Farewell Party 1

On Farewell Party

                   by Joon Kim

 

  

 Cover Letter

 

 About the author

 

 Synopsis

 

Manuscript

 

 

 

 

A) Cover Letter

 

Hello, there!

I am Joon Kim, a 77-year-old Korean writer living in Seoul, who published 'Landscapes Invisible,' a literary novel concerning an American street Flamenco dancer, through Authhouse Publishing Company last year.

 

Farewell Party is an autobiographical novel consisting of a dozen literary essays or so with Farewell as the central theme in a series-connected story. It is a fact-fiction showing an aged man, the main character in the book, parting from what he has been familiar with and has done, one chapter after another chapter, until the end of the novel.

 

Very privately, I'm worried that Jaden, my grandson living in LA, an eleven-year-old elementary schoolboy, is a bit immature in English expressions orally for his age. I hope that when Jaden became a young adult, he would be proud of his late grandfather as a challenging-spirited writer. I often thought of Jaden being too far away from me while writing Farewell Party..

 

I had Landscapes Invisible, a fact-fiction book published through AuthorHouse. It is now available at Amazon and Barnett & Nobles. I am a writer and flamenco performance planner, doctorate in international politics, living in Masan, South Korea, where I was born in 1944. I have written eight literary books in Korean and one e-book in English and translated four English books into Korean. I worked for Kyung Nam Domin Daily in Korea as an editorial writer (1999-2001). I produced and directed five flamenco-pansori performances (2005- 2013). I am the author of seven fact-fiction books in Korean about local painters and their artworks, in a series titled "Chang Dong in Blue," published for 15 years from 2004 to 2019.  

 

I would sincerely appreciate your concern about this manuscript of ‘Farewell Party’.

 

Thank you.

Joon Kim

Seuk Jeun West 4 gil 11

Masan, ChangWon City,

KyungSang Nam Do,

South Korea

 

 

B) About the Author:

Joon Kim is the author of Landscapes Invisible, a literary book of fact- fiction now available at Amazon and Barnett & Nobles. He is a writer and flamenco performance planner, doctorate in international politics, lives in Masan, South Korea, where he was born in 1944. Joon Kim has written eight literary books in Korean and one e-book in English and translated four English books into Korean. He worked for Kyung Nam Domin Daily in Kyung Nam Do as an editorial writer (1999-2001). The author produced and directed five flamenco-pansori performances (2005- 2013). He is the author of seven fact-fiction books in Korean on local painters and their artworks, in a series titled "Chang Dong in Blue," published for 15 years of 2004-2019. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C) Synopsis

 

An adult over 70 and two young musicians perform a farewell ritual toward an oak tree and a grave in the forest opposite them on a high mountain hill. In front of the oak tree, the aged man tells a long monologue farewell, followed by two young performers playing traditional Korean music. It is in the mountains where no one can reach, so no one is around. It is a scene of a breakup that took place in the mountain near his hometown of Korea.

The following year, the aged man performs his farewell ceremony with a traditional Korean pansori singer in front of a tomb on the island's coast not far from his hometown. This time, an old Korean lyric song, Arirang, sung by her, follows his lengthy monologue. That is another ritual of separation he performed on the island. Furthermore, the workers who came with him by boat dig the grave, cremate the remains and sprinkle them in the sea.

The aged man then has a farewell party with his friends at a cafe located in the city's old city center where he lives. To a friend of them, he whispered in a low voice:

"from now on, 

I wish I could face the rest of my life 

like the Indian man of an American tribe! 

When they were young, 

they ran through the plains, 

'with both eyes that are stable horizontally.' 

And when they got old, 

they went into the woods alone 

to silently return to the earth 

where their lives were initially part of it!"

 

Before having the city center's farewell party, he went to Tokyo, Japan, to see a flamenco dancer, whom he had met in Portland 20 years ago in her girlhood of 7 years old. Leaving the performance hall, he said to her, leaving her, " Happy to see you again here. You turn up a magic dancer, Esmeralda!"

 

And after that, unexpectedly, he participates in a parade of young demonstrations condemning the government's illegal elections on the street. Too old to participate in the young people's demonstration parade, he couldn't just see that his country was becoming an unfamiliar state like North Korea's socialist totalitarianism. He couldn't imagine that there would be no more freedom and democracy in his country.

 

'Farewell Party' is an autobiographical novel consisting of a dozen or so literary essays in a series-connected story. Its composition resembles the musical work titled Pictures at an Exhibition by Mousorpsky, a Suite composed of ten pieces. Just as Mousorpsky, the composer, uses musical sounds expressing the ten paintings displayed in the exhibition hall, the author of 'Farewell Party' lets an aged man, the main character, lead this fact-fiction with the main subject of farewell as the title of the story means. 

 

After the first and second stage of this novel, it shows mainly local painters who lived or have lived working in the downtown Chang-Dong of an old city in Korea. And also there appear together with them a few guitarists and amateur magicians. These are the characters whom the aged man as the main character meets in person or the characters that appear through his recollection. And the novel shows through the email letters coming in and going out two flamenco dancers as the main character’s friends

 

The story begins showing a high mountain in Korea where an aged Korean in his 70s does his farewell ritual in front of an old oak tree standing as a symbol for his grandparents and parents dead. There are three men, an American aspiring literary writer in his thirties, and two musicians in the scene invited by the aged man. As the aged man’s friend, the American has stayed in Masan,  the main character’s hometown, for over a year, teaching English at a college located in this old town,

 

This is an autobiographical story about farewell. Every chapter in the story expresses his farewell to what he has been familiar with or has done. The aged man also opens his farewell party in a café in his hometown to say goodbye to his friends. 

 

And finally, the author adds at the last part of this novel his conflicts in his mind caused by the fraud of general elections in his country. He is sure that the country faced a real social crisis due to that illegal election under the coronavirus pandemic atmosphere.

 

Between the first and second chapters of the novel and the last one, there are a dozen chapters or more containing various characters in each chapter. 

It is an essay-turned novel supported by four memorable scenes like architecture supported by four struts. The first scene taking place in a deep mountain, expresses an strut, the second scene on a small island acts as another strut, and there is the third one in a city center café, meaning another strut. The aged man as the main character and an American in his 30s as his friend were present in the three main scenes.

 And in the fourth scene, as the last one, there appear two cities, one, Masan of Korea, where the aged man lives, and the other, Jerez of Spain, where an old American lady, a retired nurse, stays. 

 

In conclusion, farewell is the central theme of the story. The main character of the book, reveals his mind to say goodbye to all things he loves- modern paintings and Spanish flamenco music, the items and elements destined to him, the places and something with which he has been familiar and has done.

 

Characters: 

With an aged man as the main character put as the center of the story, there appear several characters such as an American man, a street guitarist, painters, an amateur magician, a cafe owner, a retired American nurse, etc.

Periods:                                                                         

2017- 2021

Places:

Masan, a city of Korea, Portland, LA, New York, Tokyo, Jerez and Cadiz in Spain