New novel depicts father-son standoff over street bakery

The following is a scene of a fictional blind date. A woman goes into the coffee shop at a hotel and breathes a deep sigh after seeing a man in humble clothing. However, the atmosphere is reversed when the man said, “It is nothing big but I am inheriting my father’s business. I can manage to make a living. Ha-ha.”

Suddenly, the woman feels as if a diamond ring were dangling before her eyes. Praising the man’s simple style, the woman is now interested in what kind of company he is running and how big the business is. By the time she became impatient, the man says, “I am a street baker together with my father.” Then, the woman looks blank.

The novel is so funny from the beginning. The author makes readers giggle with lively conversations and twists that beat their expectations. Just as the author says that he tried to write a really funny story, it is lively from the beginning to the end.

In fact, the characters and situations are not so amusing. “I,” whose father is a master street baker, did well in high school enough to get accepted by a university in Seoul but decided to inherit the father’s business. However, he fails to adapt to life while doing the mandatory military service and spends the whole time baking fish-shaped buns until he finishes the service. Fed up with baking buns, he loses interest in baking. During a trip to Japan after finishing his military service, he crosses paths with a master in takoyaki, a ball-shaped Japanese snack.

The novel is simple, depicting a coming-of-age story of “me” becoming a takoyaki master. What adds dimensions to the story are the father, who insists on having his son return to the world of Korean fish-shaped buns, and a romance with a woman who becomes “my” apprentice. Other supporting characters such as a taciturn doughnut vendor and a big but gentle vendor of sundae, Korean-style sausage, enrich the favor of the story.

hic@donga.com