A review by readingwithkt
Your Neighbour's Table by Gu Byeong -Mo

challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0



Your Neighbour’s Table is a really interesting little book about a communal living apartment block. We dip into each of the families individual stories, sometimes flicking between each family quite unexpectedly, and also have an overarching theme of the “communal”. There is each individual, but the collective is extremely important here. It’s a story about what it means to live with and coexist alongside others, it’s about the complications of relationships, and it’s about the way in which intimacy can be both comforting and suffocating (at different times, in unequal measures, to varying degrees).

I found the flitting back and forth between POVs quite difficult to keep track of, and it took me some time to work out who all the character were. I think for the number of POVs, a longer book would have allowed more time to get all the narrators straight. I read it as an ARC on e-reader as well which might impact how easy it was the follow the changing POVs - maybe (hopefully) that is clearer in finished (print) format. 

The final scenes could have been developed further. I felt the interactions in the end were quite surface level and we didn’t go as deep into the issues between people as I had hoped we would. 

Really, an interesting concept and thought provoking book but needed to be longer in my opinion to be able to be fully developed. 

Glad I read it though and I’d definitely read something else from this author. 
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