I found this quite a mixed bag of short stories: there are some really strong and engaging stories at the beginning including the titular story and “Iceland”, but there were also others that I got a bit bored by such as “Piercing”.

Overall, what I really liked about many of the engaging stories was the simplicity of the wacky premises they are based of (such as a course on how to dine alone and a shop selling dreams) and how they are used to address themes that are pertinent to contemporary South Korea such as loneliness, individualism, capitalism and consumerism. The stories “Table for One”, “Sweet Escape”, “Invader Graphic” and “Iceland” were striking and stayed with me for a long time after reading. For example, in recently visiting Bristol, the home city of Banksy, I found myself thinking about “Invader Graphic” story again after seeing an example of similar mosaic street art. A few of the stories will have much universal appeal: for example, “Sweet Escape” and “Roadkill”. The former makes for an interesting read given the outbreak of bedbugs in Paris in 2023 and its ensuing spread and so speaks to fear that is universal but also fresh in our minds. The latter felt very Kafkaesque and also as if it could have been anywhere that has a remote hotel with a snowstorm. Despite this comparison it in no way felt derivative, largely in part to the uniqueness of the man character and why he - he sells vending machines and is out there to try to fix one. Rather, “Roadkill” is sharp and absurd and indicative of Yun Ko-Eun’s writing at its best. The stories I highlighted were also very compelling to read which is testament to the flow of Lizzie Buehler’s translation.

Having visited Iceland, I have to say that one of my favourite stories of the collection was “Iceland” and this is definitely the story that I have talked most about to friends and family who might be more unlikely to pick up Yun Ko-Eun’s more absurd short stories. (In particular, a family friend is a proofreader and recently was proofreading a guide book to Iceland despite never having been there!)

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection but I do wish the editors had cut one or two stories as I think the collection would have packed more of a punch by focusing on the most absurd and most well-executed stories which are tight, compelling and engage with social issues in a biting and fresh way!

Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the eARC, I will definitely be looking out for more work by Yun Ko-Eun in future!

Pretty awful. It took me a long time to finish "Table for One", one of the worst books I read, and I love short stories (especially weird and wonderful). This one felt like it was written by a person suffering from schizophrenia. One story was better than the rest - "Roadkill". One star is for it. Otherwise I would have given it 0 stars. Quite awful.

I didn't get the chance to read this, but I have read the titular short story - which I loved! I definitely want to read the rest of this collection.

Table for One
by Yun Ko-eun
Translated from Korean by Lizzie Buehler
Genre: Anthology
Pages: 280
Rating: 4/5

An anthology where each story commands a plot that takes us deeper into what is ailing the modern society, the lens of each plot tilted such that the story we get to read, despite being firmly rooted in our current time, will still seem a bit out of the ordinary: e.g. the first story is about a woman who joins a course to eat alone in a restaurant. I enjoy eating alone in restaurants and cafes, and so many people have told me that they want to learn from me how to eat alone. But to think that there can be a course for this is quite bizzare, right? 😁

Serious question: should I start a course on how to eat alone? 😁

This set of stories can be appreciated to their full glory only if one is willing to delve below the surface of the obvious and interesting plots to understand their themes, and thus will work best when readers are in a mood to do so.

Every story is embedded with a myriad of thoughts for reflection, and this felt like a double edged sword to me. Because though every bit was relevant to the stories, and though they made the stories more real, they ultimately added a lot for reflections, which made this book a very slow read for me. And maybe it's just me, but somehow I found so many thoughts put together a bit distracting from the plot. Overall I took a very long time to complete this collection. Most of the stories are really good and this anthology is the kind that can win the prizes but still may not be a hit with the mass.

Here's a detailed review of a few of the stories; overall the anthology has 9 stories. After multiple attempts, I had DNFd one story: Roadkill.

1.Table for one: In this story, a woman joins a course to learn eating alone in a restaurant. With its unique plot, the story deftly explores human emotions of loneliness and our desire to belong.
Rating: 5/5

2. Sweet Escape: A man becomes obsessed with bedbugs. The story starts well, and at one point I am reminded of the panic and anxiety of the lockdown and the pandemic. But after a point, like his wife (more than her in fact), I was starting to get irritated with his and the story's extreme obsession with bedbugs, and was happy when the story finally came to an end, despite the fact that the story did good justice to its theme of finding meaning to one's existence (borderline existential crisis I would say) and the anxiety that accompanies it.
Rating: 3/5

