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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, my brilliant life.

• About the Book

Ae-ran Kim's MY BRILLIANT LIFE explores family bonds and out-of-the-ordinary friendships, interweaving the past and present of a tight-knit family, finding joy and happiness in even the most difficult times.

Areum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang --- 60-year-old neighbor and best friend --- and through the books he reads to visit the places he would otherwise never see.

For several months, Areum has been working on a manuscript, piecing together his parents’ often embellished stories about his family and childhood. He hopes to present it on his birthday, as a final gift to his mom and dad --- their own falling-in-love story.

Through it all, Areum and his family will have you laughing and crying, for all the right reasons.

My Brilliant Life written by Ae-ran Kim , translated by Chi-Young Kim

• Publication Date: February 1, 2022
• Genres: Fiction
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books
• ISBN-10: 1250750563
• ISBN-13: 9781250750563

BOOK REVIEW: MY BRILLIANT LIFE (2021) BY AE-RAN KIM

ANGELINE KEK WRITES — How would you feel living in an 80-year-old’s body as a teenager? What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? How would you like to be remembered?

My Brilliant Life (2021) by Korean author Ae-ran Kim follows a 16-year-old boy named Areum with Progeria , a rare disease that causes rapid aging and deterioration of the body starting in the first two years of life. Areum, also the narrator, was born as a result of a teen pregnancy. Mira and Daesu became pregnant with Areum while both were 17-year-olds in high school. With the coming of a child, they found themselves thrust headfirst into adulthood. Under the scrutiny and disappointment of their village and families, they had to find a way to figure out their lives together.

Freshly and ingeniously translated by acclaimed literary translator and editor, Chi-Young Kim , My Brilliant Life has gone on to receive a myriad of applauding reviews, including an appearance in The Oprah Magazine . In 2014, the novel was adapted into a skillfully executed movie and represented South Korea in several film festivals.

The story unfolds at the very beginning of Mira and Daesu’s love story. At 17, Mira was a highly pursued beauty blessed with a siren’s voice. On the other hand, Daesu seemed to have nothing going for him except his talent for Tae Kwon Do, a career which ended abruptly after he was suspended from school for beating up his roommate. Despite other eager suitors, Mira found Daesu intriguing: “I didn’t fall in love with Daesu because he didn’t have dreams. I fell in love with him because he pretended not to have any dreams. I thought he was like me — like he was hiding, just like I was.” When Mira and Daesu broke the news of the pregnancy to their families, they were met with overwhelming disapproval. When Areum was born, their happiness was short-lived as he started showing signs of a strange disease.

Mira and Daesu’s future were plagued with new challenges and uncertainty. A multitude of problems presented themselves following premature parenthood. The financial hardships of raising a child without solid footing, the disconnection and inability to relate with friends at different stages of life, and a slap in the face from the reality of a money-fueled society. As Areum’s disease worsens, hospital bills began stacking.

Areum grows up to be a voracious bookworm, reading anything and everything. His only friend is Little Grandpa Jang, who is the opposite of Aerum. Even though he is old enough to be Aerum’s grandfather, Little Grandpa Jang acts like a kid and lives with his father. Homeschooled and isolated from his peers, overlearning is the only way Aerum could try to “catch up” and feel normal. “That way, in the event I ever made a friend, I could hold up my end of a conversation.” Surrounded only by his parents and the looming shadow of death, Areum wanted to leave them with one last gift. He started to write their love story.

Areum’s eyes began to degenerate, leading to blindness. He was recommended for in-hospital care, a treatment too expensive for his parents. In a moment of dejectedness, Areum deleted the story he was writing.

Sumi, Mira’s friend who is married to the producer of a reality TV show that tells the stories of unfortunate people, makes it possible for Areum to be featured. The episode became a wild success. Munificent donations were made, allowing Areum the treatment he needs. Yet, the best thing to come out of it is not the money — a girl had written to him, a letter of admiration and companionship.

