This novel is going to break the world apart. It's a wildly imaginative and VERY VERY VERY VERY cool ride that I simply could not put down. Recommending this to everyone!

"A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present - loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, pop bands and the perils of social media

In 1919, far-flung patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan's defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the tragic North-South split that remains today.

But what if the KPG still existed - now working toward a unified Korea, secretly pulling levers to further its aims? Same Bed Different Dreams weaves together three distinct narrative voices with an archive of mysterious images, and twists reality like a kaleidoscope. Korean history, American pop culture, and our tech-fraught lives come together in this extraordinary and unforgettable novel.

Soon Sheen, a former writer now employed by the tech behemoth GLOAT, comes into possession of an unfinished book seemingly authored by the KPG. The manuscript is a riveting revisionist history, connecting famous names and obscure bit players to the KPG's grand project - everyone from Syngman Rhee and architect-poet Yi Sang to Jack London and Marilyn Monroe. M*A*S*H is in here, too, as are the Moonies and a history of violence extending from the assassination of President McKinley to the Reagan-era downing of a passenger plane that puts the world on the brink of war.

From the acclaimed author of Personal Days, Same Bed Different Dreams is a raucously funny feat of imagination and a thrilling meld of history and fiction that pulls readers into another dimension - one in which utopia is possible."

Because who doesn't love alternative history?

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Random House for introducing me to one of my favorite new writers and a book that is just astonishing for what the author sets out to do, and more than delivers. Having so few bragging rights I am glad to be able to say, Same Bed, Different Dream, great book, read the advance copy, before the hype.

Christmas season in retail is a crazy time. Odd hours working, amateur customers looking for the perfect gift, days that will pass in seconds, and shifts that seem to last all week and more. My reading at this time of year is mostly familiar books, holiday books and old friends that I can reread and catch up with again. This December I know I will be rereading Same Bed, Different Dream by founding editor of The Believer Ed Park at least twice. Maybe three times. And coming away with a lot that I missed the second time, or fourth time. This novel is probably the best thing I have read this year, a book that continues to make me think and remember. A book that is challenging, confounding, but rewards the reader in ways that books haven't done in quite awhile. If one likes authors like Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, both name checked, or Mark Leyner, Steve Erikson of D. Harlan Wilson, this is the book for you. If none of this authors strike a cord, read it anyway and be swallowed by the narrative.

There is a lot going on in this book, so I will give an overview of the plot. An author Soon Sheen once big on the scene in the early 2000's with a book that everyone was talking about until they weren't and the author couldn't writer anymore, is invited to meet a fellow Korean author, by Sheen's old friend, and agent. The party features a mix of up-and-comers that Soon knows, and brings him back in his thoughts to his writing days, before he married and began working for GLOAT, a huge tech company that has ties to everything. Sheen is given a copy of an unpublished work Same Bed, Different Dream which tells an alternate history of Korea through the 20th century, one that is both controlled, and overseen by a group who brings people together, and also kills people regularly. The book is told in a series of dreams, which include many dreamers in the mix, real characters, fictional characters from other media, and more. As Sheen reads other narratives are mixed in featuring game designers, science fiction writers, false Korean authors, the band Rush, and much more.

This book is so much, that I know I missed a lot in explaining. The science fiction stories, that become basis for a game, that gives rise to the company that becomes GLOAT. I can go on. This is an amazing book. A Philip K. Dick novel with a bit of James Michner in history, Vonnegut in characters, Bradbury in heart, and Harlan Ellison for reality, and power. There is a lot going on, but Ed Park is an excellent writer, able to balance everything, every character every idea, bring them all together and never ever get lost. There are so many moments of why is this here followed by, ohh I get to, snap there is is. Every character historical, fictional, dreamed seems so real, so important in ways they shouldn't be, and yet there they are. I wish I understood or knew the history of Korea more, because I am sure there is stuff I missed, as there are Easter Eggs hidden all over this book. A book that one savors and enjoys, not wanting to end, but at the end the last lines make one very envious, and a little tearful.

