Same Bed Different Dreams is the strange, weird, and totally unique novel of
creative genius, Ed Park. I have no idea how to explain it so I will share part of the blurb: "A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present." The characters are a strange assortment but "their links are revealed over time, even as the dreamers remain in the dark as to their own interconnectedness."

At over 500 pages, the story requires commitment from the reader and, truthfully, I almost quit at 25%. I felt like I had no idea what was going on but, shortly thereafter, I was hooked. I am sure that I still don't understand it all. It is a complex story, but for me it was worth it.

"What is history?"

Or, what was this book? I love post-modern novels, and this one was a challenge! There were so many coincidences and intersections between the three different books/sections that it became hard to follow what was real and what was not. Is the Korean Provisional Government real? Does it matter? Reading this book makes Infinite Jest look downright simple.

If you know Korean history, you might get more out of this than I did. So many tweaks to what happened made it hard for me to know what was real and what was fiction. But if you don't know anything about Korean history but love a literary puzzle, you'll still love this book. My brain is now mush trying to figure out even 50% of the connections. I'm pretty sure I'd have to read it another two or three times to get all the pieces to fit together.

The only theory I have that I'm 75% sure is correct is that the book/section 2333 is somehow a reference to Bolaño's 2666. It's just too much of a coincidence ... which was like everything in this book.

Here's the heart of my review: It's good, and the title is beautiful once you get the context that "same bed, different dreams" is in reference to North and South Korea. They're in the same bed, but they currently have different dreams. To get why that is both sad and beautiful in 1,000 different ways, you'll need to read the book. And then, if you're like me, you'll only understand about 300 of those 1,000 different ways. But those 300 are pretty damn cool.

Story: I'm unsure if there is one; it's a post-modern novel.
Character Development: I'm not sure any characters developed; it's a post-modern novel.
Writing: 5 stars

This is a bewildering composition of a book, made up of three distinct but intertwined narratives. The writing is superlative, and powerfully evocative of an alternate history that would perhaps make more sense to someone who knows more about modern Korean history - I just didn't know enough about the history of the peninsula, ancient or modern. Of course, the 37th parallel is famous, but the storylines that led to that line drawn on the map are only faintly known to me.

Despite my (or any reader's) ignorance of the real historical timelines, the writing literally explodes with ideas and anecdotes, dreams and escapades, successes and disappointments - all spun together into something akin to a single cookie doughball, showing striations of the various component colors, but inseparable and merging with each other.

There are just too many threads to be called out here as a good representative summary, but at the very least, this is a book that is supposed to contain the story of publishing a book that's supposed to describe a set of dreams of a history - that can be considered alternate for this - our - real world! Quite a mouthful in and of itself, and that's the true power of this book. It manages to cram a density that's far beyond what most novels have, and that most readers are ready to consume. All the while I was reading this, I was aware of something simmering just beneath the surface, threatening to come bursting out at any time.

The story of the Korean dream of unification signifies trying to close the loop on a historical wrong that was perpetrated on the Korean people by Western powers, and while the narration takes an at-times satirical note of the desire for unification, the pathos and poignancy it shows from time to time is unmistakable. Characters yearn, circumstances entice and yet the end result seems just out of reach. Some events seem as if a mirage - not just to the reader, but actually to the characters in the book itself!

The doesn't mean the book is outright serious, sad and overly erudite. The pages are filled with delightful side-stories of silly adventures and foolish endeavors, outlandish incidents and alien landings, joys of parenthood and pains of utopia.

The author knows what he is talking about, what he is undertaking. His research is deep and his understanding profound.

The book is ultimately a paean to the land of fathers and forefathers and ancestors, but also to his descendants and the descendents of all Koreans.

And at the end of it all, that last line is utterly fitting.

Thanks to the author, Random House and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Same Bed Different Dreams
By Ed Park

This is a book within a book. It is about Korea, its long history, its occupation by Japan, its fight for independence and its divide into North and South Korea.

The story begins at a drinking party where a group of Koreans, living in the United States, gather to discuss a forthcoming book titled "Same Bed Different Dreams". The book tells the stories of many Korean individuals and their concepts of what an independent Korea should look like. It discusses the KPG – Korean Provisional Government – which never really manages to govern or to reunite the North and the South into one country.

While the history is very interesting, this book is a hard go for a reader without much knowledge of Korea. There are many Korean words – for instance for food and drink – which are not understandable to a non-Korean reader.

The mindset of Koreans with regard to other Asians – Japanese, Chinese – is in the forefront here. For the Western reader, understanding of how Koreans think about their homeland is valuable to our understanding of the differences between east and west. While I certainly learned a lot from this book, I must say it was not an easy read.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book early.

A book within a book that describes an alternative history of Korea where a secret society is secretly pulling all the levers of society for over a hundred years. Our main character falls into a rabbit hole of investigating the roots of this manuscript and pulling loose threads. Delving deep into the complex history of Korea while also imagining what it would take to create a utopic society (and what that even means and for who), this engrossing novel is one that should not be missed.

For fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

A book that plays on form and history with an alternate secret history in Korea.
I normally like a lot of the elements used here but I could not get into this one. I think it was a little too out there for me, but others might enjoy it!

