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Review of Untold Night and Day, by Bae Suah

October 9, 2025

I’ve been meaning to write this review of Untold Night and Day by the Korean author Bae Suah a long, long time. Until now I hesitated, the reason being I didn’t feel it’s the kind of book that can be easily described (let alone reviewed) with words. I felt I needed something else – literally another work of art; keep reading! – to properly express what a masterpiece this short novel is.

You see, Untold Night and Day is so out of the ordinary that it utterly defies traditional categories of literary criticism. Genre? Plot? Characters? These concepts break down when dealing with such a masterpiece, such an authentic writers’ book.

I’ll try anyway. Just as a sign of respect toward Bae Suah, who gave the world such a stunning piece of art.

Suffice to say, I’ve read it five times already in less than three years and will surely repeat it again. It’s the kind of book that actually demands such a thing.

Untold Night and Day, image of Seoul, Korea.
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Death in A Christmas Carol: The Impossible Representation

October 21, 2024

It’s been a while since I shared something from my academic vault of uselessness… Well, alright; knowledge and thought are never useless; academia (the way it’s run nowadays) might be. But I digress. The following post on death in A Christmas Carol is a modified excerpt (pp. 148-149) from my doctoral dissertation, “Time is Everything with Him”: The Concept of the Eternal Now in Nineteenth-Century Gothic, which can be downloaded (for free) from the repository of the Tampere University Press.

Also take a look at my posts on religion in A Christmas Carol and, especially, Gothic Immortality in Dickens’s work – the present post forms a nice pair with the latter.

death in A Christmas Carol. Ai render of Scrooge facing the third ghost
Here’s an AI render of how an impressionist painting of the scene would’ve perhaps looked like
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Review of The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes

July 8, 2024

I’ll say it right away: This review of The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes, was inspired fully – believe it or not – by its… ending. Quite frankly, it’s so atrocious that it should be taught in literature classes as an example of what not to do.

But let’s take a step back.

It all began when, looking for something to read, I noticed this short novel and was encouraged by its blurb that promised an elliptical and ambiguous narrative (more of this in a moment) with clear literary-fiction vibes. I was far less encouraged by the fact that this book in particular and the author in general have received plenty of awards and praise. Quite frankly, I’m thoroughly suspicious of such things.

In any case, I thought to give it a shot, and the result was exceedingly peculiar, as you’ll discover in this review.

review of the sense of an ending, image of old man
Probably this is what the protagonist would look like: old, alone, bored and boring
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