The Korea Herald

Sade’s 1785 novel banned in Korea

The Korean-language translation of French writer Marquis de Sade’s 1785 novel, “The 120 Days of Sodom,” has been officially banned in Korea, for its “extremely violent” and “disturbing” sexual content. It is the second time that the book, dealing with orgies and torture, has been banned by the government. The book was published here on Aug. 15 by local publishing house Dongsuh Press. Korea Publication Ethics Commission, a state review board, started investigating the book on Aug. 16, after a man

Sept. 20, 2012

Rushdie releases memoirs as anti-Islam film protests rage

LONDON (AFP) ― As violent protests over a US-made film rock the Muslim world, Salman Rushdie publishes his account Tuesday of the decade he spent in hiding while under a fatwa for his book “The Satanic Verses.”With at least 19 people killed in a week of furious protests over the film, Rushdie’s candid memoir of the years spent on the run after he too was accused of mocking Islam, entitled “Joseph Anton,” has an added resonance.“A book which was critical of Islam would be difficult to be publishe

Sept. 18, 2012

Naomi Wolf pens paean to good sex

“Vagina: A New Biography’’ (Ecco), by Naomi WolfWe have a pinched nerve to thank for the latest book from Naomi Wolf, author of the best-selling “The Beauty Myth,’’ about the fashion industry’s oppression of women.At 46, Wolf began to suffer from a spinal nerve compression that diminished her pleasure during sexual intercourse, draining it of its “poetic dimension.’’X-rays revealed that damaged vertebrae were exerting pressure on her pelvic nerve, which branches out from the base of the spine to

Sept. 13, 2012

Women talk about booze

Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight UpEdited by Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg(Seal Press)Everyone, it seems, has a drinking story, even teetotalers, and in this anthology of essays, 28 women tell theirs.“Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up,” edited by Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg (Seal Press, 268 pages, $16), is wide-ranging, with women musing about their own drinking, their parents’ drinking and their good-for-nothing boyfriends’

Sept. 13, 2012

‘ROTC Kills’ finds poet looking back

ROTC Kills: PoemsBy John Koethe (Harper Perennial)In his new collection, John Koethe opens by contemplating “the impossible world from which I’m absent” with a “sudden stab of fear,” aware that the “never-ending sentences” he creates will one day actually end.At 66, Koethe has earned his moments of dread, as well as his right to look back in anger, disappointment and bitterness. “ROTC Kills” takes its provocative title from a Harvard student strike poster of 1969, whose countercultural idealism

Sept. 13, 2012

If you like to read, you’ll want to ‘Read This!’

Last fall, Chris Fischbach suggested to Hans Weyandt that his blog might make a good book. Weyandt only laughed.Fischbach was on his way to Germany to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair, and Weyandt joked, “If you bring me back some gummy bears, we’ll call it a deal.”A week or two later, Fischbach showed up again, jet-lagged, perhaps, but persistent, and holding a sticky bag of gummy bears.That is the short version of how Weyandt’s blog, “Mr. Micawber Enters the Internets,” turned into “Read This! H

Sept. 13, 2012

If you like to read, you’ll want to ‘Read This!’

Literary giants talk about life, literature in Gyeongju

Nobel Literature Prize laureates Wole Soyinka and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio met with South Korean poet Ko Un for a literary forum in Gyeongju, an ancient city southeast of Seoul.Soyinka, Clezio and Ko cited rage, self-satisfaction and condolence, respectively, as the origin of their literary world during the forum held Wednesday as part of the 78th PEN International Congress.The Nigeria-born writer Soyinka opened the talk, saying that writing always makes him happy but entails pain. The pain

Sept. 13, 2012

Hilary Mantel and Will Self make Booker Prize shortlist

LONDON (AFP) ― Former winner Hilary Mantel and radical contemporary author Will Self have both made the shortlist for Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction, it was announced Tuesday.The six-person list included authors from Britain, India and Malaysia. The winner, due to be announced at London’s Guildhall on October 16, receives $80,000.Mantel, from Britain, was listed for her novel “Bring up the Bodies,” a sequel to her 2009 Booker winner “Wolf Hall.”They are the first and second volum

Sept. 12, 2012

PEN International calls for freedom of speech

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says writers should defend human freedoms with languageGYEONGJU, North Gyeongsang Province ― Nobel laureates and writers on Monday stressed the importance of freedom of speech and their members who are currently imprisoned, at the opening of the 78th International PEN Congress in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.One PEN International member in Beijing, Jiao Guobiao, has been prevented by the Chinese government from attending the literary event in Gyeongju, said PEN

Sept. 11, 2012

PEN International calls for freedom of speech

Germany’s ex-first lady denies having worked as escort

BERLIN (AFP) ― Germany’s former first lady, Bettina Wulff, denies she ever worked as an escort in a book to be published Wednesday, seven months after the ex-president stepped down over a political favors scandal.In a chapter entitled “The Rumours,” 38-year-old Wulff seeks to snuff out stories that have swirled about an alleged previous life suggesting she worked as call girl under the pseudonym “Lady Viktoria.” The former PR executive, who married Christian Wulff in 2008 and with whom she has a

