Farewell Party is an autobiographical novel and consists of three sections. The first section shows two farewell rituals: an aged man in his late 70s performs in the high mountain before the tombs of his ancestors with a flutist playing Daegeum sanjo (a piece of traditional Korean melodies). The other ritual with a pansori song follows the first one before a tomb on the seashore of an uninhabited island. The book’s second section appears as a flow of the aged man’s consciousness, so it seems not to follow the physical sequence of time. The sea, which used to be near in his boyhood, turns up vividly through his retrospection. Then, unexpectedly, there appears a flamenco dancer.
He had met her one time in Portland when she was a little girl. He receives an email message from her informing him that she is to visit Tokyo. He flies to Tokyo imagining that the little sea returns to him, surrealistically changing itself into a flamenco dancer. And He recalls and misses a street guitarist, an amateur magician, and painters in Changdong who are alive or not in this world. But unfortunately, he’s not in good health, so he secluded himself from society.
In the final section, the aged man, living alone since then, is drawn to an unavoidable voice of conscience from within: Join those who resist social injustice. So he orders himself to go outside and join the demonstrations against the election fraud in the April 15 General Election. He is sure the country will face a severe social crisis resulting from that illegal election committed by the ruling party under the threatening Coronavirus pandemic atmosphere.
Joon Kim is the Author of ‘Landscapes Invisible’, an autobiographical 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). In addition, 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.
Jung Kyu Kim, ex-professor –
Dr. Kim, concentrating on the flamenco, deep songs of the cave of the heart, where ‘pain taps out its rhythm and sorrow’.
expressed not the only sensibility of modern art but also his anti-government and political freedom in his newly-published Farewell Party, In the book, he let the romantic passion and classical restraint, with the former being stronger.
Chegal Sun, artist –
It was strange and impressive to see an old man in his late 70s saying goodbye to his 20-year-old grandmother who was buried there in front of a grave next to an oak tree on a high mountain.//
MyungHo Rho, English teacher –
The monologue the aged whispers is sad but romantic! I love it:
The aged man then has a farewell party with his friends at a cafe in ChangDong, the old downtown of Masan, where he lives. To a friend of them, he whispered in a low voice as below:
“from now on, I wish I could face the rest of my life like men of an American Indian tribe! When they are young, they run through the plains, ‘with both eyes that are stable horizontally.’ And when they get old, they go into the woods alone to return in silence to the earth where their lives were initially part of it!”
Laurena M –
Dear Joon!
I am so enjoying your book and for me, this is your finest work. I love it!!!! Just love it.
I am very happy to hear you have a bit of peace from your election. I know the feeling!!
Mil abrazos,
Laurena
Joon Kim –
*The author himself said: On Farewell Party
In this novel, the impact of the corona pandemic on the author is well exposed. The book as a whole is pessimistic. The old man, the main character, expresses how his psychology goes under the corona pandemic situation. That is, he would be infected with Corona pandemic and die of it, So, in preparation for when he would be infected with Corona Pandemic and die of it,
he writes down what he is doing including what he has done as his family obligation. His son’s family lives far away in the United States, and especially he wants his loving grandson to read this book. He worries that his grandson would not read Korean word or writing, so he write it in English..
And another thing as its motive
Have you ever heard the story of 70-year-old children mourning the death of their 30-year-old young father?
His father was once a mountain Cerfa (guide) in the mountainous regions of Himalayas. He disappeared into the crevasses of the high mountains in a landslide. Then, due to the movement of glaciers, he was found frozen 50 years later.
The old children were now still burying the young father’s body. In the Himalayas, such accidents are not uncommon.
This story reminded me of my grandmother. She died at the age of 20, leaving behind a one-year-old baby son.
For more than 65 years, I have been visiting the grave of my grandmother who died 20-year-old; and is now buried high in the mountains..
Personally I have made it a duty to make yearly visit to the tomb on the high slope once a year for 65 years.
When I was a boy, I followed my father to the tomb by walk far from my house
One day I come up to the tomb and bid farewell to it, because I am too old and too weak.
Strangely, Physical time seems to stop flowing in the high mountains. As you know, time flows at a physically normal speed on the flat ground,
An old man who is over his mid-70s is bidding good-bye in front of the grave of his 20-year-old grandmother in this deep mountain. Seen from a distance, it is a curious landscape.
And the next he performs a farewell ritual there, with two musicians accompanied. They played Daekumsanjo, a piece of traditional Korean music, and he said his last goodbye to her there. Now she is buried deep in his heart.
Joon Kim –
The author said: At the Sonoconcre TV interview on Farewell Party, what I should have said is as follows; Flamenco is the means through which man reaches God without the intervention of saints or angels (Luis Antonio DE VEGA): Deep song is…. truly deep, deeper than the wells and oceans of the world… It comes from the first sob and the first kiss(Garcia Lorca)
Joon Kim –
On Farewell Party
In this novel, the impact of the corona pandemic on the author is well exposed. The book as a whole is a little lonely. The old man, the main character, expresses how his psychology goes under the corona pandemic situation. That is, he would be infected with the corona pandemic and die of it, So, In a sense, this creative non-fiction is written in preparation for when he would be infected with Corona Pandemic and die of it,
he writes down what he is doing including what he has done as his obligation for his big family. His son’s family lives far away in the United States, and especially he wants his grandson in the future to read what he has written.
Then, he worries that his grandson may not read books in Korean, The boy is now a preparatory middle school student, and he talks with his parents in Korean at home, but at school he learns everything, reading and writing in English. Therefore, it is obvious that he may not be able to read books in Korean.
He longs for the grandson to grow up to read his autobiographical novels in English and to empathize with how his grandfather has lived. He wants his grandchildren far from where he lives someday to read his books and empathize with his family’s history through the books he has written. Above all, he wants his grandson in the United States to remember and recall himself after his death.
ex-professor Jung Kyu Kim –
On Farewell Party.
Is it your last farewell to your grandmother who lies buried in the tomb?
Or is it the last meeting announcing your leaving for the unknown world?
Is this the author’s last work?
farewell, death. Burial…..
Goodbye to ancestors and a prayer or a will?
The continuation of the family,
the evolution of history!
Does this work reveal the passion of old age?
Life in old age is not like a scarecrow!
Joon Kim –
A Chinese writer named Gao Sing Xen said: “Talking to myself is the beginning of literature. Communication with the world comes next. If a person puts his (or her) thoughts and feelings into a language, writes them in a book, and expresses them in writing, it is the beginning of literature. You can’t expect any benefit from that. You can only be rewarded comfort and pleasure in the process of writing.”
I express my personal thought and experience as if I were talking to myself, in Farewell Party as in another book, Landscapes Invisible