This book is really why I love reading. From the opening that set the time and place to the last words. I am not sure how Ed Park wrote this, or kept it all together. I hope the numerous podcasts and think pieces I hope will follow will go into this. This is a book that is all genres, and all wonderful. Buy it for oneself, but if one knows readers who love to be challenged, or fans of writers who are hard to catalog this book is for sure for them. One that I will happily reread, probably every year at Christmas, because this book was a real gift.

I so wanted to love this book. It has ingredients that appeal to me: a different time and place--here Korea--beginning in 1919, and in the US -- at various times including the assassination of President McKinley, much about Syngman Rhee and Philip Jaisohn, up to the present-day with techies, poets, an owner of nail salons, K-Pop and MORE. Touted as a work of imagination--clearly!

Consider:
"A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present—loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, K-pop bands and the perils of social media.

In 1919, far-flung Korean patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country.... But what if the KPG still existed now, today—working toward a unified Korea, secretly harnessing the might of a giant tech company to further its aims? That’s the outrageous premise of Same Bed Different Dreams, which weaves together three distinct narrative voices and an archive of mysterious images and twists reality like a kaleidoscope, spinning Korean history, American pop culture, and our tech-fraught lives..."

A wide-ranging cast of characters--sometimes too confusing/complicated/choppy in its sprawl. I had a difficult time connecting--too much/not enough plot [as it often seemed disjointed as it jumped all over the place], too many bits and pieces. Weaves back and forth between times and places. BUT, to its credit--highly original!

What hooked me at the start was some of the language/descriptions and even some humor;
"dusk hung like velvet"
"chins so chiseled they could double as can openers"
"so muscular it looked like parts were inflated"

Nonetheless, not enough to really sustain my interest--which flagged so I plodded through it. I am giving it a three mostly because of its originality and writing, but cannot really recommend. Perhaps if it were way shorter [more than 500pp].

A engrossing story that spans generations and has a sweeping worldview, but never loses sight of the details of each character's lives and where they stand in that world. This book will have cross-over appeal for both speculative fiction, historical fiction and literary fiction readers alike.

One of those books that feels impossible to give a star rating for.
This book is not for me. I am not the reader for this book. First, do we call it a book.? There are no plurals in Korean language. However, this is a books. Very early on I got the feeling the number of genres, settings, eras, narrators and shifts in style would be too hard to follow. I decided to try to let it flow over me, Jack Kerouac-style (also wondering if Mr. Park was on any mind-altering substances). Pulling some words from the book blurb itself: wild, outrageous premise, sprawling, and “…weaves together three distinct narrative voices and an archive of mysterious images and twists reality like a kaleidoscope..”. Yes, I agree, but very difficult to follow. Like playing Baduk with an expert and you don’t know any of the rules, and then the room changes and you have a different player? No, the room changes and you are now in a single person submersible at midnight zone. Is that an anglerfish? Fish, ish, sh. Are these metaphors confounded and confusing or enjoyable? If enjoyable, then check out this books where the metaphor is at a higher level.
For me, trying to let it flow didn’t work. Trying to attend closely didn’t work. Nonetheless I found enjoyable passages, some humorous, some poignant. I wish I could make it less difficult to get through. He started it in 2014. Maybe I’ll take several years to finish it as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park!

Incredibly creative, engrossing, mind-bending story. I can't wait to recommend this to everyone I've ever met.

One of the most creative books I have read. This mixture of history and sci-fi and works very well. I was immersed in this book and thought it was beautifully written.

Ed Park's "Same Bed Different Dreams" is an inventive and thought-provoking literary work that challenges the boundaries of reality and identity. Park's exploration of the protagonist's fragmented psyche is both captivating and disorienting, immersing readers in a world of dreams and memories. The book's nonlinear narrative adds to its allure, keeping readers engaged as they unravel the layers of the protagonist's mind. Park's prose is beautifully crafted, with each sentence carrying a weight of emotion and introspection. While some readers might find the ambiguity of the plot disconcerting, the novel's enigmatic nature is also its strength. "Same Bed Different Dreams" is a remarkable and imaginative journey that merits a 4 out of 5-star rating.

