BOOK CLUB REPORT - Aug 2025
By Sharon Stern & Eun Byoul Oh
KCCNYC Dosan Hakdang July Meeting
On July 20th, 2025, the Dosan Hakdang book club met to talk about the novel Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun. The book tells the story of multiple people in the Yeonnam neighborhood of Seoul who connect through a diary on a table in a laundromat and then, eventually, in person.
We had a wonderful discussion about the book and its main themes. As we have in the past, we started with introductions of everyone attending and a one-word impression that the book left. The words that were repeated included community, comfort, connectiveness. We talked about how important community is and how sometimes community is difficult to find. We discussed the fact that community is a connectiveness that happens in-person. Both a dog and a cat play important connective roles in the book and this helps create community that is not uniquely human. We also talked about how the magic that happened in the lives of those that were connected through the laundromat were all human created. In a day and age that so much of our lives is electronic and impersonal, human connection is still critical to our well-being. Community can be formed in very limited spaces, such as part of a floor of an apartment building. Community can be vital for immigrants trying to adjust to new cultures.
The book deals with family connections and how easy it is to get separated by generational differences. It also talks about connection through smell – the comforting scents of the laundry soap and dryer sheets. Smells can also connect us to each other.
Eun mentioned that the music used in the book are real songs from the 1990s and that Spotify has a playlist for the book.
August DOSAN HAKDANG: poetry of resistance
Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet, is a great movie to watch alongside the selection of poems!
In August, we will be exploring the poetry of resistance - works that sustained Koreans during the occupation and helped people reflect on the difficult period afterwards. We have selected specific poems snd will be providing background material about the poets. We look forward to you joining us.
Please join us for the August Dosan Hakdang book club when we will be discussing the resistance poetry of Lee Sang Hwa, Sim Hun, Yi Yuk Sa, and Yun Dong Ju. The poems and selected readings are available here.
RSVP to join us is available here.
