Same Bed Different Dreams

The real Korean Provisional Government, formed by exiled Koreans in 1919 to oppose Japan’s occupation of their homeland, disbanded between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Korean War, but Park (Personal Days) imagines an alternate history in which the KPG still exists and has written an unfinished book made up of mind-bending dream narratives. This manuscript, which is being read as a favor by former writer Soon Sheen, is either a true account of the KPG’s ongoing covert mission to reunite North and South Korea or merely a collection of poetic short stories. Meanwhile, Soon’s daughter is obsessed with a computer game adapted from an old space opera penned by Korean War vet Parker Jotter. The three narrative voices in Park’s novel (the KPG manuscript, Soon, and Parker) call for three capable narrators—Shannon Tyo, Daniel K. Isaac, and Dominic Hoffman, respectively. Tyo’s youthful yet authoritative tone recalls an enthusiastic teacher delivering a stream-of-consciousness lecture, while Isaac, as Soon, captures the voice of frustrated ambition, anxious fatherhood, and growing confusion as dreams leech into reality. Though Parker’s thread only gradually reveals connections to the other two, Hoffman commands listener curiosity and empathy as the grizzled former POW.