Run, Daddy, Run (Remastered)

Author Kim Ae-ran · Publisher Changbi · Published 2019-09-25 · ISBN 9788936438029

About the Book

Reasons to read "Run, Dad" again today:
Unrivaled literary sensibility and sparkling cheerfulness that affirms everyday life

The remastered edition of 『Run, Dad』 features nine short stories arranged in a new order, different from the previous table of contents. The four short stories placed in the first half revolve around a boy narrator and depict daily life against the backdrop of a "missing father or mother."
In "Sky Kon Kong," which portrays the coming-of-age story of a boy living in a rooftop house with his TV repairman father and scientist-wannabe older brother, and "Who Carelessly Sets Off Fireworks on the Beach," where a mother recounts her first meeting with the father to her young son who asks "how I was born," the absence of a mother is apparent. The young 'I' doesn't search for his mother, but doesn't become overly mature either, growing up with a suitable blend of precociousness and childishness, while the young father clumsily yet earnestly and warmly protects the child's daily life. In "Love's Greetings," which intertwines the search for a lost father with the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster, and "Run, Dad," which contains vibrant imagination about a father who left home, abandoning his pregnant wife, the young narrators lack a father. The narrators in each novel honestly resent their fathers but affirm their absence with cheerful and affectionate imagination. In particular, "Run, Dad" is a work that shows a joyful will to affirm wounds and move forward, by imagining the father always running, even putting sneakers and sunglasses on him. This absence and lack, expressed not through negativity and sadness but through affirmation and cheerfulness, meets Kim Ae-ran's unique lively prose, providing sparkling scenes and lingering impressions.
The five short stories in the latter half depict the everyday struggles of young professionals. "There's a Reason She Can't Sleep," where a young working woman suffering from insomnia has an uncomfortable cohabitation with her suddenly appearing father, and "Eternal Narrator," which shows the ironic conversations and situations with a classmate encountered by chance on the subway, both intricately portray the communication breakdown and sense of disconnection with close yet distant others experienced by people in their twenties through dense psychological descriptions. On the other hand, "I Go to the Convenience Store" is a work that captures the everyday life of capitalism through the eyes of a college student living alone in a university town in Seoul, with keen observation and simple, clear prose. The 'I' in Kim Ae-ran's debut work, "The House That Doesn't Knock," is also a narrator who can be read in a similar vein, living alone in a house in a university town, aware of the other tenants, but ultimately discovering 'myself' in the same form. The stories of young professionals who wish to form human connections with others yet want to hide from their unspoken violence are likely to resonate easily with anyone who has gone through or is currently going through this period.

These works, which begin everyday stories with a familiar expression, undergo a delicate internal observation, then leap into sparkling imagination, and finally transform misfortune and wounds into a cheerful energy of self-affirmation. The lively rhythm and melody felt while reading the novels further amplify Kim Ae-ran's unique sensibility. This is why this collection of works has been consistently loved for the past 14 years and is meeting readers anew today. The remastered edition of 『Run, Dad』 will still make us realize Kim Ae-ran's unique and unrivaled presence and what we hoped for in Korean literature and novels.

From the Book

And in that brief moment, things no one knew about happened on Earth, unknown to anyone. Just like our brief kiss long ago. Like those days when something you didn't believe happened on the lips closest to you. (「Sky Kon Kong」 p.9)

The greatest legacy my mother left me was how not to pity myself. My mother neither felt sorry for me nor pitied me. That's why I was grateful to my mother. I knew. What people were really asking when they asked 'Are you okay?' was about their own well-being. My mother and I were not salvation or understanding, but a relationship as dignified as a standing ticket. (「Run, Dad」 p.47)

She, it seems, won't be coming. My father quietly recites a passage from a letter inside his jumper. Hello. I ask about countless well-beings that cannot be gauged. Are you well? When I ask hello, I hope that all the small worries behind the greetings where I reply hello, and all the well-beings beyond the unspoken well-beings after I turn and say goodbye again, are well. (「Who Carelessly Sets Off Fireworks on the Beach」 p.82)

I am a person who wants to be understood, but backs away when I see your bare face. I am a person who loves you. But I am a person who knows that this love is love from a person who starts with 'I am'. I am a person who sits down after saying 'But I am', I am a person who falls after saying 'I am' one more time, but I am a person who cannot stop, and so I am a person who starts over again by saying 'I often think about what kind of person I am'. (「Eternal Narrator」 p.150)

The sense of relief I feel every time I go to the convenience store might be because I feel like I'm buying not just things, but everyday life. When I return home, swinging a plastic bag, I am no longer a poor student living alone, nor a lonely single person, but an ordinary consumer and a citizen of Seoul. (「I Go to the Convenience Store」 p.222)

This may have nothing to do with you. But we often forget that tens of thousands of things that have nothing to do with us significantly impact our lives. A broken public phone in a provincial tourist city you'll never visit and you, the StarCraft champion and you, the hell squid that has lived since the Paleozoic era in a place without light or oxygen and you, you between you and you. (「Paper Fish」 p.262)

Table of Contents

Sky Kon Kong
Run, Dad
Who Carelessly Sets Off Fireworks on the Beach
Love's Greetings
Eternal Narrator
There's a Reason She Can't Sleep
The House That Doesn't Knock
I Go to the Convenience Store
Paper Fish

Commentary by Kim Dong-sik
Author's Note
Recommendation
Newly Written Author's Note
Publication Venues of Included Works