Almond
Sohn Won-pyung
February 15,2025
last update: 2025-02-15
the book starts with a tragedy and ends with a mild happiness/realization.
the protagonist Yunjae is incapable of understanding or expressing emotions because of a problem in his brain.
His first recollection is of finding a kid dead outside a shop and trying to convince the shopkeeper that there is a kid outside whos dead because the shopkeeper did not believe it since Yunjae was so calm.
Yunjae lost his father early in a motorbike accident and his mother grows him all on her own.
Eventually his mother is unable to handle the expenses and gets support from yunjae’s grandmother who helps them.
The tale gets even more sordid when Yunjae loses his Grandmother and his mother in a street massacre. His mother is disabled and in a coma throughout the story. Yunjae just visits her everyday just to meet her.
Between this, Yunjae maintains the book shop that his mother had before her coma as well as goes to school with the support of a bakery owner and insurance amount from his grandmother.
All through these sufferings Yunjae still doesn’t feel anything and finds it difficult to put to words how to express his feelings.
In his school he meets a bully Gon, who thrashes him because Yunjae doesn’t show subservience because he literally doesn’t know how to do it. After beating Yunjae to a pulp a bunch of times, Gon takes an interest in Yunjae and gets to know him a little bit more.
Yunjae also meets Dora who shocks him with how open to ideas she is. Yunjae also starts taking an interest in her and gets to know her more and hangs out with her all the while unable to decipher what is this feeling that he is having.
But all is not to be well for long. Because tragedy strikes when Someone steals money and blames Gon for it. Since Gon is known for his bullying activities everybody believes that he’s the one who stole all the money and punish him for it.
This triggers Gon’s own perception that he needs to be stronger and more emotionless to become big in this world.
The interesting part in the book is the asymmetry between Gon on Yunjae. Yunjae is someone who can’t feel but wishes he could feel something and tries his best to emulate it in the real world. Gon feels everything, but because of his tragic life he doesn’t want to feel anything, he wants to Yunjae.
In his search to be emotionless Gon drops out of school, runs away from home and joins a gang who go around being thugs. Without Gon, Yunjae feels something that he has never felt before sadness.
Yunjae goes to get Gon back from the thugs and the leader takes Yunjae on a fight and beats him to a pulp, while also stabbing with a knife. Yunjae still fights hard for a friend that he knows has a good heart.
In the end, Yunjae’s soul leaves his body and he meets his mother but then he goes back in for him to wake up in a hospital.
Yunjae survived the assault and Gon came back home. yunjae is still recovering.
And surprisingly Yunjae’s mother is alive and is being wheeled into the room. She says to him that Yunjae gave her the strength to come back.