“Hi, I’m Lee Seoha. I’m sixteen, the same as you. Like you, I’m also bald … Everyone considers you prematurely aged, but I’ll just think of you as a mountain.”

Areum never had a friend his age. For the first time, he finds himself in the company of a like-minded teenager. As they exchanged emails, Areum catches himself developing a crush. Unprecedentedly, he feels like a normal kid, daydreaming about someone who makes his stomach flutter. He starts playing video games as a kid would and restarts his writing project. The girl had told him that she finds writers “the coolest”.

In a twist of fate, the reality show reached out to the girl to make a sequel to Areum’s story, only to find out that Seoha never existed. She was a middle-aged man impersonating a teenage girl, gaining research for a screenplay about a love between a girl and a boy with terminal illness.

Modern capitalistic society thrives on transactional relationships. It erases authenticity. In making the episode on Areum’s story, the producer and writer’s focus is to appeal to the audience by any means necessary. “I couldn’t look too healthy or too repulsive; I needed to make my misfortune palatable enough for people to watch.” Upon discovering the friendship between Areum and his penpal, the producer pestered Areum to let him reach out to her for a sequel despite Areum’s initial disagreement. In their eyes, Aerum was just another profitable sob story.

“[Aerum] is on his deathbed. [His] last wish is to feel his mother’s belly. ‘Mom, when this baby is born, can you tell it that its older brother put his hand on its head?’ … Mom squeezed my hand instead of answering.”

My Brilliant Life revolves around polarities – life and death, young and old, parent and child. A child forced to grow old. Parents reliving youth through the curious eyes of a kid. While the story started with a promise of death, it ends with the hopefulness of new life.

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A Precocious Teenager Faces a Rare Disease in Ae-ran Kim’s Touching Debut Novel, “My Brilliant Life”

Ae-ran Kim’s debut novel, My Brilliant Life , elegantly translated by Chi-Young Kim, is narrated by a witty teenager with a rare disorder. Areum, as he’s called, suffers from progeria, a degenerative disease that causes accelerated aging from age two. At sixteen, he has the organs of an old man and is in precipitous physical decline. Despite his prognosis, Areum tells his story with wry humor, showing great curiosity about himself as well as the people around him, starting with his parents, who had him when they themselves were sixteen.

The prologue is a poem that frames the novel:

A year in my life is like a month in someone else’s . . . . My dad sees his future eighty-year-old face in mine . . . . Is sixteen the right age to become a parent? Is thirty-two the right age to lose a child? . . . This is the story of the youngest parents and the oldest child.

This mismatch between body and mind is My Brilliant Life’s touchstone. Areum’s condition affects both his mental age and his body. He is boy-man, a young and old soul. He has had to face his mortality since toddlerhood, making him a wise and dispassionate observer of his dreadful illness. He is filled with wonder and love about his boisterous family. 

The narrator writes a book within the book, so that My Brilliant Life turns out to be the story of Areum telling the story of his parents. Separately, he includes an account of his deeply private affection for a girl his own age. Kim develops this structure naturally, without fanfare. It is not clear until the end whether Areum is telling his parents' story as a way to understand himself and his origins better, to evade his predicament, to create a substitute for his absent social life, or some combination of the three. Only after completing the novel is it apparent how masterfully the book is woven together.

Early on, Areum asks: “ Why did God make me the way I am? I haven’t been able to figure that out yet .” Even if he can’t find the ultimate reason or meaning for his condition, there is much for readers to learn about humor and compassion along his journey. Underneath the frothiness lies a tragic story of isolation and pain, but also of empathy. It is easy to see why My Brilliant Life became a best seller in South Korea, where it was made into a film as well ( My Brilliant Life  [English translation], co-written and directed by E J-yong, 2014).

