Laure Mi Hyun Croset's witty and witty comeback

Recounting the reconstruction of a loner in poor health against a backdrop of questions about adoption and identity. All in a hundred or so stylish, spicy pages. That was the challenge of this novel. Who could have doubted that the author would rise to it?

She is a Geneva resident born in Seoul, adopted by a Swiss family when she was still very young. He is a Frenchman who was also adopted, and is also of Korean descent. She is in her fifties; he is a little younger, though one imagines him to be in much poorer shape, given his unhealthy lifestyle of video games and junk food. She is our dear Laure Mi Hyun Croset, and he—this anonymous character, like so many others created by the author—the protagonist of her new novel, Made in Korea. The day he found out he had diabetes, he decided to travel to his country of origin to practice a martial art there and adopt a healthier diet.

Read also | Laure Mi Hyun Croset: «I'm a stylist».»

We particularly enjoyed the satire in his novel High Society Published by Albin Michel in 2018, the biting wit of the latest addition Popcorn girl In 2019, we can once again speak highly of this literary stylist who stands out on the Swiss literary scene.

Behind the apparent lightness of this novel lies meticulous craftsmanship that pays off as you read. In a typical text, punchlines come at the end of chapters, or perhaps paragraphs. In Laure Mi Hyun Croset’s work, they appear at the end of every sentence, or even at the edge of every word. The language is finely honed; the narrative structure is no less impressive. And the author’s characteristic irony is never far away, using a desperate and hyperbolic situation to reveal our own paradoxes.

«He woke up without having watched a movie or seen the Korean coastline approach. The single malts he’d downed to ease his anxiety about his first long-haul flight had caused him to miss almost the entire trip. (…) He didn’t regret not having watched a movie. It marked the beginning of a digital detox. However, he would have liked to see what Korea looked like from the sky. He thought he could always make up for it with Google Earth.»

The narrative voice’s playfulness also allows it to lead us toward deeper reflections:

«No sooner had he settled in than a hand tapped him on the shoulder from the seat behind him, repeating »oksusu.’ He took out his wallet to give a small coin, which would be good for his karma. He had just exchanged some money, and had been given a huge wad of bills and a little change. He felt richer than ever. The hand, very well-manicured, belonged to a lovely young woman—the prettiest who had ever spoken to him. She handed him a boiled ear of corn. He wasn’t going to fast here, but if all the food were this light, he wouldn’t gain a single gram. At first he thought this kind gesture was because he was a foreigner, but then he remembered that, although he was French, his face was that of a Korean.”

To write Made in Korea, Laure Mi Hyun Croset has read dozens of essays and novels about this country. So reading this book is like reading several of them at once! And it gives you a glimpse into these lands. Plus, the book goes down as smoothly as a shot of soju. Tried and tested. 

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

You've just read a review taken from from print edition (Le Regard Libre N°100).

Laure Mi Hyun Croset 
Made in Korea
BSN Press & OKAMA Publishing 
August 2023 
107 pages

Order the book