Book Review: Counterattacks at Thirty is unputdownable by way of its relatability

If you’ve ever given The Office a shot, or better, find yourself utterly obsessed by the exaggerated shenanigans of workplace mundanity it scripts and captures, you’ll be flying through the crisp pages of Won-pyung Sohn’s Counterattacks at Thirty.

Unlike her debut novel Almond, which’s selling point was it’s starkly unique premise and slightly more relatable ‘resolution’ if you can call it that, Sohn uses Counterattacks at Thirty to explore sentiments every last person part of the global workforce has internalised over their years of mind-numbing routine.

The directionless-ness and the endless nerves will either seem sorely familiar, or make you abjectly uncomfortable, by way of past resonance — but it’ll never feel foreign. What’s beautiful about Sohn’s writing is that she manages to craft a universe that feels like an extension of your own. But, the gap between your reality and fantasies is filled with some well meaning and much-needed angsty rebellion, which will leave your psyche more relaxed than you’d like to admit.

Through Sohn’s protagonist Jihye, you’ll be living through a slow yet drama-clad arc of growth, which will feel more and more personal by the second. In the same breath, her corporate comrade, Lee Gyuok, will be the outlet through which you will live your wildest workplace fantasies in the most PG-13 coded way.

Circling back to it’s closest visual counterpart, this novel is best described as an inside-looking-out spin on The Office — the context of course being moulded to represent the peculiarities of Korean culture with the planned acts of devilment being significantly more subtle. And that only makes feel it that much more real.

Title: Counterattacks at Thirty

Author: Won-pyung Sohn

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: ₹399