unpublished Manuscript, Farewell Party 2

Farewell Party

 

Preface

..........but the melody of the Sigiriya disappears into the horizontal.

-Federico Garcia Lorca-

 

'Farewell Party' is an autobiographical novel consisting of a dozen literary essays or so in a series-connected story. Its composition resembles the musical work titled Pictures at an Exhibition by Mousorpsky, a composer. Just as Mousorpsky uses musical sounds, expressing the ten paintings displayed in the hall of the exhibition, the author of 'Farewell Party' lets an aged man, the main character in the novel, bid farewell to what he has been familiar with and has done, one after another, until the end of the novel 

The fact-fiction of 'Farewell Party' begins with the first chapter showing a high hill away from the haunts of men where an aged man in his 70s performs his farewell ritual in front of an old oak tree symbolizing his grandparents and his parents dead. There are 3 men in their thirties, one an American youth and the other two Korean musicians invited by the aged man. The first scene takes place in a deep mountain located outside of a Korean city he lives. 

In the novel, there come out several painters, two guitarists with a few flamenco dancers whom The aged man, this novel's main character, called out from his memory. 

 At the end of this story, the aged man expresses his inner conflicts in his mind in the last part of the novel caused by general elections fraud in Korea. He is sure that the country faced a real social crisis due to that illegal election under the coronavirus pandemic atmosphere. 

Notably, there is a decisive factor that helped this autobiographical novel be completed much earlier than expected. It was the forced social severance by the coronavirus pandemic that lasted for nearly a year. Such an environment the author had never experienced before let him concentrated on writing it. In a sense, he enjoyed the utterly unfamiliar alienation caused by the situation that forced him to write it and just walking alone by the seaside or in the countryside over a whole year since the global pandemic threatened his daily life. 

(page 1)

 

 

 

 

 

Contents

 

Preface

 

An aged man's grandmother

 

Soo Woo Island

 

The lost sea of Goo Gang

 

Esmeralda

 

Ecole de Chang-Dong 

 

Traditional Korean Painter 1

 

Traditional Korean Painter 2

 

Amateur magician

 

Street guitarist

 

Anecdotes in pictures

 

Diaspora painter

 

Antique jar

 

Farewell party

 

Irresistible urge to cry out

 

Ay! Ay! Ay!

 

Postscript

 

(p.2)