Review by Booklist Review
The 12-unit Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments were "way out in the tranquil mountains without any urban amenities." Built as public rental housing, "the conditions of residence were strict," including a handwritten pledge among the 20-plus documents required for the application. The significantly reduced rent attracted 240 couples to apply. Thus far, four (growing, because another of the stipulations is producing three children per couple within 10 years) families occupy four units. Award-winning Gu (The Old Woman with the Knife, 2022) intimately reveals the community's fate through the four wives--de facto leader by virtue of being inaugural resident Danhui, who should focus more on her own family; social media poster Gyowon, whose reality is far less perfect than her public photos and videos; book illustrator Hyonae, suffocating between deadlines and caring for her toddler; and pharmacy assistant Yojin, who reluctantly commutes into Seoul with a neighbor whose uncomfortable comments turn into inappropriate actions. Meticulously translated by prize-winning Kim, Gu's bitingly perceptive observations about womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood adroitly provoke acute feelings of breathtaking claustrophobia amidst stifling societal expectations.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A group of women navigate the pressure to be perfect mothers in this piercing domestic drama from Gu (The Old Woman with the Knife). The story unfolds in an experimental communal apartment complex outside Seoul, where residents are expected to have at least three children in exchange for government subsidies. Yojin, a pharmacy cashier, moves in with her husband, Euno, a frustrated filmmaker and stay-at-home dad, and their six-year-old daughter, Siyul. They join three other families, all chosen by lottery as part of a pilot program to help boost the country's birth rate. Yojin resents how Siyul, as the oldest among the four families' children, is saddled with watching the younger kids in the communal daycare run by Danhui. Tensions increase as Yojin begins to suspect that Danhui's husband, Jaegang, is hitting on her. Meanwhile, freelance illustrator Hyonae cannot find time to work amid the demands of mothering, and her neighbor Gyowon faces criticism online after she seeks secondhand clothes and accessories for her children. Gu's quick pacing tends to merely skim the surface, but as the women's frustrations reach a boiling point, she keenly portrays the toll taken by gendered expectations. This is a perceptive novel of motherhood's double binds. Agent: Marina Penalva, Cassnovas & Lynch. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
South Korean author Gu's (The Old Woman with the Knife) newest social novel focuses on four families living on the outskirts of Seoul in the government-run Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments, where there's the expectation that each family will have at least three children within 10 years of residency in order to boost the national birth rate. At the start of the novel, none of the Dream Future Pilot couples has met the goal; each has only one or two children, ranging in ages from infancy to age 6. Each couple brings unique circumstances to the mix: a stay-at-home dad and working mom who are barely making ends meet, for example, or a mother who's trying to determine if one of the husbands, whom she commutes to work with, is indeed making unwanted advances towards her. The book draws readers further into this community as the families attempt to achieve a balance between home life and work life. VERDICT Via breezy, engaging storytelling, Gu's realist novel explores the roles of women, with protagonists who discuss parenting and work-life balance while contending with meeting social, cultural, and societal mores. Readers will eagerly follow this story through to see which couples, if any, succeed in meeting the concept behind this distinctive living situation. A good pick for book clubs.--Shirley Quan
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