Lemon is built as a series of short vignettes from different points of view. It starts with the aggressive interrogation of Han Manu, accused of murdering schoolgirl Hae-On in 2002. This interrogation, and much of the story is told from the perspective of Hae-on’s younger sister Da-on who will spend the years following that murder grieving for her sister, trying to be her sister and seeking to find her sister’s killer. Along the way she will encounter her sister’s friend, strike up an unlikely friendship with Han Manu and his own sister and commit crimes of her own.
As already mentioned, the crime fiction elements of this novel are used to highlight issues in Korean society. Kwon’s narrative deals with issues of beauty standards and plastic surgery, educational expectations, compulsory military service, the Korean medical system and of course, the difference between the haves and the have-nots. And she does this through a range of likeable and not so likeable characters and a mystery that, depending on how the book is read, is never quite solved. But what Lemon definitely demonstrates is the richness and diversity of the Korean crime scene (K-crime?), a crime fiction sub-genre just waiting to be more widely discovered.
Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed
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Robert Goodman is a book reviewer, former Ned Kelly Awards judge and institutionalised public servant based in Sydney. This and over 450 more book reviews can be found on his website Pile By the Bed.