My Brilliant Life resonates with several English-language works. Andrew Sean Greer’s The Confessions of Max Tivoli , itself based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story (later film) “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” deployed a similar narrator. In Greer’s novel, Max Tivoli is born with the body of an old man, but the mind of a baby. He ages physically backward but mentally forward, until he is an old adult living in an infant’s body. Swept along in a compelling narrative, the reader knows that all will not end well. In British writer Ian McEwan’s Nutshell , the narrator is a fetus in utero, who, like Areum, possesses wisdom beyond his years. The fetus may not have all the answers, but he knows how to raise the right questions, ringing alarm bells about the future.

Where Greer and McEwan’s books are purposeful, plot-driven novels, Kim’s is more introspective. Areum is at pains to understand his parents’ teenage romance, given how young they were when they had him. Although he couldn’t possibly have been there, he describes his parents’ teen lives, his father Desu’s athletic prowess and his mother Mira’s silly flirtations pre-pregnancy. Desu excels at Tae Kwon Do, which doesn’t earn him any money. When Mira discloses her pregnancy, Desu launches into how much of a “loser” he is. “There’s this bug that camouflages itself with shit so it won’t get eaten by a bird,” Mira says almost lovingly, “That’s you.” As soon as it becomes known she’s expecting, Mira is thrown out of school.

Against severe family opprobrium and with no income, Mira and Desu commit to parenthood. Despite their initial condemnation, the extended family ends up embracing Areum and his parents; Areum grows up among loving, if obstreperous, relatives. His parents are so young that Areum has both a grandfather and a great-grandfather, known affectionately as Big Grandpa Jang and Little Grandpa Jang.

At no point does Areum doubt his parents’ love for him. Theirs is a constant struggle not only to make ends meet but also to care for their aging son and his frequent medical emergencies. Mira quickly progresses from a giggling, girly high school student into a committed mother. Desu dreams big, or as big as his condition allows for, and opens a Nike store. He never quite manages to make a living out of it, however. The store eventually closes, but not before outfits the whole family in Nike wear.

Areum’s parents are at his side through sickness and health, except for one time when Mira can’t take it and bolts. The implication is that Mira is crushed under the burden of responsibility at home, but her absence lasts only for a week. Areum gets inside the heads of both parents to let us know what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling. We may not know how he has the power to do this, but we trust his judgment. He provides a detailed account of his birth, as if he can remember it all. He was a preemie and describes how the house changed once he and Mira came home from the hospital. “Everything smelled like the milky scent of a newly breastfeeding mother, the sour stench of my poop and spit-up, and freshly washed cotton hanging in the sun to dry.”

Areum feels himself to be at once the loneliest boy in the world and the most beloved. His best friend is Little Grandpa Jang, to whom he relates both mentally and physically. As if Areum were also an old man and not sixteen, he listens to Little Grandpa’s complaints about the youth of today. “He’s a really bad kid,” Little Grandpa jokes affectionately. “He treats me like I’m some neighborhood kid . . . . He seems to think we’re peers.”

Who is the parent, and who the child? Areum ends up agreeing to an uncomfortable TV interview, knowing that he is exploiting his own condition to raise money for his medical treatments. This episode ends on a sour and depressing note, with people that Areum trusted letting him down in profound ways. Media may love tragedy, but for the boy in the middle of it, fame is a terrible burden. Areum suffers the painful consequences of celebrity like an age-appropriate, duped teenager. At the same time, he manages to retain his equanimity.

Author Ae-ran Kim is widely published in South Korea. She has won the Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award, the Lee Hyoseok Literary Award, and the Prix de l’inaperçu for her short fiction and collections, but has published only a few pieces in English . As a bookend to the opening of My Brilliant Life , Ae-ran Kim provides an author’s note, also in the form of a poem:

I hope my heart will fly to the wind to go to you.          There is no knowing if this song will become a seed or a whistle or                            an unknown face.

The book feels like a seed, using the metaphor of disease and tragedy to sow a discussion of the importance of compassion. English language readers, most new to Kim’s work, will find much to relish. In the same author’s note, Kim writes that her aim is to “breathe warmth into forgotten names.” Clearly, she has breathed warmth into Areum and his family. We can only hope for more from her.