Sept. 11, 2012

Germany’s ex-first lady denies having worked as escort

International PEN Congress opens in historic city of Gyeongju

Literary forum discusses issues concerning media and human rights with Nobel laureates GYEONGJU, North Gyeongsang Province ― The 78th International PEN Congress opened on Monday in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, kicking off a seven-day event focusing on issues of media, literature and human rights. A London-based international association of writers, PEN International has been hosting the congress, which consists of networking and literary events and lectures, in different cities around th

Sept. 10, 2012

International PEN Congress opens in historic city of Gyeongju

Politics, dirty campaigns fill election yarn

The Other WomanBy Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge) Myriad “other women” form an ever-widening circle of political intrigue in award-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan’s highly entertaining hardcover debut.Politics, dirty campaigns and compromised candidates are a compelling plot foundation in any year, but especially in this presidential election year. Ryan combines both a timely tale and a multi-layered plot with gripping suspense. “The Other Woman” works well as a political thriller and romantic su

Sept. 6, 2012

Politics, dirty campaigns fill election yarn

Author undone by his own style

The Devil in SilverBy Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)Nobody is his or her own best editor, not even the writer of this review, so you wonder whether Victor LaValle didn’t get advice about his third novel, “The Devil in Silver,” or simply chose to ignore it. It’s sad, really, because what might have been a first-rate thriller about madness, corruption and monsters in a Queens asylum is too glib to get a reader fully committed, no pun intended, although it’s a great example of how an author can be

Sept. 6, 2012

Molly Ringwald taps into her literary interest

Picture a film shoot somewhere in Canada. On one side of a swimming pool, the gear, the crew and most of the cast; on the other side, Molly Ringwald. They’re shooting the rest of the scene before her part, so she sits on a box to wait. She begins tapping on her phone, and as the hours pass, that’s all she does: Sit on the box, tapping. By the time the camera turns her way, she has finished the first draft of “When It Happens to You,” the impassioned, clever title story of her first book of ficti

Sept. 6, 2012

Molly Ringwald taps into her literary interest

Bulgarian rewarded for delving into Slavic roots in short stories

When Miroslav Penkov moved to the United States from Bulgaria just short of his 19th birthday, he was so insecure about his accented English that he’d often rehearse conversations in his head. In line at the grocery store, before ordering a Coke on the airplane, even when talking to peers, Penkov turned over the phrase dozens of times.That experience of being an outsider in a foreign country would define him as a writer ― and make Penkov, 29, a rising literary star.His collection of short storie

Sept. 6, 2012

Bulgarian rewarded for delving into Slavic roots in short stories

German magazine rethinking ‘no models’ policy

BERLIN (AFP) ― One of Germany’s top women’s magazines said Monday it was reviewing its policy of only publishing photographs of amateur models instead of professionals.The fortnightly magazine, Brigitte, made international headlines in October 2009 with the news that it would only print pictures of “real women” after readers complained they could not identify with ultra-thin professional models.A spokeswoman for Gruner + Jahr publishing house told AFP that a new editor-in-chief planned a thoroug

Sept. 4, 2012

Chinese ‘blind spot’ for Western readers

HONG KONG (AFP) ― A potent mix of state censorship, conservative publishing choices and scant translation means international readers are given a narrow view of contemporary China, industry critics say.There are the occasional books by Chinese authors that hit the international bestseller lists such as the blockbuster “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang, which has sold millions worldwide, and Adeline Yen Mah’s “Falling Leaves.”But both of those authors are based in the West ― highlighting the paucity of

Sept. 3, 2012

Recovery hits the road

The Revised Fundamentals of CaregivingBy Jonathan Evison (Algonquin Books)Who among us wouldn’t like to put the car in reverse, hurtling back past some long-vanished stretch where we somehow swerved from the road, forever changing life’s scenery through all the miles to come?Benjamin Benjamin, the 39-year-old narrator of Jonathan Evison’s “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving,” knows the feeling. As Evison’s novel opens, Ben has endured two rocky years reliving an accident ― which may have bee

Aug. 30, 2012

When you learn you are dying

One Last Thing Before I GoBy Jonathan Tropper (Dutton)Drew Silver is one of modern literature’s more pathetic losers. And that’s before he discovers an aortic dissection is about to kill him.The good news for Silver ― which is what everyone, even his daughter, calls him ― is that surgery can save his life. There’s a bit of bad news, and part of it is that the procedure would be performed by Silver’s ex-wife’s fiance. The other is that Silver, who is 44, doesn’t want the surgery.The sad-sack hero

Aug. 30, 2012

Posnanski’s ‘Paterno’ complicates Penn State story

Joe Posnanski moved to State College, Pa., to write a much different book.Posnanski, a former Kansas City Star sports columnist, imagined his biography of Penn State University’s heralded head football coach Joe Paterno would be about the man who, as Posnanski noted in a USA Today column last week, “always said ... that winning ... wasn’t what mattered. And yet, he won more games than anyone.” The book he was writing was based, after all, on full access to the coach and his records.And then ever

Aug. 30, 2012

Posnanski’s ‘Paterno’ complicates Penn State story