Pieces of You - Tablo

“These are the pieces of my youth,

the small secrets and the not-so-great expectations

that defined my coming of age.”

― Tablo, Pieces of You

The English version of this book had been released from early 2009, not long after its Korean version. Yes, it’s not a fresh book, but I just found out about it recently, after I started listening to this Korean hip hop group, Epik High. Tablo, the author, and the leader of this group have this such of cold and brutal realist sense on writing lyrics for the group. “Pieces of You” consists of ten short stories, all written during his college life in Stanford University from 1998 to 2001 – giving him honors in English Literature and Creative Writing.

“So here I am,

choosing to kick away the ladder

so that I may remain at your side.

I understand your solitude I see your shadow."

The stories aren’t happy. They are rough, dark, yet dazzling - those kind of stories that is so realistic without clean ending, enough explanation, and obvious chronology. Complex, just like reality itself.

The topics are vary, relationship between a sick mother and a weed-smoker son, the life of a porn movies casting director, until story about two old pals who just lost their best friend. My favorite is the first story, “Andante”. It’s about a pianist whose father was a maestro before it all taken away by a chronic Alzheimer.

Well it might sounds like a gloomy book review, eh? It’s not a common kind of genre, but can be as well an oasis for those who bored of typical drama or romance novel. It’s kinda tricky to find this book nowadays, I searched all over Kinokuniya, Aksara, or Periplus, but they don’t seem to have it. So I best recommend you to order from yesasia.com for the English version or just get to Toko Gunung Agung for the Bahasa version for IDR 40.000 (but I didn’t refer to it, since the Bahasa one is written by a translator). You also can buy the English version on www.yesasia.com for $25.

Here’s my favorite quotes from the book:

“Cowards,

I believe, are people who are afraid to embrace what they want or need

in a natural, honest way.”

“It didn’t rain for you, maybe,

but it always rains for me.

The sky shatters and rains shards of glass.”

“He laughed.

I suddenly wanted to laugh, to laugh with him, to sit here,

or maybe outside in the rain, and just laugh with him.

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t even smile.”

“When I stop at a stop sign, I don’t think about the distance I’ve crossed.

I just wish I never had to stop.”

By: @taniayosephine