Martha Anne Toll

Martha Anne Toll is the 2020 recipient of the…

Review of My Brilliant Life

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Areum’s parents were 16 years old when he was born. Now they are 32 years old, and Areum is 16, but it is he who is facing old age. He suffers from a rare syndrome called progeria, which causes him to age about eight times faster than the average child, so he is a teenager in the body of an 80-year-old child. As a gift to his parents, he decides to write down the stories they have told him over the years. He hopes to finish before his 17th birthday, which will probably be his last.

Areum actions against self-doubt when writing, even deleting a initial iteration of the project before being inspired by the rewrite. This Inspiration comes from a pen pal, and Areum, stuck in the hospital for the rest of his life, develops a crush. He wants to live life like a “normal” child and even say that he wants to make mistakes and be disappointed because other children have these opportunities. But the reality of Areum is that as he develops this relationship, he also treats arthritis and begins to go blind.

Author ae-ran Kim explores age and maturity in My Brilliant Life, which was originally published in South Korea in 2011 under the title My Thrilling Life and adapted into a movie in 2014. Areum’s parents were children when he was born and they were in their early thirties when he died. His existence in his life allowed him to grow quickly, and even more so as he developed special needs. The presence of a neighboring father and son, both elderly, reminds Areum many times that he has no chance of taking care of his parents when they are Old.

Translated into English by Chi-Young Kim, My brilliant life is told in poetic and concise vignettes, from the stories that Areum writes for his parents to the stories of his present. The text never moves on to the evils Of Areum, and he remains fixed as a curious and emotionally skilful protagonist who tries to navigate the awkwardness of a teenager.

Areum’s calculation with his fate makes it a heartbreaking story. This slim book has so much heart and contains an emotional investment in its 208 pages. As ephemeral as Areum’s fictional life may be, he will not be an easily forgotten character.

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My Brilliant Life by Kim Ae-ran

by Priya Singh | Jul 25, 2021 | Book Reviews | 0 |

by Priya Singh

Old age has no cure; there are only ways to delay the inevitable. Aerum is sixteen, the same age as his parents had been when he was born. In the face of a chronic illness that is rapidly aging and deteriorating his body, his survival thus far is considered miraculous. But Aerum never thinks of himself as a miracle. For him, miracles reside in the ordinary: in the books he devours, in his mom and dad and his neighbor and best friend, Little Grandpa Jang. The truly miraculous is a freedom so often taken for granted — to be able to live a full life and die of old age. As a final gift to his parents, Aerum has been secretly working on a manuscript which he hopes to present to them on his seventeenth birthday. It is the story of how they met, of their love, and of how that love ultimately created an enduring family bond.

Kim Ae-ran’s debut novel, My Brilliant Life , is a brief, beautiful coming-of-age story that transposes the notions of what it means to be mature and to age. Aerum’s story begins with his parents: sixteen-year-old Mira tells her boyfriend Daesu that she is pregnant. It’s a community and family scandal. However, Mira is a tough, popular girl who will not be weighed down by shame. She is going to take on her new role as wife and mother with unabashed pride. “We’ll finish raising the baby while everyone else is still in school, so that when they are in the workforce, all we have to do is hang out and let the kid support us.” While social stigma does follow the family throughout the book, I found their relationship to be a refreshing take on teen pregnancy. There is genuine tenderness that transcends age; through all of their fears and life changes, what they want most is a healthy baby who will love them. Rather than portraying Mira and Daesu as two people who rose above a youthful mistake, the story is, in many ways, about three people growing up together. 

Starting with his first observations of the world from the womb, anchored by the steady beat of his mother’s heart, Aerum not only shows us his gift for observation, but his curiosity, both about the world around him and the one out of reach. Since he’s unable to attend school due to his illness, books serve as his teachers and peers. What he cannot answer, he assigns to himself as essays. Aerum is a writer at heart. Whether it is in the manuscript for his parents, or in emails to an internet friend, he is on a constant search for the right words. As a writer myself, I’ve found that some of the anxieties he faced are ever present. Am I using the right word to convey a feeling? Will the story lose the reader halfway through for lack of heart-pounding action or twists? As this is Aerum’s first creative writing project, his challenges often come across as those of someone trying out ways to pep up the story for excitement’s sake. “Should I change ‘might have had cancer’ to ‘collaborated with the Japanese’?”