Same Bed, Different Dreams has a lot going for it: an imaginative, daring writer with a distinctive and original voice; a great premise (what if the Korean Provisional Government, established in 1919 to protest Japanese occupation, still existed?); wild characters including assassins, spies, a mysterious avant-garde novelist, American icons with surprising links to the KPG; the use of Korean words that echo the way Junot Díaz uses Dominicanisms whose meaning is revealed in context rather than explicit definition; the interweaving of history (extra points for a history little known to most Americans) and fiction; vivid situational depictions, and more. A lazy reviewer would probably use a well worn phrase like "dazzling prose." (btw, the novel is completely different from the K-Drama of the same name.) On those grounds I'd rate this novel a 5.
But...
Even though there was so much I liked about this novel, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and plot. Part of this was because there was so much going on it was hard to keep up (and I say this as someone who gets impatient when things are too slow). But the crucial issue was that Park doesn't spend enough time with any of the characters for readers to really relate to their emotions and care about what happens to them. I wanted to know more about the mysterious novelist whose lost and unfinished manuscript is a plot device; I also wanted to know what happened to the manuscript. I'd rate the novel a 2 based on these shortcomings.
If there were a half-star option I'd probably give this a 3.5. I'm rounding up to 4 and looking forward to Ed Park's next book which hopefully focuses more on connecting the reader with the characters.

Same Bed, Different Dreams is a story told in three parts all revolving, somehow, around Korean War—the Korean and international focus that arrived at the conflict, the effect of the war on those who survived it, its largely forgotten place in history. There is present-day Soon Sheen, who has given up his literary ambitions for a job at a tech megacompany. There is a fleet of characters populating a book-within-a-book that Soon reads in pieces, all working for or against the Korean Provisional Government (KPG), both as it is in history and how it might have been. And there is Parker Jotter, a former POW who spends the years after publishing a series of increasingly strange science-fiction pulp paperbacks that some fans believe contain secrets from his time in Korea.

The threads of each story flow, sometimes along each other and sometimes seemingly in completely independent directions that improbably come back to center. But they are united in two things: their focus on Korea during a formative and tumultuous time in the country's history, and in grief. There is grief for death and people lost to violence, of course, but there is also grief for relationships that might have been, and for a country that might have been. The worst thing that can happen to a revolutionary isn't their blood spilling, Same Bed tells us, but that blood-boiling ambition and conviction having nowhere to go and nothing to do.

As the narratives intertwine, answers and questions invariably pop up, not necessarily in the expected order. The end comes full circle in a way that feels both unexpected and inevitable. I'm glad Korea's history is getting such richly imagined literary treatment, and hope it doesn't get pigeonholed into a box for "Asian literature" or some other niche. The story might revolve around Korea, but the Korean diaspora is wide, and Korea isn't the only country that has been pushed and pulled across ideologies with violence—it's just more noticeable than most.

ARC received in return for an honest review. Quotes are from the ARC version for review purposes and may not reflect the final passages in the book. DNFed at 50% through. Here's why...

Same Bed Different Dreams (SBDD) describes itself in a meta way early on.

"I said, 'It’s really not bad, when you take a step back.'
'Yeah, he does his own thing. Like with point of view.'
'Right.' Point of view?
'And how it goes back and forth in time.'
'Yeah, totally …' I said."

Totally... That aside, why this rating?

What worked?

* The historical characters and facts, who though woven into a fictional narrative, serve to call out historically-untold or minimized experiences of the treatment of Korea at the hands of Japan and during the World Wars, when the fate of an entire country was decided for it by bigger countries.

What didn't work?

* At one point, there is a video game in the outermost book based upon a board game within a book within the book. At least I think that's the right level of things. That is to say, the nesting of narratives is ambitious but very difficult to follow.

* The misogyny - There in the drinking culture scenes and in guy's "locker room talk"-style passages. It's very clearly written from a man's perspective. Some examples, though possibly historically-derived, include:

"A year earlier, rumors that the PM bought the virginity of a fifteen-year-old geisha were met with a shrug, even a sort of patriotic admiration for how he’s sustained a deep-rooted folk practice."

