Book Review: The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun
Disaster locations have long attracted international tourism. Pompeii, Hiroshima, or Chernobyl are just a few of the notorious locations affected by calamities – natural or man-made. After an earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear powerplant meltdown in 2011 Fukushima became well-known. The city of Wuhan is today intrinsically linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Endeavoring to satirize on this topic, The Disaster Tourist, is a dramatic eco-thriller where a flood of events engulfs readers in, submerging them into its grotesque plot. Written by Yun Ko-eun in 2013 and recently translated into English by Lizzie Buehler, the Korean corporation Jungle organizes disaster tours, offering over 152 vacation packages to locations affected by earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, or wars. Travelers leave for these trips to immerse themselves into shocking realities and experience a strong emotional journey intended to make them feel lucky to live far from that cataclysm.
Yona Ko has worked for 10 years as a programming coordinator for Jungle. At 33, she dedicates her life to her career, to the point of having forgotten why she chose the job in the first place. “Calamity was her job;” writes Ko-eun “it had a tendency to occupy her mind even during her off-hours. Working at Jungle was all encompassing.” (Page 5)
Yona meets an impasse in her career as she believes she’s been marked as a negatively performing employee. Her apprehension about losing her position is such that she silently tolerates her boss Kim’s sexual assaults and bears with the humiliation of the company’s knowledge of this abuse. As she grows restless her boss offers a temporary leave on a business trip to one of Jungles’ disaster locations.
She chooses Mui, a dull island in the south of Vietnam. With a remote past of tribe wars, a dead volcano and a desert sinkhole that had long been filled with water, attractions are a disappointment to travelers.
As Yona’s trip unravels, the mise en scene organized by the locals in Mui to entertain the six visitors reveals itself to her. Yona is forced to peer backstage and, to regain her respectable professional status, she acquiesces to an even more intricate and deadly masterplan to turn Mui back into an attractive disaster destination, saving it from the dire consequences of bankruptcy.
Yona is not the modern-day heroine that fills the pages of contemporary novels. Her analytical mind and pragmatism serve as a necessary mask to shield her weakening emotions from ever surfacing in the work-centered culture of Seoul. Her detached emotions are hard to empathize with, even as one accompanies her through an adventure designed to beat her anxieties and fears. Yona’s passiveness confines her to acting in accordance with what higher powers ask. A manager, a company, and an unknown corporation are the puppeteers who direct her every move. She follows along diligently, accepting her role in a cruel plan, in the hopes of saving her career – right until she “veered off script”.
The book’s austere character development recognizes individuals only by their professions, perhaps reflective of how in Korea referring to someone with a superior social position by their name instead of their title it is considered deeply offensive. In contrast, imagery and metaphors richly decorate the scenes set by Yun Ko-eun. Even when skillfully translated to English the indirectness that characterizes Korean communication and language transpired. For the reader to truly appreciate all the subtleties and foreshadowing in the text requires a second read, which will also help clarify a lot of the complex twists in the plot.
The awkwardness of the romantic encounter Yona has with one of the few named characters stands out for how it abruptly inserts itself into the surrealistic storyline in a way that might have roused the interest of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. The romance further complicates the understanding of what the characters choose voluntarily from what is scripted into the grand plan for Mui. “Sometimes when you’re acting it becomes hard to distinguish between reality and theater. That’s what happened to you,” the writer and screenwriter in the disaster plan tells Yona.
Through the surreal plan of organizing a man-made natural disaster the novel denounces how everyone is morally involved and plays a part in having things go a certain way, even if performing a very simple task. Each character is a pawn in the larger plan, performing a simple task like driving a truck or pressing a button, unaware of the direct consequence of that action. Yona and others’ discomfort reflects their submissive complicity to activities they know to be corrupt, but from which they try to distance themselves to avoid responsibility and benefit from capital gains.
Ultimately an interesting story and quick read. A stimulating and complex story that will push you into a whirlwind of thoughts – especially next time you’ll be able to travel to some location in a poorer country. Think about what’s outside the beautiful resort where you’re staying.