Although Aerum is not defined by his illness, it has made him unusually sensitive to the constant grief and worry that his parents try to conceal. “‘When you feel alone, when the world feels like the vast Pacific?’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘I’ll be your tiger.’” Conversely, because Aerum’s face reflects the aged version of themselves, Mira and Daesu can sometimes forget that he’s a kid when they talk to him. In fact, most of the characters in this book don’t act their age. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Aerum’s friendship with Little Grandpa Jang. Although Grandpa is well into his sixties, he doesn’t feel old. They sit in comfortable silence, two outwardly aged men on a park bench, where they debate about the problems with youth, and why old people like to criticize them. Little Grandpa Jang is a valuable repository of wisdom for many of Aerum’s adolescent life puzzles and “what-if” scenarios: “You always say you’re old, but believing that you can make that choice shows how young you really are. You’re asking the wrong question.”

Despite the genuine wisdom of Aerum’s narrative voice, there’s no mistaking his innocence. He’s still the teenager pestering Grandpa to buy him alcohol and asking for advice about a girl. Such moments are all the more powerful when contrasted with the brusque, pragmatic way the doctors would deliver his diagnoses.

Aerum’s story offers highs full of wit and humor, followed by sudden lows that clenched my heart at regular intervals. Originally written in Korean, My Brilliant Life has a gorgeous rhythm to its prose, and well-paced, believable dialogue. This not only speaks to the quality of Kim Ae-ran’s writing, but also to Kim Chi-Young’s talent as a translator. The book has one frustrating quirk: experiences are often described with opposing adjectives like “clear but dim, distant but close.” But I will immediately contradict myself: when you consider that these are Aerum’s words, going into his manuscript, it works. His narrative voice is poetic, his observations touched with humor and honesty. I never felt that he was an unreliable narrator or that his voice was exaggerated — after all, we are seeing his story through his eyes after all. 

Kim Ae-ran’s novel is a compact and intense study of aging, living and loving. Aerum’s illness is not what defines him, just as Mira and Daesu aren’t defined by being young parents. Instead this is the story of a family who learns that age doesn’t necessarily mean having all the answers, just as youth doesn’t always come with the luxury of innocence. My Brilliant Life is a series of bounds towards the open skies, touched by moments of utter heartbreak. I couldn’t put it down until I had followed Aerum’s story to the end.

Editors’ Note : You may notice the author’s name appears more than one way in print (see book cover above). In Korean, the family name (Kim) comes first and the given name/what we could consider the first name follows (Ae-Ran). We chose to follow the Korean tradition in our review. Additionally, the character Aerum is not related to Grandpa Jang but as a show of respect, Korean people address someone of his age as Halmonni and Haraboji (Grandma and Grandpa).

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About The Author

Priya Singh

Priya Singh is a writer, teacher, and MA student currently based in Germany. Her most recent publications can be found in Barrelhouse Magazine and Five on the Fifth Magazine. In between grad school and an incurable reading habit, she is editing the final draft of her first novella. When not at her writing desk, you can find her outside, possibly looking for stray cats to pet.

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February 7, 2021

Film Review: "My Brilliant Life" – A Refreshing Portrayal Of Family That Will Move You To Tears

Without catering to the cinematic clichés that sometimes accompany films surrounding terminal illness, “ My Brilliant Life ” successfully treats its audience to a surprisingly raw and refreshingly honest portrayal of one family’s love for each other amidst unique circumstances.

