Real estate is the most openly acknowledged object of desire in Korean society today. A single home has become a yardstick for measuring wealth and class, marriage and family ties, even personal success. The Hyundai apartment complex in Seoul's Apgujeong district, in particular, is seen as more than a place to live — it is property that symbolizes wealth and social standing.
Yoon Bo-in's short story collection "Because I Couldn't Buy Apgujeong Hyundai" captures the desire for real estate that runs through Korean society, and the bare face of capitalism, in a dry and blunt style. The book contains 10 short stories built around property, including "That Talk About Real Estate Being Over — Dongbu Ichon-dong," "Because I Couldn't Buy Apgujeong Hyundai" and "Hannam District 3."
Korean literature dealing with homes and real estate has until now mostly featured people pushed outside the market or made its victims. This collection turns its gaze elsewhere, placing those who have jumped into the property market at the center. They take auction classes and tour properties in person, buy up apartments through gap investment — purchasing a home while a tenant's jeonse deposit, a lump-sum deposit paid instead of monthly rent, covers most of the price — and poke around redevelopment districts right after getting out of prison. Rather than condemning or pitying them, the author lets each character's calculations and desires be heard in their own words.
Most of the characters in these stories have collapsed badly at least once. They go bankrupt, serve time for embezzlement, find their low-rise multi-unit housing presales blocked by rising interest rates, and lose auction bid after auction bid. But they do not sit down and weep. The protagonist of "That Talk About Real Estate Being Over — Dongbu Ichon-dong" lands a job at a company in Gangnam after going bankrupt and starts taking auction classes. Touring auction properties among con artists, recalling an acquaintance who has died, the protagonist still resolves to turn life around "from bankruptcy to success."
The protagonist of the title story, "Because I Couldn't Buy Apgujeong Hyundai," lives in a monthly rental in Yeoksam-dong while holding several apartments bought through gap investment. He walks through Apgujeong with the son of a former girlfriend. Passing the Apgujeong Hyundai complex he never managed to buy, he preaches the logic of money and capitalism to the young man and declares that he will "live armed with shamelessness."
Literary critic An Se-jin wrote in the commentary that "in the 10 stories collected here, we encounter a varied cast of 'players' who run all over the country clutching property registration certificates, driven by the single-minded goal of making it into the Apgujeong Hyundai complex." The critic added that "the joys and sorrows of human life are here."
In the author's note, Yoon wrote: "I tried to capture the era, to capture reality. The characters here are living hard. While investing, while paying off debt, sometimes striving to the point of tears." Yoon made a literary debut in 2007 when the short story "Snake" won the fiction category of the Munhaksasang New Writer's Award. Yoon has published the short story collection "Snake" and the novels "Night Cat" and "Jaeryeong."
Minumsa, 416 pages.