Enlightening but wooden
This book is famous in Korea. It will help the non-Korean understand the depth of the Korean longing for unification, and the wounds that separation have caused to this highly unified, family-and-ancestor centered culture. So, for plot and for cultural enlightenment, it is well worth reading. The translation, however, is wooden, so the English language reader misses what must be, in Korean, powerful prose. For us it is simply pedantic.