Time to Eat Lobster

Contemporary Korean Stories on Memories of the Vietnam War

Bang Hyeon-seok

Translated by Seung-Hee Jeon

2016, 194 pages

ISBN 978-1-937385-76-7 Paper $25.00
ISBN 978-1-937385-77-4 Cloth $38.00

In his novellas Time to Eat Lobster and Forms of Being and the short story “Rice and Soup,” Bang Hyun-seok narrates the experiences of post-Cold War South Koreans and Vietnamese coming to terms with their own recent traumatic pasts at the same time as they form unusual bonds of love, friendship, and understanding.
    In this collection by a major contemporary South Korean novelist, we are able to catch a rare glimpse of the recent historical evolution of inter-Asian relationships in the capitalist U.S.-led post-World War II world order through the characters’ enduring dreams and triumphs over their individual pain and frustration.