MZ writer Park Sang-young (35), who became a hot topic by being on the long list for the 2022 Booker Prize in the UK in the international category먹튀검증, recently published an essay book, “Relaxation of 100% Purity” (influential). This book is a record of travels in New York, London, Gangneung, and Gwangju. Confusion and discomfort that can be felt in non-daily conditions (travel), and then sometimes moments of joy are depicted in a humorous tone. “Like acupuncture to pierce the affected area and forget the pain, penetrate the middle of daily life to experience that even chaotic daily life is actually worth living,” he recently interviewed by phone.
In the title of “Relaxation of 100% Purity”, an elegant picture is drawn of a well-known MZ writer leaving for an exotic resort for inspiration, but the contents of the book are quite different. On his first backpacking trip to Europe, as if he were escaping from his life in Seoul, he “feeled a stomach ache and thought about travel insurance that was worth 10,000 won,” and left after an accident in New York. do. At the art lodge in Gapado, he fights against bugs and catches a bad cold the day his friends visit. Even though it is a collection of travel essays, he openly wrote, “I don’t like travel very much” in the author’s introduction.
Contrary to the title of “Relaxation of 100% Purity”, a considerable amount of work-related stories are also occupied. He won the 2016 Literary Neighborhood Rookie Award and started his work, and then steadily published one book every year. His collection of novels, The Law of Love in the Big City, was nominated for the 2022 Booker Prize International and the 2023 Dublin International Literary Prize. He won the Young Writers Award, the Heo Gyun Literary Writer Award, and the Shin Dong-yeop Literary Award. In the meantime, he traveled all over the country giving lectures and appearing on various TV shows to make his face known. This is the reason why the title of the book is read as 『(Never had) 100% Pure Rest』.
Writer Park Sang-young said, “I’ve been writing books because of the desire that someone would listen to me.” She said, “This essay is the sixth book, and now I feel that I have talked a lot about myself to some extent. In the future, I want to broaden my horizons to social stories.” She added, “Just because I want to cover more diverse topics in the future doesn’t mean I’m quitting queer literature.”
He writes queer literature, but said, “I don’t write with resentment.” “I wanted someone to enjoy listening to my story, but this is a completely different context from Han’s literature,” he said. Is it because his “my story” has a strong autobiographical color? He said that he often hears stories from readers saying, “It’s like my friend’s story.”
He says that local readers he recently met in England had a similar reaction. “It’s so amazing that people who speak a different language are taking my story as their own. I’m very happy that readers feel that my novel is a universal story.”
His collection of novels, The Law of Love in the Big City, became an unusual bestseller for a queer novel. It received great attention as it was nominated for the International Booker Prize, but was also criticized as a ‘diary novel’ because of its autobiographical color. It was criticized for being a novel that lacked literary imagination and was written from a friend’s story, a friend’s friend’s story. However, Park Sang-young said, “The characters and settings in my novel are complete fiction.”
Park Sang-young said, “I hope the readers can rest well” while reading a prose book that made people laugh with the ‘explosive holiday story’.
“Like many modern people, I am not good at resting properly. Only now, as a ‘beginner rester’, I am practicing resting. I hope that you, too, can take a break from your anxious daily life by reading my book.”