This was a hard book to read. Interesting beautiful prose. I caution all readers that this is not a typical Korean War story. Almost stylistically dystopian with chaos and literary. I imagine that Robert Altman would have loved this as inspiration for the movie MASH.

The way I read this, I wished I had a board, some red thread and tacks handy! This book was such a trip. I've never gone down this deep in a googling rabbit hole with any book. SBDD starts with a Korean-American ex-writer Soon Shin finds a manuscript from a mysterious author which imagines a Korean Provisional Government (KPG) that never dissolved following WW2. What follows is three alternating and very distinct parts; Soon's perspective as he reads the manuscript, the manuscript itself and a Black war veteran sci-fi writer's life story.

The manuscript parts especially drop names after names, and delve deep into Korean history. Some names and events come back in the later chapter, sometimes slightly changed. And these parts were what sent me searching Korean history, fact checking the most random things, attempting to make sure I caught the nuances as the history was being re-imagined (I wonder what my internet provider makes of all this activity).

This novel is definitely experimental, but it absolutely felt like a giant puzzle and I enjoyed the hell out of it's fever dream.

I felt like this went over my head for the most part; the book was broken down into 4 sections, corresponding to a series of books or maybe dreams, or secret histories of the Korean Provisional Government, or perhaps compilations of conspiracy theories based on coincidences. It all read to me like a colossal series of inside jokes. Filled with wit and references ranging from the identifiable to the obscure to the imagined, it took me weeks to get through this because I kept getting sidetracked looking up so many things.

There is a present-day narrator based upstate in Dogskill, NY, named Soon Sheen (at present), a middle aged dad of 7-yr old Astoria and husband to Nora, formerly a writer and currently veteran Rung 10 worker at global tech giant GLOAT. We are introduced to all his friends in tech and publishing, and they all have multiple names or identities or doppelgängers, everybody's family members show up somewhere eventually with all their own convoluted backstories, even place names differ historically for example Seoul aka Keijo under Japanese occupation.

Interspersed between Soon Sheen chapters are those about unrelated sci-fi writer Parker Jot, an African American veteran of the Korean War who sells his self-published 2333 series from his family's appliance store he runs with his wife Flora né Edwards and daughter Tina Jotter Pang. Tangential stories abound concerning Tina's ex-husband Wilson, and their daughter Mercy; Parker's publisher D.M. Zephyr aka Dot, Hank Woods a correspondent, a historic doctor Inky Sin, somebody called O K Kim and also Iwata Shusaku, Sadako the spy aka Bae Jeong-ja, Fred Nobody aka Frederick C. Nieman (né Leon F. Czolgosz), Jack London as in the actual Jack London, Philip Jaisohn, né Suh Jae-p'il, somebody called Thomas Ahn, a lot of hockey lore, Douglas MacArthur and his father Arthur MacArthur, contemporary author Cha Hak-kyung aka Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, et al.

At one point "a man compiles a book so vast that it resembles a theory of the world, made up of newspaper clippings of scientific anomalies, accounts of disasters, human-interest stories with an ironic angle or bizarre detail." And I thought, oh that's just what Same Bed Different Dreams reads like to me. Intriguing, beguiling, but all over the place. I'm so glad I read it.

Alright, American Millennials - Put this on your TBR list, but wait till winter. When you have time and focus. You'll need a map, a familiarity with Korean history and Wikipedia at all times.
I started this read as an ebook and quickly got overwhelmed and lost interest. I then picked up the audiobook to listen along and the change in narrators and pronunciations made a world of difference. I think I still need to do a re-read to fully appreciate this. It's an unusual premise that takes some time to adjust to and reminded me of How to Lose the Time War (my all time fave book) in that sense.
There is historical fact and fiction woven throughout the story, so you'll need to be able to tell the difference. Both are quite unbelievable so it can be hard to tell the difference.
This book is definitely worthy of your time and effort to really immerse yourself in. I look forward to reading some of Park's other novels after I re-read this and some Korean history!

DNF at 30%. It's just not for me, but I didn't hate my time with it. I always appreciate a good Peter Greenaway reference, but I don't know enough about Korea to pick up on the false history parts so I ended up dropping this one.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the arc. This book is structured in a really interesting way, and explores an alternate history of Korea, It has interesting elements of secret societies and conspiracies. I personally was a little confused when I started reading the book, but as I went on, it got more and more interesting. I especially enjoyed the interludes between dreams.

This is one weird story, in a good way, and I think readers will either like it or not. This is a very long story as well, though I did not find that it slowed at any point, very readable. It's hard to explain this story, there is so much going on and it covers a vast time period. There are 5 sections, starting with Dream 1 which covers a certain time frame, to Dream 5 which is the last. Each section is further broken into chapters that follow certain characters, some characters appear in each section, others don't. The central theme of the story is Korea, going back to when they were occupied by Japan, and had formed a provisional government of sorts, that operated outside of Korea. WW1, WW2 and the Korean war are also discussed and I think a general knowledge of some of these events would be helpful, Douglas MacArthur for example and some of his activities during WW1 and 2 are described in detail. Overall I enjoyed reading this, I would recommend if you enjoy historical books with the Korean war. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Penguin Random House for the ARC.

