First published in1990, this is a sensational and highly controversial novel by one of Korea’smost electrifying contemporary authors. A preposterous coming-of-age story, meldingsex, death, and high school in a manner reminiscent of some perverse collisionbetween Georges Bataille and Beverly Cleary, the narrator of this book plowsthrough contemporaneous Korean mores with aplomb, bound for destruction, ormaturity—whichever comes first.