Table for One: Stories (Weatherhead Books on Asia) Paperback – 9 April 2024

A quick, easy and enjoyable read especially for those who'd like to enjoy more activities outside the home on their own.

This Review is for all the short stories published in the Columbia University Press collection Table For One, not just the title story.Overall Rating: 3.5/5______________________________Table for One - 3/5A woman joins a course in order to learn how to eat out alone. I liked the theme, and how ridiculously seriously the concept was taken by the characters, but I felt it was a little repetitive and could've been a bit shorter.Sweet Escape - 3.5/5While preparing for a holiday abroad, a man starts to worry about the possibility of encountering bedbugs. His anxiety builds when an outbreak occurs in his neighbourhood. This was fairly similar to the first story, with common themes in both being loneliness and finding connection with a support group, anxiety leading to obsession, rhythm/music as metaphor.Invader Graphics - 4/5This was two stories in one: an author spends as much of her waking time as possible living for free at a department store, the story she is writing is about a man who is unsatisfied in his job and finds a passion for discovering a particular genre of street art.Hyeonmong Park's Hall of Dreams - 3.5/5Narrated by the assistant to Hyeonmong Park, the first entrepreneur to create a business selling dreams. This story follows the rise in popularity of dream-selling and the struggles of Park's business in the face of competition.Roadkill - 4/5The owner of a vending machine arrives to restock, but a severe storm leaves him snowed in to the isolated motel. I loved the atmosphere of this one - the motel felt almost like a character in its own right, becoming stranger as the story goes on. It reminded me a bit of The Shining.Time Capsule 1994 - 3/5In Seoul, a time capsule is opened early, only 14 years after being buried, due to corrosion. I've got to admit that I didn't really understand this one - there is a second narrative about the personal life of a woman who works on restoring the capsule which I found quite engaging, but it meant that I didn't really care too much for the time capsule part of the plot.Piercing - 4/5A man who has separated from his wife develops a new passion for body piercings. This one contains some quite gruesome descriptions and some violent parts. I loved the twisty ending!Don't Cry, Hongdo - 4/5A child tries to distract her mother from an obsession with organic food and high academic expectations by trying to set her up with a new substitute teacher. Hongdo, the main character, was endearing and I enjoyed the slice-of-life feeling. The ending of this one felt very abrupt, like the author hadn't been quite sure how to wrap it up.______________________________Overall, while I enjoyed many of these short stories, the collection did take me a very long time to read. I enjoyed a lot of the stories' content and themes, but I didn't particularly engage with the writing style of the author as the tone and many of the characters felt quite flat.

A collection of 9 short stories, reflecting life in contemporary South Korea. The stories are loosely thematic - our protagonists are often lonely and trying to find their place in society and life. There is a deep sense of dejection in nearly all stories, but despite this - they also have a glimmer of hope, and suggest there is a path to move forward, even if it's not what expectations might lead one to believe. Many of the stories are absurdist in nature, but this is done in such a creative way that it adds a lot to the quality of storytelling and messaging.The first story, "Table for One" (giving the book its name), talks about a woman who struggles to fit in, and to be comfortable with who she is. Through joining a course that teaches her how to eat alone, the routines she adopts slowly help her come out of her shell. Gently told, and with a tender protagonist - an emotive and hopeful story about introverts. 4/5.The second story, "Sweet Escape", tells the story of a young man, who, having lost his job, is slowly sinking into despondence, driven by an uncontrollable fear of bedbugs. As reality forces him to confront his worst fears he also finds solace and calm through this process. A story about, essentially, how losing one's job can affect your psyche and motivations. It's also a fun story about bedbugs, and how society reacts to them! 5/5The third story, "Invader Graphic", is about routine. Our narrator has her own, and, in turn, tells the story, where the protagonist has his own. Both struggle with society's expectations and the constant comparisons and competitiveness imposed on people. As the story progresses the story within a story follows the protagonist as his structured existence starts falling apart, and give rise to something better. At the same time, we learn more about the narrator, who, in defiance of societal norms, actually seems quite happy going to department stores. A story about following your own path in careful and subtle defiance, even if all there is to it is deciding to spend time in a department store. 5/5The fourth story, "Hyeongmong Park's Hall of Dreams", tells the story of Hyeongmong, an entrepreneur, who decides to set up a business to sell dreams to busy people who don't have time to dream. The story follows the rise and fall of his business, but the main topic, in my view, is the commoditisation of hope and leisure in modern society, and how even the most beautiful of ideas can be corrupted by commerce. 5/5The fifth story, "Roadkill", is my favourite. It is the most absurd, telling the story of a vending machine owner that, while servicing one of his machines in a remote hotel, gets stuck in same hotel due to a horrific snowstorm. As the days of his forced "imprisonment" extend, we see his buoyancy diminish, hope lost, and living space contract. A powerful analogy of what effects capitalist and consumerist society, whether knowingly or inadvertenly, has on the individual, and how, eventually, a person can become roadkill in the Kafkaesque struggle to live a normal life. 5/5+The sixth story, "Time Capsule", tells the story of a time capsule that gets unearthed before its time due to corrosion, while the protagonist, responsible for cleaning and restoring it prior to reinterment, struggles with her own memories of her step daughter. A story about the artificiality of memory and the futility of objective memories, as well as their haunting nature, and power to influence the present. 5/5In the seventh story, "Iceland", our protagonist is not happy, and looks for escape in her obsession with Iceland, which an online survey suggested she matches best with. The story follows her increasing fascination with Iceland, and the dangers and hopes this can lead to. 4/5The eighth story, "Piercing", is the horror story in the bunch. It follows a man, who struggles to balance his natural docility with the need to rebel somehow. Being unemployed (and perhpas unemployable), and having divorced his wife, the protagonist seeks solace in inflicting pain upon himself, and in tiny glimpses of hope stemming from casual encounters with a local prostitute. Reminiscent in style of Ryu Murakami. 5/5The ninth and last story, "Don't Cry, Hongdo", is told from the perspective of a 10 year old girl, who struggles to be a child in a world of adults who keep disappointing her. It's not a hopeless story, but it's a sad one, talking about how adult obsessions and preoccupations can affect and harm children. 5/5Overall - this is an excellent story collection, and perhaps one of the best I've read in a long time. It's doesn't just offer an excellent glimpse of life in South Korea - it also reflects some of the sadness that afflicts Gen Z, and how, in some cases, hope can be found in simple quotidian things.Highly recommend it to anyone interested in South Korea, or frankly what it means to be 10-30 year old in our contemporary world.