3. Invader Graphic: A story about a novelist; the protagonist of the WIP novel she's writing is in search of art spaces created by the real life artist (not mentioned as real in the story) Invader, who hacks public spaces to install his art. Just how artists like Invader and Banksy invade public space for their art, the novelist too invades public space to create her novel. The story's theme is commercialism vs free loader, and readers are given the free space to choose their sides, while the protagonist doesn't hesitate to point his fingers.
Rating: 4/5

4. Hyeongmong's Hall of Dreams

This story is everything, and then so much more than even everything about today's age of consumerism and its zenith and abyss, where dream is but a commodity. Or are they dark holes? Told in satire and compassion, and moulded in deep metaphors, this story read to me like a masterpiece. It's a story that made me pause for a long while.
Rating: 5/5

7. Iceland

A story about obsession. It made me wonder what is the role of obsession in our lives? Does it exist to add meaning or colours to a mundane life?
Rating: 4/5

9. Don't Cry, Hongdo

This story skillfully brings to adult readers the complicated life of any young kid, in this case, Hongdo. While we adults battle with careers and parenting, the kids live in their world, with their own priorities which can range anything from junk food to getting their single parent hooked to a new partner. Hongdo is an artist; in this story we get to know two of her paintings—one painting helps us see how imagination blends with reality for her, and the other helps us see how her world is turning bleak day by day, as everyone around her is trying to make the world a better place for her. I loved this story because with wit and art, the author so expertly showed us the inside of Hongdo's mind.
Rating: 5/5

Q: Do I recommend Table for One to my fellow readers?
A: Yes and No!! This anthology is the kind that can win the prizes but still may not be a hit with the mass.

Table for One is a surprisingly engrossing collection of short stories. Each one begins almost lacklustre, but somehow the seemingly menial plots come to life and I was genuinely enthralled. A mixture of surreal, metaphorical and even some twiste thrills thrown in the mix, this is an excellent collection and I honestly think this is significantly underhyped! Short story fans, I highly recommend checking this one out!

This was so good! I found myself liking most of the stories in here. They are disturbing, bizarre but entertaining. There is also that sense of poignancy about each of the stories that makes the reading enjoyable. I like how the authors portrayed the sense of loneliness in the protagonisf of some of the stories . Especially like the one on Space Invaders, so weird but believable

Table For One by Yun Ko-Eun, translated by Lizzie Buehler, is a collection of nine unique and thought-provoking short stories. The collection opens with "Table For One," a relatable tale about a woman learning to dine alone, exploring themes of independence and self-discovery.

"Sweet Escape" follows a man with OCD, leading to a dark twist as he faces his fears, highlighting mental health and escapism. "Invader Graphic" blurs the lines between reality and fiction, offering a perplexing yet original narrative.

"Hyeonmong Park's Hall of Dreams" captivates with its fantastical premise of selling dreams, while "Roadkill" provides an intriguing glimpse into a dystopian future where guests are served by vending machines.

"Time Capsule 1994" combines weirdness with a touching mother-daughter relationship."Iceland" explores themes of desire and escapism through an individual’s obsession with living in the titular country.

"Piercing" addresses heavy themes of infertility, domestic violence, and fragile manhood, offering a raw and poignant read. The collection concludes with "Don’t Cry, Hongdo," blending humor with familial dynamics as a daughter tries to matchmake her mother with her teacher to gain personal space.

Overall, this collection of short stories are unique and sure to make us stop and wonder. I would totally reccomend to pick this book and experience the exuberance that some of the stories have got to offer while some has an uncanny perspective.

A quick-witted, eclectic collection of stories that will truly absorb you through and through. A truly stimulating and cathartic ride for sure.

I was reading a news article (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/3199/) about the rise of the non-marriage movement in South Korea with a section on the concurrent increase in solo dining and I realized with a start that I had neglected to review this collection of short stories by Yun Ko-eun. The original Korean title of both the collection and the titular short story is 1인용 식탁 (1-inyong sikt’ak), translated to English by Lizzie Buehler. Thanks to Columbia University Press and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review with apologies for the tardiness.

I was really taken with the jacket cover design by Chang Jae Lee, of a zebra sitting at a table eating ramen. Wins the most unique cover art of the year.

Table for one 3.5 ⭐️ Inyeong, a lady who works at an office attends a class on how to dine solo. The instructions on eating food dishes based on music tempo is certainly interesting as with the observation (also in the article linked) that certain foods are more difficult to order/eat by oneself. Inyeong is much taken by a confident lady with more 'advanced' solo dining skills ordering a single serving of BBQ pork belly.

