Counter Attacks at Thirty : A Novel by Won-Pyung Sohn [Paperback]

Ji-hye is an ordinary woman who has never been extraordinary in her thirty years of life. Even her name Ji-hye is one of the most ordinary in Korea. And just like every ordinary person, she’s not one to make waves by pointing out the absurdities of Korean bureaucracy or the small acts of injustice around her. Ji hye puts up with her superiors at the Academy where she works who, in big and small ways, create a semi-hostile work environment in the office. She has become the master of tedious tasks, from lining up chairs and distributing lecture materials to photocopying pornographic materials for “presentations.” Inappropriate as some of her tasks might be, Ji-hye has long accepted them as part of ordinary young adult life. But when Kyu-ok Lee, a new intern, joins the Academy, Ji-hye recognizes him as the man who once publicly accused a professor there of plagiarism. But this Kyu-ok seems different from that angry young man Ji-hye once encountered. In the office, he seems to be just another hard-working employee… until he shows his true colors.

A pacifist version of V in V for Vendetta, Kyu-ok recruits likeminded people to carry out plans for minor revenge. All four “rebels” he’s recruited in their office have their own reasons to resent society at large: a single dad who’s stuck in the past, a screenwriter whose script was stolen by a large filmmaking corporation, and Ji-hye, who’s never felt like an individual and now has to deal on a daily basis with a bully who’s come back into her life as an instructor at the Academy. Together, these four rebels begin to protest the older generation in the form of harmless antics: graffiti, throwing eggs, anonymous exposé, and more. But as their attacks increase, they (and the reader) will discover that even these tiny protests can make change in a world where everyone’s been too busy just getting by.