She also tells a story about her tragic past, revealing how she lost her voice. Through this character, the author shows how K-pop fans idolize their stars so much that they become obsessed with their work, their lives and even their scandals.Īra becomes more interesting when she reveals her violent side and yanks the hair of a woman who has been disrespectful. She is the character who illustrates the inequality between the rich and poor, especially in a New York house party scene with a bunch of well-off international students from Korea.Īra, a mute hairdresser who lives down the hall with roommate Sujin, gives the readers a glimpse of the K-pop fan culture. However, Miho changes after discovering a secret about her too-good-to-be-true boyfriend. And like the characters in such dramas, Miho tries hard not to take advantage of her boyfriend and his family. Similar storylines can be seen in numerous Korean dramas. His mother is unhappy with the couple since Miho is an orphan and poor. Kyuri’s roommate, Miho, is a talented artist with a wealthy boyfriend she met in New York. She also presents in detail the life of a woman working in a room salon and what keeps her there, even when she is presented with other career choices. Kyuri at the beginning is described as having improbable beauty, which she gained through numerous plastic surgeries.Īs the story develops, Kyuri becomes a more multidimensional character, revealing her insecurity through her constant evaluations of other people’s faces. Kyuri, the first character who appears in Cha’s latest book, works at a “room salon,” a place often equated with the dark side of Korean nightlife, where men pay to have drinks with beautiful young hostesses. The four main characters in “If I Had Your Face” live in the same apartment building. She provides some unexpected twists to the story and characters, reflecting ongoing issues in contemporary Korean society such as unrealistic beauty standards, inequality, gender discrimination, discrimination against people with disabilities and disconnection between neighbors. At the beginning of the book, it is hard to miss the cliches. The young women in her book range from a woman who is obsessed with her appearance to a woman from an orphanage who falls in love with a wealthy man. “They are hustling to stay afloat in a very fast, competitive and glamorous society, and without any connections or academic standing, their currency is often beauty.” “My book is about a group of young women in Korea - mostly orphans who grew up in the provinces and moved to Seoul the first chance they got,” Frances Cha said.

The characters in Frances Cha’s debut novel, “If I Had Your Face,” at first will not surprise those who are familiar with South Korean pop culture, especially dramas and movies, or who follow news from Korea.

If i had your face characters