There is something inherently interesting about damage. Consider the example of a pair of clocks: one that is functioning normally and one that is out of order.  At best, the clock that is working can tell us the time. The clock that is damaged, however, has a story to tell. We wonder: How did it come to such a state? Who does it belong to? Will it ever be restored? Furthermore, a damaged clock compels us to make inferences about the wider context in which it appears. In other words, it becomes a symbol.

The stories contained in Choi In-Hoon’s House of Idols feature damage in a variety of forms: bombed out homes and businesses, ravaged countryside, broken people. All of these are casualties of the recently-concluded Korean War (though none of the stories take the conflict as its primary subject matter).

The title story follows the comings and goings of a group of intellectuals as they await the completion of the postwar reconstruction. Although the nation is now at peace, a sense of normalcy has yet to return, and the capitol is flooded with shiftless people whose livelihoods have been disrupted. It is a time when members of the educated class seem to have inordinate levels of free time in which to indulge their curiosities. Strangely the characters in this story do so by taking undue interest in an incorrigible mental patient whose sole source of amusement comes from beguiling members of the intelligencia with a fabricated tale of sorrow and regret.

Unlike the title story, which makes no mention of the continuing presence of foreign forces in the country, End of the Road hones in on the lasting dysfunction caused by the outposts of American troops that remain following the armistice. The story chronicles a series of events that take place along a desolate stretch of highway built to service a remote military compound. It is apparent from the outset, however, that the road is more than just a road. Rather it is a symbol of the glossy promises made to the South Korean people by the liberating forces. Although it may look good on the surface, in reality the road is nothing less than a scar on the land.

The final story contained in House of Idols returns to the theme of mental illness first broached in the tile story. Imprisoned is set entirely within the confines of a psychiatric hospital and is related through the warped perspective of one of the patients. Most interesting about the story is what it seems to say about the troubled sex life of the narrator. The ostensible reason behind his confinement is that he brought home a mannequin that he placed alongside his wife in bed. The insinuation that she is frigid couldn’t be clearer. The story ends with the narrator attempting to persuade his wife to conceal a self-righting doll beneath the folds of her skirt. I’ll leave it to you to supply the analysis.

            Elton LaClare