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Human Acts
A riveting, poetic, and fearless portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice by the acclaimed author of The Vegetarian.
In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.
The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho¡¯s best friend, who meets his own fateful end, to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, both suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother, their collective heartbreak and acts of hope tell the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.
An award-winning, controversial bestseller, Human Acts is a timeless, pointillist portrait of a historic event with reverberations still being felt today, by turns tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity.
In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.
The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho¡¯s best friend, who meets his own fateful end, to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, both suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother, their collective heartbreak and acts of hope tell the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.
An award-winning, controversial bestseller, Human Acts is a timeless, pointillist portrait of a historic event with reverberations still being felt today, by turns tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity.
218 pages, Hardcover
First published May 19, 2014
6,990 people are currently reading
152k people want to read
About the author
Han Kang
59?books9,422?followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database.
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Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. She is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, as well as Human Acts, The White Book, Greek Lessons, and We Do Not Part. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ¡°for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.¡±
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Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. She is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, as well as Human Acts, The White Book, Greek Lessons, and We Do Not Part. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ¡°for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.¡±
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,980 reviews
October 13, 2020
¡°I still remember the moment when my gaze fell upon the mutilated face of a young woman, her features slashed through with a bayonet. Soundlessly, and without fuss, some tender thing deep inside me broke. Something that, until then, I hadn't realised was there.¡±
This book is brutal and uncompromising; it begins with a flourish of blood and barbarity that is fast and unexpected. However, we only get the aftermath of such butchery. We see the devastation the event has caused, but only ever catch glimpses of it itself. And herein lays the brilliance of such writing.
When a crowd of student protestors took hold of a Korean city in the 1980s they were gunned down, beaten and just about obliterated by the government forces that occupied the area. The event was later refeed to as The Gwangju-Massacre, and it truly is one of the most disturbing acts of violence in the twentieth century. Many were left dead in the streets, more wounded, and the rest were rounded up and thrown into prison. Google it or, better yet, look at some dramatizations of it on youtube if you want to get more of the facts.
Han Kang side-skips the event itself and begins her novel with a pile of corpses and an ocean of blood; she begins her story with the bodies of all the young people that sung the national anthem whist they were mowed down by their own country¡¯s soldiers. When they congregated into the streets with their flags and their cries for democracy, they were met with the result of dictatorship. What follows is the devastation such an event would cause. The people are left in ruins, and trying to pick up any sense of normal life afterwards became near impossible. Nothing could ever be the same for these characters and, no doubt, the people it happened to in real life. They would all remember this dark day.
¡°Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, slaughtered - is this the essential of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?¡±
The novel is also about legacy. It begins immediately in the morgue, and then moves to the consciousness of a boy looking for a sense of belonging after he has been killed. We then move five years into the future, seeing the malicious punishments inflicted on those that were thrown imprison. Eventually we see how after even twenty years, the effects of the event still haunt the steps of those that were involved.
This is a book about how a single event can, ultimately, change the face of a nation. How do people carry one calling themselves members of a country in the wake of such maliciousness? There is a sense of disheartenment and betrayal due to the sheer shock-horror felt in the wake of one¡¯s own leader ordering such an action. Who are they afterwards? The nation is grieving and the people feel lost in this new place the event has caused. Disillusionment, estrangement and a lack of belonging are things that come to mind.
I have but one criticism of this book. The writing was concise and superb; it was emotive, bitter and almost snappy at points. Structurally speaking, the book was a great success. But there¡¯s one voice missing in the symphony of souls that lived with the heart ache. What of the men who were just ¡°following orders?¡± What of the men who pulled the trigger because this is what they were told to do? How did they feel afterwards? Did they actually care? I would love to have seen it represented here.
So if you want to read a book that is raw, real and powerful, then this is where to look. Despite the oversight I mentioned, this is still, without a single doubt, a five star read. Han Kang please carry on writting, and please get all your book translated to English!
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via .
__________________________________
This book is brutal and uncompromising; it begins with a flourish of blood and barbarity that is fast and unexpected. However, we only get the aftermath of such butchery. We see the devastation the event has caused, but only ever catch glimpses of it itself. And herein lays the brilliance of such writing.
When a crowd of student protestors took hold of a Korean city in the 1980s they were gunned down, beaten and just about obliterated by the government forces that occupied the area. The event was later refeed to as The Gwangju-Massacre, and it truly is one of the most disturbing acts of violence in the twentieth century. Many were left dead in the streets, more wounded, and the rest were rounded up and thrown into prison. Google it or, better yet, look at some dramatizations of it on youtube if you want to get more of the facts.