Sweet Escape 4 ⭐️ A married unemployed man descends into obsessive paranoia about bedbugs but he becomes a surprising volunteer in his condo building for an initiative. More musicality resonance with bedbug bites. ~Shudder~

Invader Graphic 4⭐️ Story within a story- writer writes in a department store bathroom. Writing is a solitary activity but more so because this author cannot tell people where her writing 'studio' is located but it's a surprisingly practical choice albeit out of precarity.

Hyeonmong Park’s Hall Of Dreams 4.5⭐️ A man Hyeonbong Park dreams made-to-order dreams for people but commas start to derail his business. Very creative.

Roadkill 4.75 ⭐️ My favourite story. Dystopian about an owner of vending machine who gets stuck at a motel while replenishing supplies due to a huge snowstorm. He runs out of money and goes into debt while staying at the motel. Although bleak and disorienting, it is chilling social commentary about the debilitating cycle of debt and lack of human connection.

Iceland 3.75 ⭐️ This has a tie-in to Yun's other novel that I've read previously - The Disaster Tourist. Quite wistful - a website which matches one to a country. The protagonist is matched to Iceland and develops an obsession about the country. Like her novel, there's a tragicomic feel with a satirical ending that it was all for naught.

As in a collection, there were some stories I didn't take to like Time Capsule. Piercing, in particular, was off-putting to me involving an unprofessional veterinarian, death of a dog and unnecessary indignity after passing, this is partially why this ARC languished for a while. I confess I felt disinclined to continue reading after.

Overall, the collection contains fresh original ideas of people in unusual situations with real life resonance. Whether it's unemployment, debt, capitalism, loneliness, obsession or living on the edge, Yun pushes the absurdity of the idea to its furthest limit with startling cynical results. The stories often contain little echoes trailing each other.

‘Table for One’ was a funny one for me in that it felt like a real slog to get through the nine stories but I couldn’t honestly say that I didn’t like it, which leaves me in a weird middle ground of enjoying the quirkiness but not quite getting some of the allegory.
Every story felt like it was a little too long (except maybe Space Invader, which was one of my favourites), as if the prose saw the natural endpoint of the tale and vaulted right past it. That’s probably what made it a bit of a slog, constant repetition of things that had been well established.
To my mind, the theme of obsession is very prevalent throughout the collection, in very different ways and most overtly in stories like ‘Sweet Escape’ and ‘Iceland’.
The title story ‘Table for One’ was a quirky look at loneliness and isolation, and the notion of people taking a course to learn how to eat on their own was simultaneously humorous and sad.
‘Sweet Escape’ ramps up the paranoia and hysteria as a man enters into a never-ending battle with bedbugs. It’s a surreal comedy that pokes fun at the fear of the unknown and the inevitable.
‘Invader Graphic’ was one of my favourite stories, partly because of the writer main character, but mainly because I could visualise the character’s day perfectly. I also liked how the book she’s writing (which we get snippets of) lines up really well with the character’s eventual realisation.
I also really enjoyed ‘Hyeonmong Park’s Hall of Dreams’, although it was one that definitely dragged on too long. Its commentary around originality and the widening of the ‘dream market’ was shrewdly done.
‘Roadkill’ was a peculiar one, boasting an eerie quality and telling the story of a man caught in a snowstorm in a seemingly ghostly motel and, essentially, spending his way into a coffin – this was well done through the notion of the rooms getting smaller and smaller.
‘Time Capsule 1994’ was one that I liked the idea of and I did appreciate the correlation of the glitched memories in the capsule and the main character’s attempts to remember her (step?) daughter. I’m not sure the blank CD really added to that allegory, it was a bit superfluous I thought.
‘Iceland’ was another of my favourite stories, focusing on a person who is deemed more suited to live in Iceland as per an internet quiz. Her obsession is fun to read and feels almost juvenile in the way that teenagers become entranced by a TV show or a band, etc. The juxtaposition of this onto changing circumstances in the workplace is well done and, in the end, bring the realism crashing back in.
As others have said, ‘Piercing’ was probably my least favourite story – it felt like a very disjointed depiction of a couple’s breakdown, complete with animal cruelty and graphic body horror content, which is just not my thing.
Finally, ‘Don’t Cry, Hongdo’ is another quirky story about a girl who wants to set her mother up with her teacher, and eat junk food which her mother has outlawed in favour of the “grass” that she feeds them instead. It’s a humorous story that very much follows the vein of ‘someone please think of the children’, as a group of mothers object to everything from junk food to people wearing hats.
All in, this is a really quirky, well written short story collection but it’s perhaps an overload of zaniness that might suit better as something to dip in and out of. The stories themselves could probably have shaved a few hundred words off to make them snappier and, thus, more digestible.
But, as I say, I didn’t really dislike any one of them and Yun Ko-eun is clearly a very talented writer. Special kudos also to translator Lizzie Buehler – without prior knowledge, I never would have guessed this was a translated work.

