An Affair with Korea

<p>In 1966 Vincent S. R. Brant lived in Sokp’o a poor and isolated South Korean fishing village on the coast of the Yellow Sea carrying out social anthropological research. At that time the only way to reach Sokp’o other than by boat was a two hour walk along foot paths. This memoir of his experiences in a village with no electricity running water or telephone shows Brandt’s attempts to adapt to a traditional preindustrial existence in a small almost completely self-sufficient community. This vivid account of his growing admiration for an ancient way of life that was doomed and that most of the villagers themselves despised illuminates a social world that has almost completely disappeared.</p>