His great light

Description

How long has it been since I've been so absorbed in a full-length novel? This is a novel everyone knows, but no one has thought of.
Jeong I-hyeon (novelist)

“Have you ever seen Jay Kang? He’s a legend.”

The story begins with Lee Gyu-ah's monologue after returning to Korea after a period of wandering in New York. Seongsu-dong, where she had left after dropping out of college, had become one of Seoul's most iconic landmarks. Above all, the T Tower, with the Han River as its front yard, towered over her. Leveraging her experience in New York, Gyu-ah renovated a single-family home next door to T Tower and opened a New York-style wine bar. She visits her cousin, Yoo Yeon-ji, and her husband, Lee Gwang-chae, a former Seoul National University classmate, who live in the H Apartment in Apgujeong-dong, overlooking the Han River. Gyu-ah feels a sense of distance from Yeon-ji, who grew up like a princess in an affluent environment, and Lee Gwang-chae, who possesses a voluptuous confidence as well as inherited wealth and brute strength. However, she senses that as long as she continues her business, she will inevitably become entangled with them.
Meanwhile, a name begins to ring a bell: Jay Kang, who reportedly lives in the penthouse of T Tower. He founded the biotech startup Eckleberg, which became a global corporation, and developed Ecklecoin, which became Korea's most popular cryptocurrency after its explosive price surge. He became a national hero. However, aside from rumors that he graduated top of his class from Seoul National University and Harvard, little else is known about his background. Then one day, Jay Kang shows up at Gyu-ah's wine bar, offering to rent it out periodically. She discovers a startling truth: Jay Kang, revered as a mythical figure, was actually Kang Jae-woong, a junior from her college club. Gyu-ah accepts Jae-woong's invitation and visits his penthouse, where a lavish party is taking place. Seeing the familiar faces of Jae-woong and Jay Kang, she feels a mixture of joy and a sense of unease.
After meeting Jae-woong again, Gyu-ah's daily life changes completely. At the parties he hosts, she encounters celebrities and artists, encountering a world of glamour. She's fascinated by it all, yet simultaneously views it all with a cynical eye. Then, she realizes that Jae-woong has come to her with a purpose. He wants to reunite with Yoo Yeon-ji, with whom he had briefly shared a passionate crush and even fled during their college years. And he's achieved everything, including amassing a staggering fortune, for that singular purpose.

Kang Jae-woong hadn't forgotten Yoo Yeon-ji. Not only had he not forgotten, but the harmonious and perfect image of their reunion had been replayed and developed in his mind tens of millions of times, until that imagined scene had become a solid marble statue, polished to perfection by tens of millions of caressing strokes in the air. He could now observe and touch the stone statue, now as real as life itself, from every angle—right and left, above and below. His voice, impassive, as if even his obsession had long since been forgotten, clearly implied that he had taken every step of his mythical life up to this very moment, striving to realize that reunion.
_Page 143

Ultimately, Gyu-ah helps Jae-woong meet Yeon-ji. Yeon-ji meets Jae-woong with Gyu-ah at Kings Point and then at the penthouse of T Tower. This encounter creates a huge ripple effect for many people involved. Eventually, Gwang-chae, Yeon-ji, Jae-woong, and Gyu-ah come together, and their midsummer conversation at the H Apartment in Apgujeong-dong culminates in a huge explosion, sending the story hurtling toward an irreversible tragedy.

It was the gaze of a man who had traveled across an era and continents in the name of love. Standing once again before the source of hope that had driven everything he had accomplished, in that ecstatic moment of finally attaining it, I was asking a cruel question. A question so vicious that even the thought of it, without speaking it, could have killed him.
_Page 196

A man who chased the impossible light
And about that light

If "The Great Gatsby" is about a man named Gatsby, chasing an elusive, mirage-like light, "His Great Light" is about that very light. The female narrator, Lee Gyu-ah, focuses more deeply on Yoo Yeon-ji, his light, than on Kang Jae-woong, who pursues that impossible light. Like a distant, flickering green light, she becomes the light of someone pursuing their ideals. She is "as pretty as a French doll," the object of desire for two men, yet she says she has "never been happy since she was born." This very perspective is what led Shim Yun-kyung to rewrite "The Great Gatsby." In "His Great Light," not only the narrator but also Yoo Yeon-ji's child's gender is reversed. In "The Great Gatsby," Daisy's monologue, "Thank goodness it's a daughter. If you're going to be a fool, be a fool. In this world, it's easier to be a fool. A cute fool," is transformed into Yoo Yeon-ji's monologue, "Yes, I like sons. They'll grow up to be fools. What else can a boy be? A handsome fool." Furthermore, the female golfer in "The Great Gatsby" appears as Min Kyung-hoon, a dreamer of becoming a professional golfer. Gender is simply gender, and while it can change nothing, it can also change everything. This irony is perhaps the central question the author seeks to pose in this work. In "His Great Light," the "light" isn't just Yoo Yeon-man. The image of Jay Kang, not Kang Jae-woong, who can't let go of his vast wealth, and the people blinded by his dazzling wealth, starkly exposes the materialism that dominates our society today. Sim Yun-kyung portrays light as an object of desire in a striking way, portraying it before us: something dazzling and hot, yet also harboring deep darkness and shadow.

Rewriting for Our Times

The author said that he was inspired to write this novel by the view of Seongsu-dong and Apgujeong-dong facing each other. Fitzgerald, who conceived "The Great Gatsby" while standing on a bay in Long Island, New York, and Shim Yun-kyung lived in completely different eras, but they discovered a certain similarity. Humans do not change, but life stories repeat themselves. That is why classics have a timeless and powerful power. However, while humans do change, times do. That is why archetypal stories must be rewritten. This format is being gradually attempted, with recent productions such as "Hamlet" (written by Shakespeare, directed by Boo Sae-rom), in which Prince Hamlet becomes a princess, and "The Cherry Orchard" (written by Anton Chekhov, directed by Simon Stone), which was adapted for the Korean stage, and "Demon Copperhead" (Barbara Kingsolver), a retelling of Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield," winning the Pulitzer Prize. However, this attempt to rewrite a classic novel in this way is unprecedented in Korea. Perhaps the task of bringing back the power of the original story in a completely new way is one that only Shim Yun-kyung, who has constantly updated her literary world with each new work, can accomplish.

Oh my, Seongsu-dong and Apgujeong-dong were so perfectly placed opposite each other. I paused my walk along the Han River and gazed at the place again, concentrating solely on the symmetry of the two tall, shallow buildings. There was something distinctly familiar about this scene, with the two buildings representing old and new money facing each other across the vast, rippling water. This novel began in the amazement of standing on the very spot where Gatsby had reached out his hand toward the flickering green light across the water.
_From the author's note