The Wings by Yi Sang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Want to see a Korean take on bite-sized psychologically gripping novellas like The Stranger and The Metamorphosis? Look no further than The Wings, by the early 20th century modernist Yi Sang.

These comparisons are of course not made to suggest that Yi is derivative in any way. Rather, it is a testament to the sheer amount of pain and alienation Yi can convey in as little as 40 pages. The story follows an unnamed 26 year-old narrator who is completely ignorant of human society. Manipulated by his wife Yeonsim, he languishes in the darkness of his room and accepts the vast inequality between his and Yeonsim’s lifestyle. Nevertheless, he wonders what her occupation is, and his attempt to learn more about her and humanity has tragic consequences.

While reading through the novella, I was struck by the childlike naïveté with which our narrator approaches the world. For instance, he concludes from his observations that the reason people exchange coins is that there is some pleasure inherent to bartering, and becomes immensely happy just from giving Yeonsim some coins. This simplicity makes his eventual loss of innocence even more crushing as we attempt to piece together Yeonsim’s circumstances.

I also found it incredibly interesting to read The Wings in the context of Yi’s life. Without giving too much away, The Wings is a semi-autobiographical piece of literature and mirrors Yi’s own relationship with his wife, who had an occupation he was deeply ashamed of. In addition, Yeonsim’s treatment of the narrator parallels the colonial Japanese oppression of the Korean identity, and Yeonsim’s occupation ends up being incredibly relevant to Japanese abuses of power during Yi’s lifetime.

The Wings manages to pack raw emotion and several layers of analysis into 40 pages. It’s no wonder many Korean high school curricula teach it to this day. I highly recommend it.

If you enjoyed The Wings, I’d highly suggest checking out Osamu Dazai’s novel No Longer Human, which I’ve reviewed on the Book Blog! It is similarly a bite-sized semi-autobiography, written by an Asian author in the proximate context of Japanese imperialism, and touches on themes of an alienated individual attempting to understand society.

As previously alluded to, The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka are also nice bite-sized novellas about people alienated for either their psychology or physical form. Bonus points to The Stranger to also having a colonial context.

And lastly, if you enjoy experiencing narratives through microtransaction-light video games, I suggest looking into Limbus Company. It’s a Korean-developed gacha RPG available for free on Steam and mobile with characters from literature such as Meursault (The Stranger), Gregor Samsa (The Metamorphosis), Yi Sang himself, and more. Surprisingly deep story, and it’s always fun to watch Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights beat up Don Quixote.

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