Where fantasy meets reality in a horrifying tale of greed and revenge
One would imagine bunnies to be cute and fluffy animals, but South Korean author Bora Chung will change your mind. The short story ‘Cursed Bunny’ from Bora Chung’s anthology of short stories, which was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize by the same name, weaves disturbing truths about the nature of mankind with a fantastical narrative. It has elements of horror yet deals with realistic themes that one might find hard to swallow.
Despite the challenges of being genre-defying, translator Anton Hur has captured Chung’s psychologically complex worlds of the living and the dead.
The story is narrated by the youngest member of a Korean family involved in the ironsmith trade. However, they also have something to do with the occult, but no one dares to speak about it. Layered by parallel storylines, Chung grabs your attention by evoking different emotions at the same time. From feeling uncomfortable to captivated, make sure to take a deep breath or more.
A grandfather tells his grandson the story of a friend, who, unable to bear the ruin of his business by a malicious competitor, dies by suicide. To exact revenge for his friend’s death, the grandfather creates a cursed bunny lamp to wreak havoc on the competitor’s life.
The cursed bunny shreds the documents inside the company’s warehouse, but once the bunny falls into the hands of the grandson, it creates absolute chaos for the CEO’s son. The CEO’s grandson quickly worsens into unexplained insanity and behaves quite differently than he did before, causing anguish for the entire family.
The bunny lamp exacts ruthless revenge like an assassin, except with more nose-wriggling than stabbing. Knowing that their familial line has no heir brings sheer satisfaction for the grandfather: “In this twisted, wretched life of mine, that single fact remains my sole consolation.”
You can’t tell who is more selfish. Is it the CEO who merely desired the success of his company? Or the grandfather who desired to exact revenge for his friend’s passing? We frequently underestimate greed’s influence over us. Chung writes in a surreal way that makes the intricacy of selfishness, greed, and retaliation appear real.
For the grandfather, it is a feeling of satisfaction of justice being served, but also as a source of ongoing anger and bitterness. It can also lead to a vicious cycle of violence and further harm, rather than bringing closure or peace. Chung references the Japanese saying that goes “Cursing others leads to two graves”. Anyone who curses another person is sure to end up in a grave themselves. But grandfather always returns to tell his grandson the story of the bunny, or not. Every time he returns to repeat the story, I wonder if it is an attempt to warn the young boy about the cruel realities of the world. The scariest part is that the suffering of others doesn’t matter because the rewards for oneself outweigh any bloodshed in the process.
