Kim Ryeoryeong (born 1971) is a South Korean writer.
1. Life
Kim Ryeoryeong was born in Seoul in 1971. Kim made her literary debut in 2007 winning three major literary awards in the same year: the Ma Hae-song Literary Award for Gieogeul gajyeoon ai (기억을 가져온 아이 The Child Who Brought Memories); the Munhak Dongne Children's Literature Prize for Nae gaseume haemaga sanda (내 가슴에 해마가 산다 A Seahorse Lives in My Heart), and the Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction for Wandeugi (완득이 Wandeuk). She studied creative writing at Seoul Institute of the Arts with the aim of writing adult fiction, but pivoted to children's fiction upon the suggestion of her professor, the children's writer Hwang Sun-mi.
Kim grew up in Seoul with her maternal grandmother, and in Daejeon with her paternal great-grandmother, listening to their old stories. As a high school student, Kim and her friends were smitten by Michelle Yeoh's performance in Yes, Madam and immediately signed up to learn kung fu. Kim lasted about a year, but the experience came in handy when writing Wandeugi, which includes a kickboxing gym as part of the background.
Kim has published over a dozen works including the novels Neoreul bwasseo (너를 봤어 I Saw You), Gasi gobaek (가시 고백 Thorny Confession), Teureongkeu (트렁크 Trunk), Peulloting aillaendeu (플로팅 아일랜드 Floating Island), Iljuil (일주일 One Wek), and the short story collection Syangdeullie (샹들리에 Chandelier).
2. Writing
Kim's characters are extremely typical, ordinary neighbors one might run into in anywhere, but on taking a closer look they reveal hard-earned scars. Their stories deal with often difficult situations, but the author shies away from explicit criticism, preferring to treat everyone fairly. Nae gaseume haemaga sanda exposes the way in which adoptive parents and their child see each other, while Gieogeul gajyeoon ai examines the reappearance of forgotten memories.
Kim has said of her writing, "People often wonder which of my characters is me. If my readers want to believe that the characters represent real people, I tell them to do so. My characters are both me and those with whom I have come into contact. I always use people who have brought me down. But when I feature these characters I do so not to accuse them but to capture their essence, to confess to them. 'I didn't really know you' is what I want to say. You were right.' It is my way of thanking them. It is also a way of keeping their destiny a secret. As a writer, I deal with things not only on the surface but under it. My job is to dig up those places that have barely been discovered. I look not only to look into the eyes of my characters but to look beyond them into the unseen."[1]
Wandeugi, Kim's best-known work to date, tells the story of a seventeen year-old boy who is abandoned by his mother and lives with his disabled father and uncle in a run-down part of town. Left alone to his own devices most of the time, Wandeuk struggles at school, but never loses a fistfight. With the encouragement of his teacher, he eventually channels his anger into kickboxing and is able to reunite with his mother in a mature way. The novel went on to sell more than 700,000 copies and was made into a successful film in 2011, titled Punch for its foreign release. Her next novel, Uahan geojinmal (우아한 거짓말 Elegant Lies), was adapted into the 2014 film Thread of Lies directed by Lee Han, the same director behind Punch.
Reference
[1] Korea Literature Now. Oct 19, 2014. https://kln.or.kr/frames/interviewsView.do?bbsIdx=538
