BOOK JOURNAL: Exhibit by R.O. Kwon
Entry #7: quick but mighty read about an artist exploring her sexuality and confronting where art and sex intersect
Exhibit by R.O. Kwon
Rating: 4/5 stars
This was a lovely, weird little book. It is barely 200 pages and paced to read easily in one sitting. I didn’t know much about R.O. Kwon when I picked up this book, other than she has one other novel that was published in 2018—The Incendiaries (which I haven’t read but want to). Her first novel was inspired by her departure from evangelical Christian faith. Her second (and topic of today’s book journal) draws tangentially on this topic of faith, but more saliently, she explores her own journey in discovering the depths and taboos of her sexuality and art.
The perspective of Jin as a Korean-American woman was transfixing, particularly her handling of the layered religious-rooted shame she associates and ultimately breaks through around sex. Kwon also explores the fine line between platonic intimacy and sexual intimacy in a subtle, but powerful way. Jin is a renowned photographer and the blurred lines of art and life were fascinating and complex in this book.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, but if any of these topics strike a chord, this book is worth your time to read!
**Please check trigger warnings, as this book contains depictions of sexual kink.
Favorite quotes from Exhibit:
A scene at a restaurant: “If I’d shot at Jinju, I’d have images of mirth, of clinking flutes of sun-gold tokaji, thin stems glinting. Philip tells a joke; laughing, I spill a drop of tokaji. It pearls on silk. Philip blots it with a kiss. I didn’t want this night to end; no image holds it still. Not a thing to do but live through its spell, nibbling litchi, then let it go.”
“But so often, refusing to have a child upset people. Selfish, they’d call it. The pope, a celibate, thought it depraved. People disputed the idea. No one had argued with Philip.
‘It’s a threat,’ Lidija said. ‘It’s still, as a life path, distinct. Implied is the fact I’m picking this, not that. People start asking, So what else might this bitch think of doing? Jin, imagine if I had a child, but kept dancing. The jerks, they’d still be pissed. I’d be called unfit, a bad parent. Or if I did give birth, then quit ballet, I’d be judged for staying home. Bigots die mad.’”
Related content:
This Vanity Fair piece. In it, she shares a few of her inspirations for the novel: Fast Car, song by Tracey Chapman; Shostakovich Trilogy, ballet by Alexei Ratmansky (2013); and The Brothers Sun, a recent series on Netflix.
Kwon’s essay in The Guardian titled Why I hope my parents won’t read my novel, particularly this bit:
“But as Toni Morrison said about Black women, the first audience I have in mind while I’m writing begins with Korean people; and then I’m back where I started, hoping to both address and bypass my people, tottering at the top of this old, exigent logic spiral, about to slip down again.
I had to lie to myself, writing this novel, often out loud. ‘No one will see this,’ I said. ‘It’s just for you.’ […]
I’m hardly alone in writing what I can barely tell. It’s part of what I love about reading: literature, art, can let slip the private truths, things otherwise left veiled. With all I am, I trust in fear as a guiding sign. It’s essential to what I feel called to do, as a novelist: I have to put in words that which I’m afraid of saying.”This compilation of reviews by Book Marks.
This interview on LitHub where Kwon says:
“Exhibit explores what you’d risk to pursue your core desires. What first led to this book was the question of who gets to want what. I thought, as I wrote this novel, of the ways people can be made to suppress, deny, and hide what we deeply need and want, and what a violence that can be. In Exhibit, I brought together three Korean women who want a great deal, and seeing what happens if they run after what they desire.”Guys We F*cked podcast—a stalwart pod from two NYC based comedians who chat all things female sexuality in a way that removes shame. A perfect pairing for the kink-curious.
If you like R.O. Kwon, you would also like:
Body Grammar, by Jules Ohman (for those who love a coming-of-age tale of a 20-something in NYC)
Milk Fed, by Melissa Broder (a repeat rec; for those who want a weird but delightful treatment of sex and queer awakening)
My Last Innocent Year, by Daisy Alpert Florin (for those who love an academic setting)