Based on the bestselling novel “My Palpitating Life” by Kim Ae Ran, the film’s protagonist is a 16-year-old boy named Ah Reum, played by Jo Sung Mok , who showcases a maturity and talent far beyond his young years. Ah Reum is not a typical teenage boy; he has progeria, which is a rare, fatal genetic condition characterized by accelerated aging. Ah Reum knows he doesn’t have long to live, and puts his memories and thoughts into a document on his laptop entitled, “Cosmos.”

With such a stellar young actor as the film’s protagonist, it only makes sense that director E J-Yong sought Song Hye Kyo and Kang Dong Won to play Ah Reum’s parent’s, Mira and Dae Su, respectively. Mira is spunky and outspoken, which makes her dynamic with Ah Reum’s father, the fun-loving and carefree Dae Su, extra adorable and hilarious. The two met when they were 17, got pregnant, and ran away from their unhappy families to start their lives together.

Because of the sheer excellence of this film, picking its best elements is not an easy task, but we’re going to give it a shot. Below are just a few of the reasons I 100 percent recommend “My Brilliant Life” to viewers – to watch again and again (…and again).

Ah Reum’s beautiful mind

Even though his body is old, frail, and failing him, Ah Reum’s mind is bright and young, and loves living. He reads and writes constantly, retaining information that he fully knows he may never have the chance to use. He finds joy in the smallest, most seemingly insignificant things that the majority of the world would overlook in a heartbeat.

During his conversations with an online friend, he is asked what makes him want to keep on living. His reply speaks to his pure character, intelligence, and unique view of the world:

“When do I want to live? When I see fleecy clouds in the blue sky…when I hear kids’ laughter, I want to live. On a clear day, when I smell sun-dried laundry with my mom….When I see the gruff shopkeeper cry like a girl while watching a soap opera….When I hear a granny calling out to her grand kids for dinner….When Mom splashes cold water on Dad’s back in the summer….When I see Venus moments after sunset with my dad….When I see blinking lights of airplanes on their night flight, I want to live.”

(Thank you, That Brilliant Summer Team, for the translation!) 

His optimism is inspiring and the delightful teen will worm his way into your heart before you know it!

Mira and Dae Su (Ah Reum’s parents)

Similarly to the young actor who plays Ah Reum, I cannot accurately verbalize the breathtaking acting skills that Kang Dong Won and Song Hye Kyo showcase in this movie; it’s utterly magical. And as impressive as their individual skills had to be for these roles, their chemistry as a couple is one of the most important cruxes of the film.

The way they portray these characters, it’s completely believable that these two fell in love (and were forced to grow up quickly and suddenly) at such a young age, essentially raising themselves as well as their child. Putting aside their youthful dreams, they worked hard to make a life for themselves and their baby. Beneath the romantic love they obviously have for one another is a weathered, raw love forged from years of friendship through thick and thin.

In a particularly touching moment for the couple, after an uncharacteristic outburst from the hurting Ah Reum, Dae Su heads to the hospital stairs to be alone and cry it out. Mira finds him there and sits next to him, patting his back and holding him as he cries. Not once does she utter a word. The moment is so special because of how much is communicated between the two without anything ever being said. The silence, in this case, speaks volumes about their love for one another.

Depiction of love

I’ve used the word “love” numerous times in this review, because ultimately, “My Brilliant Life” is a love story. It’s Ah Reum’s love story with his mother and father as well as his parents’ love story. When outside forces threaten to upturn our leading family’s chance for peace and happiness, they cling to each other stronger than ever.

Rather than push love and romance at the audience with overly-gushy dialogue or dramatic scenes of declaration, the soft approach of the film resounds much more accurately with real life. Sometimes love hurts very, very much, and sometimes it’s silent; sometimes it’s romantic, and sometimes it’s just between friends.

The love between fathers and sons is a prominent theme in the film, as we see when comparing Dae Su and Ah Reum’s friend-like father-son relationship to the relationship Dae Su has with his own father (played by veteran actor  Kim Kap Soo ). While the two do not share a ton of screen time together, the scenes they do share are powerful.

