Seoul Man: A Memoir of Cars, Culture, Crisis, and Unexpected Hilarity Inside a Korean Corporate Titan

Civilizations clash and learn from each other when an American joins a South Korean company in this fish-out-of-water memoir. Former Washington Post reporter Ahrens went to Seoul to become a PR executive for auto-maker Hyundai and found a nation of odd contrasts: a gleaming, futuristic democracy steeped in old-fashioned Confucian hierarchy; selfless teamwork paired with desperate competition for status; ubiquitous plastic surgery to attain a monotonous standard of beauty; densely crowded cities where people make few friends; and buttoned-down conformity that somehow works itself out in raucous drinking parties. Despite his baffled amusement at Korean idiosyncrasies, Ahrens finds the local ethos rubbing off as he tries to reconcile his lifelong individualism with his commitments as a new husband and father. Along the way, he explores Hyundai’s contrasting effort to shed its economy-car image and make its brand feel more upscale, and specifically more German, by building precision-engineered luxury models. Ahrens’s blend of personal memoir, reportage, and business history doesn’t always come together but the book is engagingly written and full of funny, intriguing probes into the quirks he discovers in his surroundings and himself. This is a nuanced look at a nation where an image of Western modernity is reflected and illuminated by an off-kilter mirror. Agent: Howard Yoon, Ross Yoon Agency. [em](Aug.) [/em]