Teresa’s Review of House of Pungsu by K.P. Kulski
House of Pungsu by K.P. Kulski
Listen: I finished this book and shouted F%*K YEAH!
And then I realized I had to think about what I would actually SAY about it in a review. Trust me, I would love to leave it at F%*K YEAH! But that doesn’t pay the bills (just kidding, I don’t get paid for this). It doesn’t cut the mustard. Wait, how is this a saying? How do you cut mustard? Okay, I am getting off track.
House of Pungsu is so many things: 1) It is beautifully written. The switch between the perspectives of Grandmother, Mother, and Daughter helps the reader really delve into the generational trauma, to see how each woman affects the other, how they live together in a closed, shared, seemingly contained, locked space no one can exactly explain away. 2) It is fables within fairytales within stories. We already know that House of Pungsu is based on the Korean folk story “The Tiger’s Whiskers”, but within the overall story, we have little stories, snapshots that teach us lessons, that encourage us to listen to what the world is telling us. And Grandmother reminds us that “one cannot be a storyteller without being a listener first.” 3) It is a coming-of-age story. Daughter has started menstruating, inexplicably, in a palace where nothing ever changes. This change has echoing ramifications throughout the palace.
It is all of these things and more. But, what it really is at its beautiful beating heart, is a women’s empowerment story. Women! Wrap yourselves in your power. Break the cycle. Women wear trauma in and on their bodies. We are supposedly just vessels for childbirth. Becoming nothing because we are buried under expectations and duty, when we are given nothing promised in return. What can you change, given knowledge and the chance. THIS is what The House of Pungsu is about. Read it! And when you finish the book and yell F%*K YEAH, feel free to @ me about it.
Teresa B. Ardrey
Twitter: @teresa_ardrey
I received an ARC of House of Pungsu from the author.
