About This Book

Among Korean readers, novelist Lee Oisoo is known as an eccentric, a genius and a lunatic. He is especially popular among young readers. They recognize qualities in him that they have not in their parents and teachers such as youth, passion, openness, insight, beauty, romance, sensitivity, wit and sympathy, which arouse their enthusiasm. In Dreaming Plant (Kkumkkuneun Singmul), Lee’s first novel, the desire for a primitive life is revealed through the story of a young man who cannot adapt to the irrational and violent reality and finally chooses death. It is an aesthetic novel that explores the fantasy-consciousness with the author’s delicate sensibility and unique style of irony.

There is a family that hates each other. The father, who is violent and ugly, is a pimp. The mother who was forced to marry the father hates him. The mother also hates the first son who resembles the father but loves and cares for the second son who resembles her. The third and youngest son is the narrator of the novel. The eldest son drugs the second son and forces him to have group sex with their father’s prostitutes while taking pictures of the scene. When the latter comes to his senses and realizes what has happened, he goes mad and eventually gets killed by a dog. The story of the second son and the narrator, who have to exist like plants in a violent, absurd world created by the father and the first son, unfolds in an elaborate and sensuous style.

Though Dreaming Plant deals with a bizarre topic, it has become a bestseller thanks to the powerful writing and themes. Lee’s other works include Sword (Kal), Painting of the Golden Crane in the Chinese Parasol Tree (Byeogo Geumhakdo), Wild Dog (Deulgae) and Callipogon Relictus (Jangsohaneulso). All his works are characterized as "very emotional." --Min Hyunbae


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