Park Bum Shin (born 1946) is a South Korean writer.
1. Life
Park Bum Shin was born in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province. He graduated from Jeonju National University of Education, Wonkwang University and Korea University. Park made his literary debut in 1973 with the short story "Yeoreum ui janhae" (여름의 잔해 Remains of the Summer), which won him the JoongAng Ilbo New Writer's Contest. In the same year, along with the poets Kim Seung-hee and Jeong Ho-seung, Park founded a literary circle called the 73 Group.
The popularity of his novels led to 20 subsequent film and television adaptations, which made Park a household name. Among them is the 2012 film A Muse, adapted from his provocative 2010 novel Eun-gyo (은교 Eun-gyo), in which a poet in his 70s falls for a high school girl.
After 28 years of teaching in Myongji University's creative program, he retired in 2011. Upon his retirement and the release of his 39th novel Naui soneun malgubeuro byeonhago (나의 손은 말굽으로 변하고 My Hands Turn into Hooves), Park moved back to his hometown to focus on his writing.
2. Writing
In 1979, Park began serializing his first novel Pullipcheoreom nupda (풀잎처럼 눕다 Lie Like a Blade of Grass) in the JoongAng Ilbo, which would become known as his signature work. For the novel's sensitive, even poetic, descriptions of the losses sustained by the South Korean people in the period of rapid urbanization, Park received the 1981 Korean Literature Prize.
More serialized novels followed, which exhibited Park's lyrical but realistic style, which details the dreams and frustrations of average citizens adrift in a world of base materialism and brutal opportunism. Of special note are Bul-ui nara (불의 나라 Nation of Fire) and Mul-ui nara (물의 나라 Nation of Water), which appeared in the Dong-a Ilbo in the early and mid-1980s and won critical recognition. The stories are satirical portrayals of the upsets, ambitions and disappointments of two country boys, Baek Chan-gyu and Han Gil-su, who move to Seoul as it rushes toward industrialization and urbanization. The novels reflect the author's own experience of urban life as a young man.
Other works set against the period of South Korea's economic rise include Supeun jamdeulji anneunda (숲은 잠들지 않는다 The Forest Never Sleeps) and Suyoireun mochareuteureul deunneunda (수요일은 모차르트를 듣는다 On Wednesdays I Listen to Mozart). These works describe the dreams of city dwellers frustrated by powers beyond their control, but are narrated in a style close to that of popular romantic or detective novels. The more popular his novels became, however, the more Park resented being characterized as an author catering to public taste. In 1993, with over 20 years of best-selling literature to his name, Park suddenly announced in a newspaper article that he was unable to continue writing his novel, then in progress. The author, whose two suicide attempts as a youth speak to deep thirst for communication with the world, could not endure criticism and discontinued writing for three years until 1996, when he published Huinsoga kkeuneun sure (흰소가 끄는 수레 The Cart Pulled by the White Ox).
Park's return to writing led to more highly developed artistic works, including re-workings of some of his older novels. More recently, he has written penetrating recollections of his own life as an author, as well as passionate works about nature and life based on his travels abroad. In Deoreoun chaeksang (더러운 책상 A Filthy Desk), Bin bang (빈 방 An Empty Room) and Namaseute (나마스테 Namseute), Park confirmed his position as a veteran author who incorporates both artistic value and popular elements into his writing.
