SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS, just-barely-too-long alt-Korea novel

SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS
ED PARK
Random House (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$5.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present—loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, K-pop bands and the perils of social media.

In 1919, far-flung Korean patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the North-South split that remains today.

But what if the KPG still existed now, today—working toward a unified Korea, secretly harnessing the might of a giant tech company to further its aims? That’s the outrageous premise of Same Bed Different Dreams, which weaves together three distinct narrative voices and an archive of mysterious images and twists reality like a kaleidoscope, spinning Korean history, American pop culture, and our tech-fraught lives into an extraordinary and unforgettable novel.

Early on we meet Soon Sheen, who works at the sprawling international technology company GLOAT, and comes into possession of an unfinished book authored by the KPG. The manuscript is a mysterious, revisionist history, tying famous names and obscure bit players to the KPG’s grand project. This strange manuscript links together figures from architect-poet Yi Sang to Jack London to Marilyn Monroe. M*A*S*H is in here, too, and the Moonies, and a history of violence extending from the assassination of President McKinley to the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007.

Just as foreign countries have imposed their desires on Korea, so too has Park tucked different dreamers into this sprawling bed of a novel. Among them: Parker Jotter, Korean War vet and appliance-store owner, who saw something—a UFO?—while flying over North Korea; Nora You, nail salon magnate; and Monk Zingapan, game designer turned writing guru. Their links are revealed over time, even as the dreamers remain in the dark as to their own interconnectedness. A thrilling feat of imagination and a step forward from an award-winning author, Same Bed Different Dreams begins as a comic novel and gradually pulls readers into another dimension—one in which utopia is possible.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: GLOAT now enters my lexicon as an acronymic shorthand for "evil bastard corporate actor" alongside its sixtyish ancestor CHOAM from Dune. As Soon, the character who works at GoogleGLOAT, drifts in and out of the narrative, I thought I was supposed to attach meaning to these time-shifts into either the *Korea MS or Parker Jotter the SF writer manqué's PoV...but there was not something I could find that reliably sent me off to another narrative strand. It could be that I'm just not sophisticated enough, or attentive enough, to identify it; nonetheless its invisibility to me (whatever the cause) cost me fluid readability.

I'm not proficient in Korean history so I went into the read expecting to need St. Wiki's help untangling what/when/who nexuses. Author Park offers clues that feel very helpful. The problem is these clues aren't terribly well signposted. By which I mean I think he went out of his way to bury them in odd places.

"Flounder" is my verb for this read. I floundered from the beginning to the end. I splashed in a kiddie pool that floated into the Indiana Natatorium. I'm pretty sure most of the time I was listing perilously in the diving well...deep but not lethal.

I'm giving you the impression that this wasn't fun, but oh boy was it! Like being in a giant playtank without adult supervision always is! Splash into the Korean Provisional Government's truly jaw-dropping existence; then to the Korean War vet (my dad was one, too) Parker's awful struggles, Soon's crisis of conscience; the story didn't help me figure out where I was or who I was with. Author Park trusted me to figure it out.

How often do you get that experience? I'm not sure when I was last left alone by a US writer to slug through a learning curve. It was heady stuff. As was its quiet-part-aloud disdain for crony capitalism. The main reason people rise in the current capitalist hellscape is mostly down to who they know and how much they can spend on the crappy people who gatekeep access to the ocean of money (fake, fiat money has no logical reason for scarcity) need to do...anything...hence GLOAT.

It won't be everyone's jam. If you found Cloud Atlas impenetrable, this isn't your book. OTOH, if you're into bibimbap already, the food references will feel like horrible torture unless you live near a Korean place. Hanjeongsik is in my very near future if I have anything to say about it...but that's beside the point. You need to have a willingness to keep going in spite of wondering what this or that person's name is, this or that historical event's factuality is, and be ready to accept the "aha!" moments as they come.

A strong anti-crony capitalist theme in a book that allows me to learn things for myself. Had it been 100pp shorter I'd be full-five-starring it. But at 520-plus pages it felt bloated, slightly self-indulgent. A story I recommend with mild reservations, not a "just READ it gorram you!" shove.