5/10/2023 0 Comments Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun SookThe art and dialogue complement each other as they express the tension that Kim and her friends felt as they tried to balance school, family, and romance with surviving in a dangerous political environment. The disturbing elements of political corruption and loss of human rights are lightened by moving depictions of sweet, funny moments between friends as well as deft political maneuvering by Kim herself when she was eventually questioned by authorities. The kinetic manhwa drawing style skillfully captures the personal and political history of this eye-opening memoir. As she learned the truth of her country’s oppressive fascist political environment, Kim became closer to the other book club members while the authorities grew increasingly desperate to identify and punish student dissidents. Kim was fearful at first, but her thirst for knowledge soon won out. Following an administrator’s advice to avoid trouble and pursue extracurriculars, she joined a folk dance team where she met a fellow student who invited her into a banned book club. The daughter of modest restaurant owners, Kim was apolitical-she just wanted to make her parents proud and be worthy of her tuition expenses. In 1983 South Korea, Kim was learning to navigate university and student political activism.
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