School breaks were an especially happy time for young Jung-soon Go. She got to enjoy not only the respite from studying, but also time at her wonderful grandparents’ home. As the South Korean author and illustrator recalls in her debut Okchundang Candy, a graphic memoir translated by Aerin Park, her grandparents welcomed little Jung-soon for “summer lingering,” which included dyeing each other’s nails with crushed flower petals, lounging in front of a fan and snuggling up together at bedtime.
Grandpa was a boisterous sort, who “sang me my cartoon theme songs in his own particular way, not even close to the original ones on TV,” while Grandma was shy and relied on Grandpa as her only friend. The couple cared for their neighborhood: They were kind to the tenants that lived in their house (“bar ladies” no one else would rent to) and cleaned the alleyways every weekend in an effort to foster community. And they offered Go safe harbor: “I think I loved watching my grandparents being so sweet to each other because my own parents were so busy fighting back home.”
Go’s finely detailed illustrations in pencil and watercolor are as sweet as her words, especially when depicting her grandparents’ affection for each other. The spreads transform into touching evocations of remembered pain as she reflects on her grandfather’s illness and eventual death from lung cancer, followed by her grandmother being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.The author is honest about the grief she felt over her grandfather’s decline and the devastating changes in her grandmother, who once lit up at the sight of Go’s grandfather but now lived in a nursing home, drawing circles over and over. Could it be that she was thinking of the round shape of her favorite treat, the okchundang candy, which held special significance for the couple?
Okchundang Candy won the Special Prize in the 2023 Korea Picture Book Awards. It is a beautifully rendered remembrance of grief and loss, and a moving meditation on the bonds of family and the power of everlasting love.
