O’Beautiful by Jung Yun
Synopsis.
From the critically-acclaimed author of Shelter, an unflinching portrayal of a woman trying to come to terms with the ghosts of her past and the tortured realities of a deeply divided America
Elinor Hanson, a forty-something former model, is struggling to reinvent herself as a freelance writer when she receives an unexpected assignment. Her mentor from grad school offers her a chance to write for a prestigious magazine about the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota. Elinor grew up near the Bakken, raised by an overbearing father and a distant Korean mother who met and married when he was stationed overseas. After decades away from home, Elinor returns to a landscape she hardly recognizes, overrun by tens of thousands of newcomers. Surrounded by roughnecks seeking their fortunes in oil and long-time residents worried about their changing community, Elinor experiences a profound sense of alienation and grief. She rages at the unrelenting male gaze, the locals who still see her as a foreigner, and the memories of her family’s estrangement after her mother decided to escape her unhappy marriage, leaving Elinor and her sister behind. The longer she pursues this potentially career-altering assignment, the more her past intertwines with the story she’s trying to tell, revealing disturbing new realities that will forever change her and the way she looks at the world.
With spare and graceful prose, O Beautiful presents an immersive portrait of a community rife with tensions and competing interests, and one woman’s attempts to reconcile her anger with her love of a beautiful, but troubled land.
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The Review
O’Beautiful
Jung Yun
Comparing Jung Yuns newest release to her first release, SHELTER, would be like comparing still life paintings. Although similar, O’ BEAUTIFUL stands on its own.
Yun writes with a diverse hand, an open mind but with an extreme amount of self-criticism.
How does a writer write with self-criticism? It’s simply how the author treats the characters, their choices, and how the characters are self-reflecting during their character ARC. When we read a flawed character, we allow them to be human. I think this is why reading builds such great empathy. We read this imaginary story of someone or people who are going through something important and critical in their life, and we’re watching them grow and become better people (most times).
Outside of the criticism, I think the greatness of this book is a story of one’s position in life. It talks about how each person has their own afflictions and setbacks. Each person has to overcome those things to find a life they’re comfortable with. It talks about race, cultures, and hereditary based prejudices, beauty standards, money, the economy, being poor, and what each of those things actually means to your quality of life.
It also asks questions about Big Corporations’ impact and influence on their environment. Meaning the community the business runs in and also its actual environment (Earth) (the Universe).
One of my favorite quotes
“You make it so hard for the rest of us.”
I know it cannot be understood without context. So you’ll just have to order the book to find out what it means. O’BEAUTIFUL is a great book, and I recommend it for those looking to explore real issues going on in the world, in the US, and around the corner
Four Stars
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this advanced copy!