4.5 stars, rounding up. A fascinating book. I was thinking this felt a little David Mitchell-y or Umberto Eco-y but now that I see other people making Pynchon comparisons I agree that is more (or also) apt, with maybe a little Philip K. Dick or Vonnegut mixed in -- not in the sense of actually being science fictional, as despite it being tagged as such on Goodreads there's really no SF here except inasmuch as alternate histories tend to be classified that way, and even then there's not really any ALTERNATE history. Is a secret history an alternate history? Hm. At any rate, the book is suffused with a sense of paranoia that I felt tracks somewhere between Pynchon and Dick, where hidden conspiracies lie behind everything and it's hard to know what is true, what is figment of paranoiac imagination, and whether that even matters. Unlike anything I've read anytime recently.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a mind-blowing experience of history interwoven with an imagined history if a fork in the road of history went down a different path. In 1919, Korean patriots who were exiled started the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) to protest and fight against the Japanese occupation. The KPG disbanded at some point before the North-South split occurred but what if it was still operating today? We follow three different narrative voices that span from the late 1800s to the present. The book covers some of the main players in the history of Korea in the early 1900s and sends them on to an alternate reality. One character works at an international tech company GLOAT and comes across an unfinished book authored by the KPG titled Same Bed, Different Dreams which ties famous names and historical events to the KPG's underground workings. The book is divided into four sections, different dreams or alternate realities. To separate the imagines from the real, I had to do a deep dive into Korea's history to make sense of the story. It was a wild ride and I enjoyed it for it's imagination and thought-provoking ideas.

I really wanted to like this. The beginning did not grab me, and I had a feeling I would end up only giving this about three stars, if that, anyway. I can see how other people would like this world, as it does seem cool, but the main character didn't really do much for me, unfortunately. I may try and check out some other books by them or any future books, but I am DNF'ing this one.

This book was a trip to read, but in a good way. I will fully admit that I know some of the plot points went over my head as my grasp of Korean history is not great and I think this fact did color my overall enjoyment. The two interwoven stories each had strong characters that carried me through the moments in which I got a bit lost. Despite having finished this novel a few weeks ago I still find myself struggling to write this review as I know I enjoyed the stories it told but am having the hardest time explaining why. I will say this book is perfect for fans of literary fiction with a touch of speculative fiction but if you are looking for a straight forward plot that is easy to follow you will struggle to connect with this work.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

Same Bed Different Dreams is a marvel of historical conspiracy fiction, in which "the real and the invented merge ... like those forbidden dreams in which all things connect." Author Ed Park uses literary sleight of hand to braid together three plots, imagining an alternate clandestine history of Korea, wherein all threads of history and pop culture lead back to ... Korea. First we have the real history of the Korean Provisional Government (KPG), started in 1919 by Korean patriots to protest Japanese occupation. Stir in alt versions of the KPG that reach disparate branches of global history and culture (Jesus, Marilyn Monroe, the NHL, Tim Horton's doughnuts!!). Second plot focuses on an alt present-day character, Soon Sheen, who works for tech megacorp GLOAT in New York. The third plot weaves in a series of space opera novels known collectively as "2333," written by a Black veteran of the Korean War. 

Another reviewer compared the experience of reading this speculative fiction novel to playing the memory card-matching game. Didn't I see that character/event/image before? Now where was it? As I approached the final chapters, I kept asking myself, how the hell am I going to describe this? Then, the following quote happened: "It's an education just keeping up with the threads, the levels of irony. Mercy Pang doesn't catch half the references, but the energy is infectious." Insert my name in place of Mercy Pang. 

[Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

Book Summary:

What would the world be like if certain historical figures or groups still remained? Take the KPG, for example. How would they react to K-pop bands and the space race? What would they do to instill their mark on the world?

That is the story Soon Sheen will tell us here, for the KGB is still alive and active in his history. Let us see how different Korea, the world, and even the universe would be this time around.

My Review:

Oh wow. I won't lie - Same Bed Different Dreams is a challenging read. I don't necessarily mean about the subject material. I'm not even talking about the book's size (though it is 577). The tough part (for me) was the solid foundation in history. More specifically, the foundation in Korean history.

I kept hitting historical walls, as, let's be real here, history is not my strong point. Thus, I had to keep stopping and looking up this and that to understand the full meaning and context of a situation. So, in a way, I really have to thank Ed Park for making me stop and learn so many new things!

Same Bed Different Dreams is the epitome of speculative science fiction. It's unique; it takes a big risk and goes somewhere totally unexpected with it. If you're looking for a novel that will make you stop and think (not to mention a chance to learn more about history), Same Bed Different Dreams is the book for you.

Highlights:
Historical Fiction
Speculative/Science Fiction

This book was a wild ride, and I enjoyed it! It took some time for me to get into it at first, but overall it was a great read. It felt like there were a lot of different genres throughout the book, which is why it was a bit jarring for me in the beginning. But I liked the author’s humor throughout and will probably read more from Ed Park.