I Have the Right to Destroy Myself

Kim Young-Ha

translated from the Korean by Kim Chi-Young
Harcourt 2007 [1996]
A book review by Danny Yee © 2007 https://dannyreviews.com/
The unnamed narrator of I Have the Right to Destroy Myself helps his clients commit suicide and then writes up their stories as novels. He is also a connoisseur of painting, and travels to Vienna and Florence to view masterpieces. Brothers C and K have an affair with one of the narrator's clients, while living lives on the edge: C obsessed by his work as a video artist and K driving his taxi around at high speed between cities.

I Have the Right to Destroy Myself is a short but satisfying weaving together of art, sex and death. It is light on action and has only a slender plot, but it is atmospheric and compelling in its presentation of characters and its evocation of a "noir" Seoul.

October 2007

External links:
- buy from Bookshop.org
- buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
- review and links at the Complete Review
- share this review on Facebook or Twitter
Related reviews:
- more Korean literature
%T I Have the Right to Destroy Myself
%A Kim Young-Ha
%M Korean
%F Kim Chi-Young
%I Harcourt
%D 2007 [1996]
%O paperback
%G ISBN-13 9780156030809
%P 119pp