"It’s the mixing of races that stimulates. In Britain as a youth, he sampled tarts white as paper. On his continental tour, he tasted the confections of Vienna and Paris. But he considers a Korean girl the most tempting: so close, yet so despised. Sadako will be his to civilize."

Women aren't tarts or confections. They don't exist for men's consumption, nor to be "tamed." While it's possible that these were the perspectives of the historical figures involved, they feel uncomfortable and unnecessary in telling what an alternate Korean history could have looked like. What is the goal here?

* The first half of the nested book within a book reads as a set of (well-researched) tell-not-show style encyclopedia entries. For example:

"Bae Boonam becomes Udam becomes Dayama Sadako becomes Bae Boonam again, a double or triple agent. Kim Jongsook of Manchuria becomes Vera Kim. Franziska Maria Barbara Donner of Vienna becomes Francesca Rhee, the frugal 'Martha Washington' of South Korea. All are members in good standing of the Korean Provisional Government."

* What's actually true historically? The blend of fact and fiction makes it harder to take away what you might have learned as a reader and what's fabrication. At that point, maybe just take the wiki entries of the historical figures listed and read those instead?

* The narrative within the narrative within the narrative doesn't really seem to contribute much to the goal of exploring alternate Korea. It does introduce confusion though.

I give credit to the lofty goal of the premise and the historical facts it does teach. That said, I wouldn't recommend this book.

I just finished this book and loved every bit of it. From the beginning I was drawn into this world and it kept me interested and reading all the way through. The mix of fiction and non fiction. The other story lines that are intertwined as well are all masterfully done. I can’t recommend this book enough. I really don’t know how to explain it but it is fabulous. I got this as a NetGalley copy.

I cannot make heads or tails of this book. It's boring, there's no character development, the plot is non-existent, and the book the character Soon is reading (this is supposed to be the main point of the book) is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. It's not even a story, just a list of people/events that are nonsensical and read like it was written by someone was drunk or high.

This book was both imaginative and interesting. I was sometimes confused by the non-linear style, but I still found it enjoyable.

Ed Park spins historical fact into brilliant literary fiction with Same Bed Different Dreams. His gripping prose and flair for unconventional storytelling makes even the most opaque sections completely engrossing. This book will coast onto yearly Best-of lists (including my own) and it should be in contention for major literary awards. I was simply blown away.

It’s a mesmerizing fever dream of a novel, with an expansive story that contracts on a whim. It’s sprawling, yet intimate. The subtle interconnections between its nested layers are a joy to puzzle out and it begs to be re-read. Starting over with more enlightened eyes (and maybe a character web to track the broad cast of players and their connections) would certainly yield a different, yet still satisfying, experience.

While it’s difficult to describe the book in terms of plot, if you’re an enjoyer of secret societies, doomsday cults, alternate histories, coded messages, spies, double agents, artificial intelligence, and the history of Korea – give this book a go. If you bristle at the thought of an unconventional narrative structure without much hand-holding, perhaps skip it. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was certainly mine.

I was intrigued by the synopsis for this book. I have watched a lot of Korean dramas and have become so interested that I would like to visit South Korea. I started this book with high hopes however it is not for me . I have put this book down several times, read another book and come back to it and still not done, forcing myself to read it. I will not be finishing this book, a real rarity for me.
The book seems to jump all over the place, from different characters to different time periods. It was very dry and I felt like I was never able to form attachments to any of the characters. I wanted to like this book but it was not for me. That is not to say that others will not enjoy it , just not my cup of tea. Happy reading!

The alternate reality history depicted in this mind spinning novel drew me in a mesmerizing way. So many different characters morphed into others over time and space. The connections among them were not always clear, but I liked how the novel slowly revealed the interconnectedness of the world.

I found this book told in non linear style a little confusing to follow. I found I had to check back in previous sections to refresh my memory to understand what was happening certain sections, which slowed down the reading process, and at times it was a slog. The writing is brilliant and beautiful, but I did not enjoy the narrative style of this book. The author clearly did a tremendous amount of research into Korean history and culture for this book and there is much to be learned if you stick with the book. Unfortunately, I wanted to love this book, but found I could not. Thanks NetGalley for this opportunity.