This book is, perhaps, one of the most complex and confusing books I have ever read. Also, this is my first time reading Bae Suah and I’d say it’s like reading Han Kang or Kafka in some form. I learnt that the translator of Han Kang and Bae Suah is one — Deborah Smith.
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Untold Night and Day follows the last working day of Kim Ayami at an audio theatre in Seoul. This theatre plays audio recordings of dramas to blind people , and sometimes to high school students. The audio theatre closes down abruptly which leaves Ayami jobless and adrift. In conversation with her German teacher , Yeoni , Ayami is able to secure an opportunity for work. Yeoni, advices Ayami to work as an assistant for a German writer, Wolfi, who is arriving in Seoul shortly.
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Far from a simple narrative , Untold Night and Day is metaphysical , complex and several dimensional. This novel is hypnotic and mysterious. Jobless Ayami walks down the busy street of Seoul and goes out for dinner with her former director. She also meets the German writer, Wolfi. Bae’s novel is recurring and poetic. It’s like you’re in a parallel universe where it’s somewhat like a dejavu yet it’s not.
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In another part of Seoul, there is Buha, an ex-businessman who is roaming the busy streets of Seoul trying to search the face of a poet he had seen in a newspaper many years ago. Buha crosses paths with Ayami. To Buha, Ayami reminds of the poet. They look similar. Buha confronts her only to be denied by Ayami that she is not the one Buha is looking for.
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This book is mind-twisting where the past and the present collide. The vagueness present in it is nearly chaotic. I think to understand this book, one needs to explore the other works of Bae Suah. A dreamlike story where parallel lives meets, Untold Night and Day tells a surreal and disorienting story of recurrence and mystery.
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