[3] But it wasn't long before she left her stultifying job to become one of the most daringly unconventional writers to grace the Korean literary establishment in modern years.

Bae has departed from the tradition of mainstream literature and created her own literary world based on a unique style and knack for psychological description.

[7] Her work is regarded as unconventional in the extreme, including such unusual topics as men becoming victims of domestic violence by their female spouses (in "Sunday at the Sukiyaki Restaurant").

Most of her characters harbor traumatic memories from which they may never fully emerge, and their families, shown to be in various stages of disintegration, only add to the sense of loneliness and gloom dominating their lives.

A conversation between friends shatters the idealized vision of love; verbal abuse constitutes a family interaction; and masochistic self-loathing fills internal monologues.