[REVIEW] Walking Practice by Dolki Min, translated by Victoria Caudle

(Buy this book here.)

Spoilers abound, because there was no other way.

Sometimes, it takes a people eating alien to show us just how much dating, gender expectations and hook-up culture can suck.

This debut novel by enigmatic queer Korean literary figure Dolki Min follows an alien stranded in Seoul, light years away from home, family, and anything ethically edible. Freshly butchered human seems to be the only thing that our narrator can stomach, and the best hunting ground is dating apps. By uncomfortably squishing its weird alien body into a variety of human-passing, sexually fluid gender disguises, the alien finds fresh victims every night, gaining miserable insight into the intimacies of human existence at its most primal.

This book is gross. The alien is gross, it thinks humans are gross, and its serial killer habits and diet are also deeply gross. (One scene in particular reminded me of another very gross book.) It’s all pretty revolting. It’s also pretty fascinating. Min’s created an immersive metaphor for the creeping social tyranny of gender as presentation and product. The alien is just as much a victim of its surroundings as it is a perpetrator of violence and wow, isn’t that an interesting statement to start a literary conversation on gender with?

This book is also uniquely Korean–many passages evoked very specific sense memories of Seoul and people I knew there in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s pandering to the hallyu gaze. This book was written specifically by and to Koreans in the culture using experimental language and lots of slang, and I have to hand it to the translator–you get all of the weirdness and experimentation without once tripping on a clunky reminder that you’re reading a translation. This book is weird, but a smooth read, and the translation reflects that.

It’s so smooth that you don’t realize you’re missing crucial pieces of information about the alien until you’re told, which leads to an unexpectedly emotional ending. I’ve never read anything like this, but I’m glad I did.

A copy of Tender Is The Flesh and a lifelong Tinder ban to Walking Practice.

(Fellow readers! This goes on the pile of books I am glad I read, but will never read again, because gross, man. If you’re interested in other alien invasion stories from global perspectives, check out this booklist or check out an updated version of it at the Equal Opportunity Bookshop, where every purchase you make gives us a little affiliate change. Thanks for reading, and go read something good. Peace!)