Behind its high-tech, industrialized economy and its lively pop culture scene, there is a harsh reality that lies beneath South Korea. The citizens are struggling to keep pace with the constant change in their increasingly modern surroundings. This reality is candidly captured in New York Bakery, an anthology of short stories.

Consisting of 14 short stories by award-winning Korean authors, the anthology explores social changes and culture clashes experienced by South Koreans.

New York Bakery starts with a short story of the same title about a poet and novelist named Kim Yeon-su. The 24-year-old reminisces about a bakery that his family used to have in the city of Gimcheon, with his mother mostly being in charge of the business. It was not really a popular bakery, except during the holidays.

Sadly, along with other stores, it was closed down due to the modernization of the area.

As the story unravels Kim’s past through a flashback, readers are slowly exposed to his family’s unfortunate background. Dubbed “the youngest son of New York Bakery”, people often perceived him as someone who had a privileged life as the son of a business owner.

In reality, the family struggled to make ends meet by selling as much bread as they could. His mother treated each loaf of bread with care because every one of them was counted as a cent for their living. As a result, Kim was not allowed to eat the bread as he pleased and mostly ended up eating the crumbs.

However, he often stole a few pieces of bread whenever his mother was away and shared them with other kids in the neighborhood.

Now living in Gyeonggi province, Kim finds out that the bakery has been turned into a 24-hour rice-and-soup restaurant. He enters the restaurant only to find himself flooded by the memories of his family’s bakery.

What makes this story interesting is how the author, also named Kim Yeon-su, conveyed the plot with an emphasis on the family. To most people, New York Bakery might just be another bakery that they visited, but for Kim, it is a home that holds thousands of cherished memories.

One such example is on Christmas Day, when the family would get together to decorate the bakery with Christmas ornaments and signs. Kim manages to stir up nostalgic feelings by portraying the heartwarming family moment and remembering how lively the place used to be.

The short story is written descriptively, with each scene described in the most detailed way. Kim also uses a few poetic words to deliver certain emotional scenes.

“The point of the story is self-adaptation to social changes [affected by] the change of an era. We can then see the attitude of a child to a father and a mother, their traditions, their relationship with their neighbors,” Maman S. Mahayana, one of the anthology’s translators, said during the book launch in Jakarta last month.

Maman, who is also a well-known Indonesian writer, also pointed out that Korean stories are known for their blurred distinction between fiction and reality, something that is clearly shown in New York Bakery, as the author himself also owned a family bakery that closed down due to modernization.

“There is a thin boundary between the life of the author and the fiction disclosed in the short story,” he said. “So, if you want to understand the cultural and social changes in South Korea’s society, one of the ways to do it is by reading these short stories.”

Professor Koh Young Hun, who is also the translator and a Korean writer based in Indonesia, recommends this short story as the first story that readers should read in this anthology series.

“Through this story, we can look back at the unfortunate era through the lives of the characters,” he said.

Previously, New York Bakery was featured in the first Indonesian edition of Koreana Magazine, a quarterly magazine published by the Korea Foundation.

—The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

— Photos by JP/Audrie Safira Maulana

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