While working as a temp in Geyonggi Province,
Korea, the narrator of Bae Suah's NOWHERE TO BE FOUND
discovers herself through the processes of a life which
takes a great deal more than it gives. The narrator is
twenty four years old in 1988, working small and
insignificant jobs to help support her alcoholic mother.
Her other family consists of a brother intending to move
to Japan to find opportunity and a much younger sister
whose only dream is to join her class on an airplane
trip, much to the narrator's amazement. Her one and only
personal relationship fails though she knows it's all for
show, and her jobs demean her further than even her
mother's abuse. It is a story of the self, and of the
forces acting on the self, to make a whole, if fragile,
person out of the scattered pieces of the psyche.
NOWHERE TO BE FOUND is an English debut novella
by Bae Suah, and it is a fantastic read. The sweeping
prose sucks the reader completely into the narrator's
world. The characterization of the family is so realistic
and so painful that I cried at the end of her mother's
first rage. I felt like I knew her, that I knew her
struggles and I could reach out and help her. Bae Suah's
characterization is beyond phenomenal. These are true-to-
life people who, notwithstanding their location, could
live right down the street and come up to be two-faced at
your family barbecue. I felt for the brother and sister
as well, for their lost and broken dreams and what they
tried to do for the narrator.
I wish there was more to this story. It feels
like there should be more. We only get the narrator's
perspective over a short period of time in her life. What
more can there be to influence her choices? We know less
about this narrator than we know about her disastrous
boyfriend, Cheosolu. This mystery doesn't add a great
deal to her character; it just makes the reader wonder
what more they could learn about her. Toward the end, she
shuts off almost completely and all we're left with are
her actions. This is a device which I feel can be too
heavy in the short content of a novella.
Since the relationship with Cheosulu comprises
most of the book, it is arguable that this is the story.
I disagree. I think that the relationship is just
background content for the narrator's ideas. This is her
frame of reference, her experience in the moment.
Cheosulu is a symbol, though for what I'm not entirely
sure. NOWHERE TO BE FOUND is full of beautiful imagery
and symbolism but as a reader I'm never entirely sure
what it's supposed to mean.
Bae Suah's debut English novella is a sign of
good things to come. I would recommend this to any
reader, student or casual, as necessary reading.
Characterization is the key to this novella, and I say it
is a key which will unlock a great deal of knowledge and
passion in the heart of the audience.
A nameless narrator passes through her life, searching for
meaning and connection in experiences she barely feels.
For
her, time and identity blur, and all action is reaction.
She
can’t quite understand what motivates others to take life
seriously enough to focus on anything—for her existence is
a
loosely woven tapestry of fleeting concepts.
From losing her virginity to mindless jobs and a
splintered,
unsupported family, the lessons learned have less to do
with
the reality we all share and more to do with the truth of
the
imagination, which is where the narrator focuses to
discover
herself.
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