Twenty-First-Century Seoul, as Told by Sang Young Park

At Asymptote, Sang Young Park discusses his English-language debut novel, Love in the Big City, an ambitious love story told in a colloquial tone with copious pop culture references. “Being a young writer in the twenty-first century is exactly like being a young person in the twenty-first century,” he says. “It’s complicated and hard but fun. I live a life completely immersed in popular culture. I wake up in the morning and shower to music, and I watch Netflix with my coffee and breakfast. I listen to Ariana Grande as I write, and at night as I read. This is why I think it’s natural that my work shows so much pop culture influence. I hope my book will prove a very reliable record of twenty-first-century Seoul for remembering and reminiscing in the future.”