Ed Park—whose debut novel, Personal Days, is out now—points to his interview with South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, where he discusses how the Village Voice motivated him to write the book. Or, rather, how the fear of impending layoffs at the Voice (which was purchased by New Times, now Village Voice Media, in 2006) pushed him to start typing. The main interview is largely an object lesson in the imperfections of Google’s translation tool (“in addition to the theme of literary fiction Donna completion of these reviews of media editors are familiar with me, my work is also receiving attention to the impact of crazy “He said.), but an English version makes the story a little clearer:
In the summer of 2006, he was laid off over a corporate merger, which turned him from an editor into a writer. In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Park says, “I hadn’t thought of writing about office life before then. It was painful to go to work with a pending layoff, but it was an opportunity to experience friendship, relationships, fear, suffering, pathos and walkouts. I started writing the novel watching coworkers get sacked. By the time I was axed, the draft was nearly complete.”
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