads of books and thank you for reading this far.
Take care,
– NOLITETHOUGHTS –