Broken Summer ~ By J.M. Lee
Shared guilt and blame centers plot of crime novel
(Amazon Crossing Press, 2022, ISBN #9-781-6625-0504-1)
Review by Bill Drucker (Spring 2025)
J.M. Lee’s previous novel, The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, of a young, North Korean defector genius was a fanciful, entertaining read. His new psychological drama, Broken Summer is a disturbing tale of the death, possibly a murder, of a girl in a small town. The tale uses the Rashomon Effect narrative. In the famous Japanese movie, a rape-murder of a couple is retold by four witnesses. Each provides a different perspective of the same incident. The complexity of the actual events are made worse due to the trauma experienced by the victims and witnesses.
In Broken Summer, the death of a local high school girl instills a sense of fear and anxiety. The event is told by various witnesses and participants from their own points of view, making it harder for police to discern the truth as the story unfolds. Each person who has a role in telling the story wants to protect themselves. Social class differences and individual desires are exposed. The police are under pressure to close the case as quickly as possible. All these factors cloud the pursuit of truth.
The story begins with celebrated artist Hanjo Lee who, after decades of strivings at the peak of his success. However, his revenge-seeking wife leaves him on his forty-third birthday, and someone has written an fictionalized account of his life, describing a sordid past. Hanjo fears that certain veiled truths within the novel will destroy him.
Hanjo is forced to reckon with his shallow life, his unhappy marriage, and his reputation as an artist. There is a past incident that haunts him.
The story rewinds 18 years, to the small town of Isan City. Its most important landmark at that time was the western-style Howard House, originally built for missionaries. The house stands on a hill, and below it is the much-smaller Malcolm House, which served as a guesthouse for visiting missionaries, and then as the servants residence. Other significant buildings in town include the Hamil middle and high schools, and the Hamil Hospital.
Jinman Lee, his wife, young Hanjo, and older brother Suin lived in the Malcolm House, as caretakers of the unoccupied Howard House property. At one point, Hanjo build a small studio in the Howard House annex, but then had to remove everything to make way for the new owner Heejae Jang, his wife, Seonwoo Kim and daughters Jisoo and Haeri to move in.
The new arrivals quickly assert the social boundaries between themselves and the Malcom House occupants. Jang hires his own people for renovations, but keeps Jinman Lee and family as caretakers. There is the implicit structure of employer and employee, and also the structure in Korean society puts them in radically different social classes that are between rich and poor, masters and servants.
The ambitious Jang is showy with his wealth and influence and his wife and daughters followed suit. Caretaker Lee stresses to his sons not to overstep their social position. He reminds them to be grateful of any favors the Howard House offers. Finding out that Hanjo is an artist, Jang allows him to reestablish his studio in the annex.
The rich Jang family, so dignified and distant, seem like a different race. Hanjo is vulnerable to wanting all the things the Jang family enjoys. Disdainful Suin keeps his distance and is keenly aware of his socio-economic identity and class whenever he has to be at the Howard House. The feeling was worse when the brothers knocked at the Howard House door, and their servant mother opened it.
Jang’s wife Seonwoo Kim finds out that Suin is the brightest student in town, with aspirations to Suin become a lawyer. She asks if he would tutor her two daughters Jinsoo and Haeri. Waiting in the huge library, Suin picks up an American classic, and Seonwoo invites him to take it. Suin hesitates, but once he accepts, he knows a social boundary is breached. Other social boundaries start to blur: Jisoo is smitten by distant Suin, while Hanjo has a crush on Jinsoo. Haeri follows Hanjo like an infatuated puppy.
New feelings, if only in their hearts and minds, soon surface in all the players in frustration, jealousy and anger. When Jinsoo goes missing, Jang is reluctant to call the police, but they are finally called in. Eventually her body is found, face down in the local stream. There are questions of whether she died by accident or suicide.
The town is on edge, the police are pressured to move quickly on this incident. Three days after Jisoo’s disappearance, the missing persons case is reclassified as a violent crime. The police officers in charge, Bora Nam and San Yun begin the awkward and painful process of interrogating all the prime players around Jisoo. The father is defensive about how little he knows of his daughter’s habits, and he becomes agitated when the police mention suicide. A family suicide would destroy his reputation and make any political ambitions impossible to realize.
When police question the brothers, Suin is cool, and Hanjo is nervous. Suin had told him earlier, “You were with me all night. Got that brother? Don’t ever change from that story.” When police discover that their father once served prison time, Jinman Lee is quickly hauled into the police station. Lee had served time for an act of violence. Lee makes a confession, possibly sacrificial, to take on the blame and divert attention from his sons. Again Suin tells Hanjo to keep his mouth shut. The case is closed.
The years pass and Suin, who never becomes a full-fledged lawyer, works in legal firms as a manager. Hanjo’s haunting paintings of Jisoo and the Howard House gets him some initial notice. When Hanjo sells a four-panel painting series of Jisoo, and an artist publication praises Hanjo’s talents, he is elated. Hanjo finally realizes his lifelong desire for fame and fortune.
The story shifts and becomes a tale of retribution. Hanjo is drawn back to Howard House. Now dilapidated and in ruins, the townspeople say it is haunted. Hanjo encounters a young woman, who looks vaguely familiar. She is Haeri, now called Soojin who has returned after 18 years to uncover the truth about her sister.
Bora Nam, who is still a police officer recognizes Haeri/Soojin. While she expresses doubt about the case, Nam makes only defensive excuses. Haeri encounters other witnesses. Her focus soon narrows to Hanjo, the catalyst for the tragedy and its aftermath. Haeri wants revenge, and manipulates Hanjo in a devious manner. She reveals that she has been his unknown benefactor, and has brought him his fame and fortune. She makes him want her before revealing her real identity. She then writes a blistering novel to destroy Hanjo.
In terms of crimes and sins, all parties share guilt, and this novel visits that reality in painful detail. Desire, jealousy, betrayal, self-serving lies, and misguided acts of sacrifice come back to haunt them.
In the genre of crime dramas, Broken Summer is a quite a good read. Score another win for the author J. M. Lee, a popular South Korean novelist. His books have been translated into many languages. Broken Summer was an immediate publication success and was quickly adapted into a TV series.
The English translation of Broken Summer is by An Seonjae (aka Brother Anthony). Scholar, writer and translator, An lives in Seoul and has been a member of the Community of Taize of France since 1969.