Thanks to Columbia University Press for the eARC of ths book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this weird, surreal, yet intimately human collection. The stories are deliciously creative, almost Kafka-esque, and eminently readable. The titular one was my favorite, but the tale of the escalating bedbug paranoia was a very close second. Have stocked in the store and look forward to recommending to customers. Thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Yun Ko-eun's Table for One is a collection of short stories which challenge ones perceptions of reality from the obsession of wanting to live in another country as a form of escapism from society to the more darker horror of a bedbug epidemic is it simply in the narrator's mind - paranoia from obsessing over the topic with those in the building? The end result leads to a Kafkaesque is this real or just in the unreliable narrating character's mind as a form of escapism from the mundane?

I really loved The Disaster Tourist, so was excited to read more of Yun Ko-eun's writing. Each short story was completely absorbing, the worlds richly drawn and the characters all quite odd and bewildering. Surreal and bizarre, the tone of the short stories will certainly stick with me!

I’ll be honest there were some short stories I had a hard time understanding but I feel like that speaks to the intelligence and depth with which the author writes. Overall, I benefited from reading this collection of short stories and I am grateful that they were translated into English because as a native English speaker I feel it’s important to read works originally written in other languages because it’s important for growth. The translation was really well done and largely understandable. I have never been happier to read a story about bedbugs. I’m happy someone is bringing awareness to them.

Table For One by Yun ko-eun this is the third book I have read from the Asia collection by Columbia University press and it was definitely another enjoyable read. It is mainly full of short stories about every day life relationships some have a quirky tone to them and some or just profound and make you think but all are very entertaining. I usually pick a favor and a short story collection but I am being honest when I say I found it hard to do with this one because the stories is so varied and bring different things to the pallet this is definitely a book I recommend to those who love short stories and great writing. Anyone who can write a story about basically nothing and keep you reading hast to be a very talented writer. Not every story is without a theme… This book is getting harder and harder to describe it was a good short story collection about many different things and I enjoyed them all. #NetGalley, #ColumbiaUniversityPress, #AsiaCollection, #YunKo-eun, #TableForOne,

'Table for One', by Yun Ko-eun, is a gorgeous collection of 9 short stories.
The stories are beautifully written. They explore themes of loneliness and societal pressure. Even though there's a sense of hopelesness and solitude in those stories, there's also a bit of humour.
I enjoyed all the stories in this collection, but 'Table for One' was my personal favourite.

i honestly love when story collections are united by a theme, and it's something that if i were evil dictator of the world i would make a requirement. unfortunately these felt a bit elementary, and a little off, like they needed another polish before being sent out into the world.

Just realised this is getting archived soon and I’ve only just been approved for it *cries* so I’m leaving this review now in the hopes that I get a chance to edit and update before archive.
So far I’m intrigued!

*update*

I made it 55% through this. It’s a very slow collection and I’ve decided to stop forcing myself to try to read it. There are some really cool ideas here but ultimately every story is too long and lacks punch.

Table for One by Yun Ko-eon is a short story collection that reels readers in with accessible stories in which the author forces readers to reconsider reality. The stories become increasingly surreal as one continues reading: eating alone in public; bed bug invasion; wearing someone else’s pajamas allows one to dream the owner's dreams; the city of Seoul buried as a time capsule.

A collection I’d like to discuss with someone who knows more about Korean Culture than I do. Reading translated work can be tricky, I know there are nuances or cultural references I’m missing. But I don’t know what I don’t know.

These stories are all connected by an outsider / othered feeling. The main characters have found themselves outside the mainstream cultural acceptance and can find no entry point back in. This becomes increasingly true the further one reads. Roadkill includes a specific critique of the flaws of capitalism.

The collection features a variety of short stories, each with its own unique charm and quirkiness. I appreciated Yun Ko-eun's ability to capture everyday moments and infuse them with a sense of whimsy and introspection.

However, not all the stories resonated with me. Some felt a bit too abstract or didn't quite land the emotional punch I was hoping for. There were definitely a few standout pieces, but others left me wanting more depth or resolution.

Overall, it's a decent read with some memorable moments, but it didn't completely wow me. If you're into short stories that blend the mundane with the surreal, it might be worth checking out.