Han Kang side-skips the event itself and begins her novel with a pile of corpses and an ocean of blood; she begins her story with the bodies of all the young people that sung the national anthem whist they were mowed down by their own country¡¯s soldiers. When they congregated into the streets with their flags and their cries for democracy, they were met with the result of dictatorship. What follows is the devastation such an event would cause. The people are left in ruins, and trying to pick up any sense of normal life afterwards became near impossible. Nothing could ever be the same for these characters and, no doubt, the people it happened to in real life. They would all remember this dark day.
¡°Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, slaughtered - is this the essential of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?¡±
The novel is also about legacy. It begins immediately in the morgue, and then moves to the consciousness of a boy looking for a sense of belonging after he has been killed. We then move five years into the future, seeing the malicious punishments inflicted on those that were thrown imprison. Eventually we see how after even twenty years, the effects of the event still haunt the steps of those that were involved.
This is a book about how a single event can, ultimately, change the face of a nation. How do people carry one calling themselves members of a country in the wake of such maliciousness? There is a sense of disheartenment and betrayal due to the sheer shock-horror felt in the wake of one¡¯s own leader ordering such an action. Who are they afterwards? The nation is grieving and the people feel lost in this new place the event has caused. Disillusionment, estrangement and a lack of belonging are things that come to mind.
I have but one criticism of this book. The writing was concise and superb; it was emotive, bitter and almost snappy at points. Structurally speaking, the book was a great success. But there¡¯s one voice missing in the symphony of souls that lived with the heart ache. What of the men who were just ¡°following orders?¡± What of the men who pulled the trigger because this is what they were told to do? How did they feel afterwards? Did they actually care? I would love to have seen it represented here.
So if you want to read a book that is raw, real and powerful, then this is where to look. Despite the oversight I mentioned, this is still, without a single doubt, a five star read. Han Kang please carry on writting, and please get all your book translated to English!
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via .
__________________________________
February 2, 2024
I don't have much to say about this book, beyond you should read it, and it's a wrenching masterwork, and it has so much to say on the subject of pain and suffering and war and power and empire and the evil that humans are capable of.
And that you should read it.
Bottom line: Stop reading my dumb words when Han Kang's are much better.
------------
pre-review
a masterpiece.
review to come / approx 4.5
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tbr review
han kang hive rise up
And that you should read it.
Bottom line: Stop reading my dumb words when Han Kang's are much better.
------------
pre-review
a masterpiece.
review to come / approx 4.5
------------
tbr review
han kang hive rise up
June 1, 2017
I had mixed feelings after finishing Kang's , but I cannot deny that the book sucked me right into it's dark, weird allegory. Which is why I'm surprised that this book left me feeling cold and detached. It feels so distant and impersonal, lacking an atmosphere worthy of the subject matter.
tells an important story that I'm sure many people know nothing about - that of the South Korean Gwangju Uprising in 1980. In a daring plot choice that should have been far more effective than it was, Kang begins by talking about bodies. Specifically, the corpses lined up in boxes, waiting for family and friends to come identify them. One chapter is even told from the perspective of a dead body.
Are you horrified, and yet intrigued? So was I. Unfortunately, the second person narration is jarring and strange. Where 's weirdness kept me interested enough to read on, here the weird aspects left me feeling detached and bored.
All of the chapters, though connected, feel like individual stories. I jumped around from perspective to perspective, never coming to feel an attachment to any character or their story. I realize I am in the minority, perhaps not unlike how I was with , but I cannot connect with these books about historical horrors that lay out in the events in such a cold way, lacking any human emotion.
I appreciate that it is probably a conscious choice on the author's part; a decision meant to serve a purpose and - probably - demonstrate the cold inhumanity of such parts of history, but any book that leaves me feeling emotionally cold, whether intentionally or otherwise, is not one that will stay with me.
| | | |
tells an important story that I'm sure many people know nothing about - that of the South Korean Gwangju Uprising in 1980. In a daring plot choice that should have been far more effective than it was, Kang begins by talking about bodies. Specifically, the corpses lined up in boxes, waiting for family and friends to come identify them. One chapter is even told from the perspective of a dead body.
Are you horrified, and yet intrigued? So was I. Unfortunately, the second person narration is jarring and strange. Where 's weirdness kept me interested enough to read on, here the weird aspects left me feeling detached and bored.
All of the chapters, though connected, feel like individual stories. I jumped around from perspective to perspective, never coming to feel an attachment to any character or their story. I realize I am in the minority, perhaps not unlike how I was with , but I cannot connect with these books about historical horrors that lay out in the events in such a cold way, lacking any human emotion.
