Under an authoritarian regime she found - through the rebellion of reading - her purpose and learned how powerful a tool censorship can be.īanned Book Club opens on Kim Hyun Sook who starts college in South Korea back in 1983. Banned Book Club presents the true story of a South Korean woman’s student days in college in the early 1980s. I love comics from the Asian diaspora, especially manwha.
I love reading about places I’ve never been, about historical events involving folks people who don’t look like me, speak the same language as me or worship the same way I do. In BANNED BOOK CLUB, Hyun Sook shares a dramatic true story of political division, fear-mongering, anti-intellectualism, the death of democratic institutions, and the relentless rebellion of reading.Banned Book Club from Iron Circus Comics caught my eye from the beginning. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. This was during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family's restaurant.
When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. "It's hard to imagine a world where Banned Book Club could be more relevant than it is right now." - A.V. "A timely read about friendship amid chaos." - NPR "The messages of hope are universal." - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review "Sure to inspire today's youthful generation of tenacious changemakers." - BOOKLIST, Starred Review "Highly recommended for readers passionate about activism." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, Starred Review
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