‘The Amusing Life’ by Song Sokze (Review)

As regular readers will be aware, I’ve been making my way through the Dalkey Archive Press Library of Korean Literature for a number of years now. I was sent review copies of the first books, but since then I’ve been fortunate in that my university library has copies of the whole set, meaning I’ve been able to inch ever closer to finishing the series. Today, then, sees me tackling the twenty-fourth book of the twenty-six works included in the library, but if the choice of the word ‘tackle’ makes it sound like a chore, the truth is that this was one of the lighter reads in the series – amusing, even… ***** Song Sokze’s The Amusing Life (translated by Se-Un Kim) is something a little different. Running to around 230 pages, its consists of over forty short pieces of varying lengths, stories that won’t take up too much of your time. It’s definitely a book to dip into rather than rush through, and even though that’s not generally my modus operandi, I did my best to take my time with Song’s…