I appreciate that it is probably a conscious choice on the author's part; a decision meant to serve a purpose and - probably - demonstrate the cold inhumanity of such parts of history, but any book that leaves me feeling emotionally cold, whether intentionally or otherwise, is not one that will stay with me.
| | | |
December 31, 2021
wow. this is a very raw reflection on the atrocious acts humans are capable of committing, as well as the resilience of those who survived them.
like the majority of reviewers, ive never heard of the gwangju student uprising/massacre, but what a crucial and heartbreaking moment in korean history. and i think the structure of this novel is quite clever in how it presents the overall effects of such an event. i like how the focus is on the death of one particular boy, rather than the uprising as a whole, and how his death has impacted so many lives throughout the years. the different chapters come together in a really cohesive way because of this.
i will say that when it comes to the storytelling, the second person narrative took some getting used to. im not a fan of second person POV in general and, for this story specifically, it actually made me feel more detached from the characters rather than the intended closeness. the story content reminded me a lot of ¡®do not say we have nothing¡¯ (chinese student uprising/massacre in tiananmen square), but i felt like that had a much more relatable narrative.
but this is still a really good novel for learning about and experiencing new perspectives about a lesser-known event in history.
? 3.5 stars
like the majority of reviewers, ive never heard of the gwangju student uprising/massacre, but what a crucial and heartbreaking moment in korean history. and i think the structure of this novel is quite clever in how it presents the overall effects of such an event. i like how the focus is on the death of one particular boy, rather than the uprising as a whole, and how his death has impacted so many lives throughout the years. the different chapters come together in a really cohesive way because of this.
i will say that when it comes to the storytelling, the second person narrative took some getting used to. im not a fan of second person POV in general and, for this story specifically, it actually made me feel more detached from the characters rather than the intended closeness. the story content reminded me a lot of ¡®do not say we have nothing¡¯ (chinese student uprising/massacre in tiananmen square), but i felt like that had a much more relatable narrative.
but this is still a really good novel for learning about and experiencing new perspectives about a lesser-known event in history.
? 3.5 stars
January 18, 2025
En este desconcertante mundo en el que hay que dar explicaciones de por qu¨¦ se quiere y se debe celebrar la muerte de un dictador sanguinario, en el que la juventud se siente atra¨ªda por formas autoritarias de gobierno mientras creen que la democracia y los derechos humanos son consustanciales al individuo y no un regalo que nos hemos dado entre todos, por el que se ha luchado y derramado sangre, y que en cualquier momento pueden desaparecer, libros como el de la escritora coreana se hacen imprescindibles, m¨¢s a¨²n si son de la talla literaria de este.
Aqu¨ª se trata la brutal represi¨®n por parte del ej¨¦rcito del dictador Chun Doo-hwan de una revuelta estudiantil en Gwangju, ciudad natal de la autora, que se estima caus¨® m¨¢s de dos mil muertos, pero bien podr¨ªa ser cualquier otra de las innumerables matanzas que dictadores de todo pelo y plumaje han perpetrado a lo largo de la historia.
La novela, como todos ustedes ya habr¨¢n deducido, es dura, pero lo que les vengo ahora a decir es que tambi¨¦n es hermosa. ?Actos humanos? es una novela polif¨®nica que gira en torno a un ni?o de 15 a?os, Dong-ho, que busca, bajo el peso de la culpa, el cuerpo de su amigo muerto entre los muchos que se amontonan en un centro polideportivo de la ciudad. Siete ser¨¢n las personas, todas relacionadas de alguna manera con Donh-ho, a trav¨¦s de las cuales iremos conociendo, con una sensibilidad y un tacto encomiables, los tristes acontecimientos, el sacrificio de algunos, ¡
¡°¡recuerdo todav¨ªa v¨ªvidamente esa sensaci¨®n de no tenerle miedo a nada, de estar dispuesto a dar la vida en cualquier momento, de que la sangre de todos los que est¨¢bamos all¨ª flu¨ªa en una ¨²nica y gigantesca arteria. Pude percibir el pulso de esa sangre que corr¨ªa palpitante, de ese coraz¨®n que era el m¨¢s grande y sublime del mundo. Lo digo con humildad, pero me sent¨ª parte de un todo¡±
¡ la angustia de los que buscaban a sus familiares o amigos, el desconsuelo al encontrarlos, la desesperaci¨®n de los que no lo lograron, las atroces torturas y violaciones tras la represi¨®n, las profundas secuelas f¨ªsicas y psicol¨®gicas que dej¨® en los que sobrevivieron, torturados o no, el silencio forzoso, el terror de todos.
