Book Title: Marigold Mind Laundry
Author: Jungeun Yun
Date Started: November 19th 2024
Date Completed: November 23rd 2024
Genres: Contemporary, Magicial Realism
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star
Final Rating: Two Stars
Review:
◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆
I honestly found the Marigold Mind Laungry a bit disappointing. I made it 53% of the way through before deciding it just wasn't for me. The sprinklings of magical realism could've elevated the story beyond its domestic setting, and the cast of characters could have been structured to build towards a resolution for the burnout everyone was feeling, but it decided to keep its cards pretty isolated for each person.
It feels quite reminiscent of the sub-genre I've seen a lot in Japanese literature where bookstores/libraries solve everyone's Capitalist twenty-first-century fatigue with life, right down the cyclical short-story structure. These sorts of stories always feel repetitive to me, and vary a lot in how emotionally intertwined the cast of characters are. Such nuance is needed for these books to pay off for me, and it just didn't quite catch it anywhere.
The translation does feel quite awkward, so might be the source of the challenge. I speak some Korean and can tell this is a very faithful translation, but creative license is so important to transpose stories into another language, literally and in spirit.
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