Author: 박서련
ISBN: 9791160402865
Date read: 2023/05/30
How strongly I recommend it: 6/10
I. Background of the Book
“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’” – Luke 10:38-42
The book start itself by showing the above for some reason. The author likes to be dramatic.
Honestly I have no idea what to feel about this book. On the one hand, this book brings again the classic Korean mystery novel vibes but it also is not that great in terms of the way the plot is laid out. I mean I think it’s fair to say that the plot is predictable and the author doesn’t really provide a clear context to the reader the discussion of morality that is explained in the book.
The story revolves, mainly on two people: 임리아 (Lim Lia) and 임수아 (Im Sua). Sua is the older sister, whereas her younger sister is Lia. And this is an allegory of some sort to the title of the book which is aptly named “Martha’s Work”.
Now you can skip this if you want, since I honestly were also bored that I had to google this but here is some Christian theology.
If you are not familiar with Christian lore, like I do, Martha and Marry was a sister of Lazarus. Basically Jesus one day decided to visit their home, as Martha hurries to ensure the preparations, Mary simply sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to the wisdom of Christ. Mary and Martha are two sisters with incredibly different focuses. While Mary soaks in the moments with Jesus, Martha can’t think past the cooking and cleaning. Martha quickly becomes frustrated with all the work she is doing alone and complains to Jesus! Martha then says to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” Jesus replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
The conclusion that I derived from this passage by multiple Christian sources is that there is a duality in serving the Lord. Disciples are not called to either sit or serve but are called to both sit and serve. And the main character of the novel also has a lot of monologue where she considered herself to be Martha and her sister is Mary. She justified her actions, which I’ll explain below, based on this story.
II. Plot
Obviously this section is a spoiler, duh.
So, Sua is an aspiring teacher (she still has a lot of exams in front of her), one day she got the news that her sister, Lia is at the hospital in critical condition. She went there hurriedly only to find her sister dead. It was declared a suicide but she didn’t accept that fact. Not long after that, she got a text message from someone informing that her sister did not commit suicide. And so it begins, she sought to get revenge by murdering the person that killed her sister.
Some interesting part of the plot is that her sister Lia, which her given name is actually Gyongah (경아), is:
- apparently described as very pretty and drop dead gorgeous
- is an instagram “influencer”, she has 20k followers
- famous nationwide because a lot of NGOs and government ads regarding voluntary work has her face on it
I cannot escape the fact that the book is basically describing a sibling relationship. It explores the envy, jealousy, betrayal, and the bare reality of having a sibling of the same gender. Yet despite all of that, her sister still loves her. There is a passage in the novel where, well I’ll just drop it here:
“그 예쁜 애가 내 동생이라는 걸 난 굳이 알리지도 숨기지도 않았는데 일주일도 못 가서 전교에 소문이 다 났다. 1학년에서 제일 예쁜 애가 2학년 전교 1등 동생이라는 이야기를 학생들은 물론이고 몇몇 교사들까지 즐겁게 떠들어 댔다.”
“I didn’t feel the need to hide or announce the fact that the beautiful girl is my sister, but within a week, rumors spread throughout the entire school. Students, of course, were happily gossiping about the story that the prettiest girl in the first grade is the top student in the entire second grade, and even some teachers joined in the lively chatter.”
But would that justify the revenge?
Constantly in the book we are described a person that was not that close with her sister. She did not know that her sister was THAT famous and they rarely talk to each other because she lives in a different apartment. We’re also described someone who is a bit eccentric in the way she planned to catch the suspect that killed her sister, very reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. Everything is calculated as if she could predict the future, a bit unnatural in my opinion. Sua is also does not have a good relationship with her parents, which complicates the story in my opinion. Am I supposed to side with Sua, am I supposed to condemn Lia’s behavior (cause apparently she got pregnant outside of marriage even though she goes to church frequently), am I supposed to side with 이준서 (Lee Junseo) which was Lia’s boyfriend that decided to get in a car and lit a coal bricket to commit suicide together but bailed at the last minute?
Hilariously this book is like an example of list of things to AVOID doing. And all the reverse is like a decent enough guide to live. Be good with your siblings and parents, go to church and don’t have sex outside marriage. Probably that is what the author is doing. BUT…
This book also has a very weird “sexual tension”, for a lack of better term. Throughout the book, Sua works and later used to work in a cafe that is own by a woman that is a bit older than her. This woman, which is referred to in the book as “Manager Unnie” (Unnie being a term to refer to older woman by a woman). I swear to god I thought this was some cheap gay stuff apparently in retrospect it’s to highlight the fact that even Sua herself is being treated as a younger sister by this manager. Ain’t that food for thought. The manager was so kind and always there for her, she lend her old phone (she’s rich af) and helped her to catch Lee Junseo. Nonetheless, there’s so many bewildering interactions between these two:
Sua: “언니는 제 어디가 좋아요?” “What do you like about me, unnie?”
Manager: “나는 우리가 서로 썸 정도는 탔다고 생각하는데…아니야? 나만 너 좋아하는 거야?” “I thought we had a crush on each other, right? Am I the only one who likes you?”
or this one:
Manager: “나 차인 줄 알았는데 이용당하는 거구나.” “Oh, so I’m being taken advantage of, I thought you dumped me.”
Sua: “무슨 말을 그렇게 해요.” “Why are you saying such things?”
And much more I can’t put here cause it’s so cringy and sounds like dad jokes istg.
At the end of the day I think, now that I have days to process what happened, we should love our siblings. That’s probably the message. I’m not sure. The plot is predictable but not boring, and the pace could’ve been better.
I don’t condone what Sua did which was that she murdered Lee Junseo, though we can’t be sure he’s dead since there is a weird plot twist vibe passage at the end of the novel where Sua is about to leave her house and she got a package delivery and it was Junseo’s bloody shoes at the night of the murder. It kinda reminds me of Crime and Punishment, your crime always gets to you and you will never be the same person once you commit it. You might deny it, but you can’t escape reality.