[Book Sip] "There Are Too Many People Who Cry Out for Love Without Loving"

Editor's NoteSome sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly resonate with the reader’s heart, creating a connection with the book. We excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from books.

The story begins with the disappearance of a mother. After a divorce, 'Yeom Bora,' the mother of 'Eom Jimin,' who had been having an affair for nearly ten years with a man who had a wife, suddenly disappears leaving only one text message. To find her missing mother, Eom Jimin visits the swimming pool that her mother frequented and there meets 'Heo Inhoe,' the wife of her mother’s affair partner 'Oh Jin-hong.' Set around a village community swimming pool located on the outskirts of a city, the novel unfolds a tense love story filled with affairs, murder, kidnapping, and cult crimes, featuring characters who all seem far from sane. Yet the novel asserts that no one can be sane in the face of love. The author unravels the universal theme of ‘love’ through powerful characters and overwhelming narrative tension.

“Do you think that’s love?”

Heo Inhoe removed the arm that had been covering her eyes. Her face was flushed bright red. Inhoe spoke in a trembling voice.

“Why wouldn’t it be love? My heart races and I can’t breathe when I see him. I only see him with my eyes. Why isn’t this love?” (p.145)

“Why should I give Oh Jin-hong to you? What are you two? Did you love each other? No, you didn’t. Pretending to be destined partners, pretending you can’t live without each other, and after all that pretending, why are you like this? Why did you get sick and get abandoned? Is this love? Is this the love you built up with all your nonsense for ten years?”

Bora looked at Inhoe with a strange expression and asked,

“Are you angry now because you think Oh Jin-hong and I didn’t love each other?”

“People like you should just die. Completely die.” (pp.253-254)

“They, that newlywed couple, killed because they didn’t love each other, right? I also worked in the wedding industry. I met many couples at the venues. There are so many people in the world who shout about love without actually loving. I wanted to kill them too.” (pp.299-300)

Have you seen the true face of love?

No, I haven’t. When asked what love is, Heo Inhoe recalls the times when she desperately longed for love. The smell of her father’s alcohol, the classroom where she was beaten and thrown around, the black mountain wandering naked, her older sister crying because she wanted to study more, her mother’s face who lost love, the dark alley and the hands of a rough man, the moldy basement boarding house she barely found, the words “a woman who plays with men” written about her, the face of the person who deceived her, an empty ultrasound photo with no trace of a child?these things. It’s strange. She endlessly waits for love, but because true love never appears, Inhoe keeps making mistakes. Her father’s angry face or the smell of alcohol take the place of love. Those things become the face of love. Like a child who, waiting desperately for her grandmother, mistakes the person who killed her grandmother for her grandmother and opens the door, Heo Inhoe opens the door to the distorted faces of love. (pp.331-332)

Love Monster | Written by Lee Du-on | Changbi | 376 pages | 14,400 KRW