RASCOE: But this one will have a happy ending because this is a great book. This is a beautiful book, and I don't say that lightly. So this will have a good ending. Contents The Head The Embodiment Cursed Bunny The Frozen Finger Snare Goodbye, My Love Scars Home Sweet Home Ruler of the Winds and Sands Reunion So, my question like Duchamp's question when he placed a urinal, a piece of plumbing in an art gallery in New York, and called it "Fountain" - is it art?

The Head” follows a woman haunted by her own bodily waste. “The Embodiment” takes us into a dystopian gynecology office where a pregnant woman is told that she must find a father for her baby or face horrific consequences. Another story follows a young monster, forced into underground fight rings without knowing the force of his own power. The titular fable centers on a cursed lamp in the approachable shape of a rabbit, fit for a child’s bedroom but for its sinister capabilities. Finally, I want to congratulate the translator Anton Hur for having two of his works longlisted this year. Love in the Big City is the other one, which I also enjoyed. These Slavic influences are ripe within Cursed Bunny, but more on that later. What also drew me into this book specifically was the cover: it screams danger and as if something were to leap out of you from some surreal dreamscape. And as her life proceeds, to parenthood and middle age, the Head constantly haunts her, finishing body all the time, until one day …The scatological and profane swim together in Cursed Bunny. Originally published in 2017, this is South Korean author Bora Chung’s first work to be translated into English. Chung takes aim at capitalism, misogyny and the social obsessions with youth and beauty through these stories, which fluidly cross genres from science fiction to traditional fable structures.’ The stories then moved towards heavier, somewhat sadder dark fantasy territory. I am not a great fan of fantasy or fairy tales and that was prevalent in the longer writings of “Ruler of the Winds and Sands”, “Snare” or “Scars” which can teach much about the exploitative nature of humans. There’s even some good science fiction hidden in the scary folds of AI brains. An assorted collection of short stories by Bora Chung. The cover was enough reason for me to jump into it. Some really nice finds, some not. My toilet is no longer the safe place I once knew, and I’m never touching a bunny lamp no matter what. A great start with some really outstanding stories, the momentum gradually diminishing until by the end I was just eager to finish to move on.

I only want so little,” said the Head hastily, “I’m only asking that you keep dumping your body waste in the toilet so I can finish the rest of my body. Then I’ll go far away from here and live by my own means, so please, just keep using the toilet like you always have.”

Latest Posts

CHUNG: I was 28, and I was bleeding for two weeks. I couldn't stand up. And the first thing my mom said was, no, you're not going to go see a doctor because you're not married. So that felt really strange, but that was very Asian. That was very, very Korean. And I think that stigma is still very well alive to this day, unfortunately. And my own doctor was very kind. She was very friendly, for the record, and I got a prescription. And my ovarian cysts went away with time. But if you just refuse to go see a doctor, it could be very, very catastrophic. So this is something that is happening to your body. And it's like having a toothache. Nobody tells you, you can't go see a dentist because you're not married. If you are alive and have functioning organs, then you should take care of that. It should be very simple. But because the question of pregnancy is attached to it, society just dumps all kinds of weird meanings to your organs. And I thought, well, I'm going to write a story about it. One of the recurring themes throughout the book is how destructive greed can be. In “Snare,” a man traps a talking fox who bleeds golden blood. He abuses the animal long enough to grow wealthy from the gold. When his children are born, his son also bleeds golden blood, but only when he drinks his sister’s blood. The greedy man continues to collect gold from the boy’s blood. His wealth comes at the expense of the girl’s health. His greed also led to his wife’s death. When she attempts to prevent her son from eating his sister, she dies. Ultimately, greed destroys the man’s life because he values the accumulation of wealth more than the lives of his family.

Equally horrific is Snare, a fable-like narrative playing on Aesop’s The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. A man finds an injured fox that bleeds gold, and instead of freeing it, keeps it alive but constantly wounded and bleeding, so he can profit from its pain. Generational curses abound once again, and the man is forced to repeat his evils with his own loved ones, and so the pattern continues. Home Sweet Home (즐거운 나의 집) beings with a dispute about property tax between a young couple who own a small mixed-used building and one of their tenants, owners of a blood-sausage stew (순대국집) restaurant. But the building, which they were sold at a 복덕방, an old fashioned term for an estate-agent’s office which Hur romanises as bokdeokbang and also translates literally as fortune gainer, has secrets of its own. Primary Chronicles. It is often known as the Russian Primary Chronicles but it is mainly centred in Kyiv and is in fact the history of all the East Slavs (modern-day Ukraine, Russia and Belarus). I especially love the figure of Princess Olga of Kyiv. She is depicted in the Chronicles first and foremost as an outstanding military leader who successfully defeated invading foreign forces. (Kyivan ladies are not to be messed with). By reading her story I learned how to describe fierce female characters who are formidable warriors and great leaders at the same time. A girl whose brother feeds on her blood, robots that take revenge on their owner and a bunny lamp with a deadly curse. Those are some of the bizarre, twisted plot lines in "Cursed Bunny," Bora Chung's first collection of short stories to appear in English, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. It was translated from Korean by Anton Hur. Author Bora Chung joins us now to talk about her collection. Welcome to the show.Cursed Bunny,” the titular story, is the meditation on capitalism and greed that we all need in this day and age. A consistent theme throughout the stories are the notions of trauma, abuse, and power on our everyday lives, whether it’s from an external force or via an internal force, such as a family member. “Cursed Bunny” tells the story through a narrator whose grandfather knew this tale. A CEO’s grandson is given a cursed bunny and slowly dies, while the family quite literally rots of greed. These stories will make your eyes pop out with horror, make you shift uncomfortably and wonder at Bora Chung’s infinite creativity. There’s a craft to writing an awe inspiring short story and it’s definitely present here. Each story is perfect, they are unique and I highly doubt that there’s anyone writing short pieces of this standard and brain warping quality. The book is the debut short story collection by the Korean author, Bora Chung. I’ve had this strange book on my radar before it was longlisted for the Booker. A few of my GR friends raved about it and it prompted me to read a sample story I found on the internet. The story is called The Embodiment, a harrowing example of body horror and it still one of my favorites from the collection.

Now a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Fiction. Winners announced Nov 15th**

Recent Comments

Cursed Bunny delivers strange and bizarre fables and, through these often grotesque fairy tales, articulates a clear critique of humanity. These are not childhood bedtime stories, but morality tales; sinners are punished. It is a collection that reminds us there are monsters everywhere, even in plain sight, even if we can’t see them.’ I was ready to DNF after this one. This is pointless and confusing. What a long way of saying that you shouldn't spread hate because it will consume you. Bora Chung (born 1976) is a South Korean writer and translator. Her collection of short stories, Cursed Bunny, was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.