Same Bed, Different Dreams (2023) by Ed Park

 Book Review

Same Bed, Different Dreams (2023)

by Ed Park

   American author Ed Park didn't do himself any favors with the reading public when he dropped Same Bed, Different Dreams at a length of 577 pages.  Most of the readers I know- and I'm talking about serious readers of literary fiction, the type who might be tempted into reading Same Bed, Different Dreams, are going to bail when they see a 577 page book.   Personally, I checked out the Audiobook, which is so long I had to check it out twice on the Libby library app.  It is a well produced Audiobook, as you might expect from an author who was the executive editor at Penguin Press

   Same Bed, Different Dreams is a Pynchonian take on the 20th century history of the Korean peninsula, as relayed through the lens of the (semi?) fictious Korean Provisional Government, a loose band of rebels devoted to the independence of and unification of Korea.  Park had me running to check Wikipedia as he described various historical episodes surrounding Korean independence efforts.  At the same time, he weaves together several disparate story lines involving an African-American author of a series of science-fiction novels, an author-type figure working for an Amazon-like company in New York City and a host of minor characters as well as a book-within-a-book (the dreams of the title.)

   There is so much going on in the pages of Same Bed, Different Dreams it is hard to describe. The best I can do is: Korean secret history with plenty of contemporary American characters, 600 pages long.