As a teen, Dae Su runs away from home after his father angrily slaps him repeatedly for getting Mira pregnant. Dae Su’s tendency to be buddy-buddy and often goofy with Ah Reum (rather than an authoritarian type of father figure) could be in part due to his young age – but is undoubtedly largely because of his severed relationship with his own father, whose tough exterior is so unlike Dae Su’s tender and happy-go-lucky spirit.

However, as we witness later in the film, Dae Su’s father has a quiet, underhanded way of showing his son that he still loves him. The scene when Dae Su realizes this – after everything seems to be hopeless and crumbling around him – is especially beautifully shot and acted.

Final thoughts

Without warning, “My Brilliant Life” sucks viewers in for a well-rounded, emotionally compelling watch, which – at the end of its run – leaves you with the utter and complete satisfaction that can only come at the end of a truly  great  film.

At the risk of sounding calloused and perhaps even insensitive, I began watching the film fully expecting another predictable family drama – nice to watch once, sad at times, maybe a tear shed here and there.

I’m pleased to say that I was completely and utterly wrong. “My Brilliant Life” touched me in a way that no movie has in a very, very long time. It’s a perfect mesh of phenomenal writing, ingenious directing, and outstanding acting – along with killer cinematography and a gorgeous music score.

If any reader is unsure whether or not to watch the film, let me urge you in the right direction: go for it! It’s a two thumbs up from me – or, it would be…if I wasn’t using my hands to wipe away the streaming tears.

Start watching “My Brilliant Life” right now!

actualeleven is an Asian drama buff who loves discovering new music and dramas, usually with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. She hopes to spread her passion for Asian dramas to her readers!

Currently watching:  “ Sweet Combat “ All-time favorite: “ Shut Up! Flower Boy Band “

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My Brilliant Life Hardcover – January 26, 2021

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A BEST OF THE MONTH SELECTION BY OPRAH MAGAZINE AN NPR BEST BOOK OF 2021 “An eminent South Korean talent makes her American début in this poignant watercolor of a novel . . . Kim is a writer on the move.” ―O, The Oprah Magazine Ae-ran Kim's My Brilliant Life explores family bonds and out-of-the-ordinary friendships, interweaving the past and present of a tight-knit family, finding joy and happiness in even the most difficult times. Areum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang―his sixty-year-old neighbor and best friend―and through the books he reads to visit the places he would otherwise never see. For several months, Areum has been working on a manuscript, piecing together his parents’ often embellished stories about his family and childhood. He hopes to present it on his birthday, as a final gift to his mom and dad; their own falling-in-love story. Through it all, Areum and his family will have you laughing and crying, for all the right reasons. “This novel snuck up on me and captured my heart.” ― Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order

• Print length 208 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Forge Books
• Publication date January 26, 2021
• Dimensions 5.79 x 0.81 x 8.66 inches
• ISBN-10 1250750555
• ISBN-13 978-1250750556
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“This novel snuck up on me and captured my heart.” ― Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order “Poetic . . . the humor, wisdom, and grace of this family carry us through a touching story of the hardest of times.” ―Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is “Heartfelt, hilarious, and full of wonder― My Brilliant Life is extraordinary and Ae-ran Kim astounds. Her novel is a warm, expansive exploration of family, the many different ways we love, and the infinite lives that each of us lives. It’s the loveliest book.” ―Bryan Washington, USA Today bestselling author of Memorial “A moving, earnest, and deeply-felt exploration of a unique family in all its joys and disappointments.” ― Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had “This is one of those novels where the characters seem to have immortal souls. They’re so real to me I feel like adding them to my Christmas card list. When you read this book, give them my regards. Let them know I still think about them.” ― Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet “Stylish and engaging, this eloquent book encompasses with compassion and discernment the ordinary miracles of birth and death and everything in between.” ― Kathleen Rooney, national bestselling author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk “Areum discovers more wisdom, humor, and insight in seventeen years of life than many of us find in a lifetime.” ― Heather Harpham, award-winning playwright and author of Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After “To read Ae-ran Kim is to fall in love with her.” ― Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling and Man Asian Prize winning author of Please Look After Mom “An eminent South Korean talent makes her American début in this poignant watercolor of a novel . . . Kim is a writer on the move.” ―O, The Oprah Magazine “ My Brilliant Life is an achingly beautiful story.” ―Shelf Awareness starred review “Compounding moments of insight and joy resonate deeply, with heartwarming results.” ―Booklist “Areum’s reckoning with his fate makes for a wrenching story. This slim book has so much heart, packing quite an emotional investment into its 208 pages. As fleeting as Areum’s fictional life may be, he will not be a character easily forgotten.” ―Bookpage “This quirky, bighearted book crackles with life on every page.” ―Asymptote Journal “It's a flawless book . . . I loved My Brilliant Life. ” ―Books and Bao

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Forge Books (January 26, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250750555
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250750556
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.1 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.79 x 0.81 x 8.66 inches
• #4,336 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
• #17,132 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
• #57,022 in Literary Fiction (Books)

About the author

Chi-young kim.

An award-winning literary translator and editor, Chi-Young has translated works by You-jeong Jeong, Sun-mi Hwang, Young-ha Kim, Kyung Ran Jo, J.M. Lee, and Kyung-sook Shin, among others.

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My Brilliant Life Hardcover – 26 January 2021

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• Print length 208 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Forge Books
• Publication date 26 January 2021
• Dimensions 14.71 x 2.06 x 22 cm
• ISBN-10 1250750555
• ISBN-13 978-1250750556
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Forge Books; 1st edition (26 January 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250750555
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250750556
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 286 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.71 x 2.06 x 22 cm
• #75,093 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

About the author

Chi-young kim.

An award-winning literary translator and editor, Chi-Young has translated works by You-jeong Jeong, Sun-mi Hwang, Young-ha Kim, Kyung Ran Jo, J.M. Lee, and Kyung-sook Shin, among others.

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A BRILLIANT LIFE

My mother's inspiring true story of surviving the holocaust.

by Rachelle Unreich ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 28, 2023

A daughter’s tender portrait of a woman who lived through terror.

Journalist Unreich makes a graceful book debut with a family history, gleaned from interviews that she conducted with her 89-year-old mother, Mira, before she died from cancer.

Born in a Czech village in 1927, Mira was the youngest of five children of Dolfie and Genya Blumenstock, Jewish shopkeepers. Her peaceful childhood ended in September 1940, when she was 13. Jews were banned from owning businesses or attending school, and their private property was confiscated by Czechoslovakian officials. In 1942, the round-ups began. Vowing to keep his family safe, Dolfie strategized their escape. Mira, like her siblings, had non-Jewish papers, but for her safety was sent away from the family to another town, where she rented a room and worked. At the same time as Dolfie protected his own family, he and his son smuggled Jews out of the Bochnia and Warsaw Ghettos, with the help of non-Jewish drivers. They hid the fugitives in homes, including Dolfie’s own, before sending them on to Budapest. But in 1944, the family met the fate of so many other Jews: Mira witnessed as Dolfie was murdered outside of his house; she and her mother were sent to a camp, one of over 40,000 situated all over Eastern Europe. Kraków-Płaszów, where Mira was sent first, was located in the south of Poland. “Originally a forced labour camp,” Unreich writes, “it had become an effective killing location.” By the time the war ended, Mira had spent nearly eight months in four camps; her mother and a brother had been killed. Mira’s recollections of the cruelty and sadism of the Holocaust are wrenching, yet the experiences did not quash her abiding faith in humanity. As a wife, mother, neighbor, and friend, she both embraced and enacted goodness.

Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023

ISBN: 9780063328754

Page Count: 352

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORY | SURVIVORS & ADVENTURERS | HOLOCAUST | JEWISH

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Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

Pub Date: July 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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BOOK REVIEW

by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton

LOVE, PAMELA

by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.

According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that ." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy , which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063226562

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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