¡°¡ quer¨ªan dejar bien claro que nuestros cuerpos no nos pertenec¨ªan, que no hab¨ªa nada que pudi¨¦ramos hacer por nuestra voluntad, que lo ¨²nico que nos estaba permitido sentir era un dolor enloquecedor¡±
Como dec¨ªa, esta es la historia de una masacre, como podr¨ªa ser la de cualquier otra, con su carga de brutalidad, crueldad y barbarie, pero no de inhumanidad, porque tan humanos son la brutalidad, la crueldad y la barbarie, como la bondad, la solidaridad o la empat¨ªa. Por eso me choc¨® el ¨¦nfasis que la autora pone en estas preguntas:
¡°?Cu¨¢l es la esencia del ser humano? ?Qu¨¦ tiene que hacer el ser humano para no ser otra cosa que humano?... ?Es el hombre un ser cruel por naturaleza? ?Lo nuestro no fue m¨¢s que una experiencia normal y corriente? ?Lo de la dignidad humana es un enga?o y en cualquier momento podemos transformarnos en insectos, bestias o masas de pus y secreciones? El que no dejemos de humillarnos, destruirnos y masacrarnos, ?es la prueba que ofrece la Historia acerca de la naturaleza humana?¡±
?De verdad alguien puede pensar que estas preguntas pueden tener m¨¢s de una respuesta?
February 10, 2017
That's it, my next book needs to be comic... erotic...or fantasy.....or maybe a cowboy dancer story.....but -- yikes -- don't read this book before bedtime!
It's Brilliant.......but, brutal bacteria brain bankruptcy!!!!
If the book cover - alone isn't a clue that this story isn't going to eat through your skin - burn away your flesh - down to your bare bones....then by all means...dive in and find out for yourself!
Inspired writing comes from a real event. Gwangju Uprising, South Korea... 1980
"Han Kang"....is a "QUEEN-BLEAK-GUT-WRENCHING-POWERFUL-STORYTELLER". She rattled my bones in "The Vegetarian", and hollowed them in
"Human Acts".
Local University students were demonstrating against the Chun Doo hwan government--then were attacked, fired upon, beaten, killed. It was a brutal massacre...by the army and police. They stood for justice - and died for it.
Over 600 people were killed. In Han Kang's book...
she focuses on a 15-year-old innocent boy, named Dong Ho, who was killed.
In the Epilogue.....Han Kang writes about a time - in 2009 - when she was glued to the television watching the towers burning in the middle of the night and surprised herself with words that came out of her mouth...
"But that's Gwangju. In other words, "Gwangju" has become another name for what ever is forcibly isolated, beaten down, and brutalized, for all that has been
mutilated beyond repair. The radioactive spread is ongoing. Gwangju has been reborn only to be butchered again in the endless cycle. It was razed to the ground, and raised up and anew in a bloodied rebirth".
I can imagine the guilty feelings Han Kang had of her 'thoughts'.
Many of the descriptions are gruesome and unbearable...but this story had been kept very quiet from the world ...perhaps by opening it up -there is a possibility for healing to begin.
It's Brilliant.......but, brutal bacteria brain bankruptcy!!!!
If the book cover - alone isn't a clue that this story isn't going to eat through your skin - burn away your flesh - down to your bare bones....then by all means...dive in and find out for yourself!
Inspired writing comes from a real event. Gwangju Uprising, South Korea... 1980
"Han Kang"....is a "QUEEN-BLEAK-GUT-WRENCHING-POWERFUL-STORYTELLER". She rattled my bones in "The Vegetarian", and hollowed them in
"Human Acts".
Local University students were demonstrating against the Chun Doo hwan government--then were attacked, fired upon, beaten, killed. It was a brutal massacre...by the army and police. They stood for justice - and died for it.
Over 600 people were killed. In Han Kang's book...
she focuses on a 15-year-old innocent boy, named Dong Ho, who was killed.
In the Epilogue.....Han Kang writes about a time - in 2009 - when she was glued to the television watching the towers burning in the middle of the night and surprised herself with words that came out of her mouth...
"But that's Gwangju. In other words, "Gwangju" has become another name for what ever is forcibly isolated, beaten down, and brutalized, for all that has been
mutilated beyond repair. The radioactive spread is ongoing. Gwangju has been reborn only to be butchered again in the endless cycle. It was razed to the ground, and raised up and anew in a bloodied rebirth".
I can imagine the guilty feelings Han Kang had of her 'thoughts'.
Many of the descriptions are gruesome and unbearable...but this story had been kept very quiet from the world ...perhaps by opening it up -there is a possibility for healing to begin.
December 6, 2024
"???? ????? ?????? ??? ??????? ????? ?????? ??????.."
????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ???????? ?????? ??????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ????? ??? ..
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???? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? -?????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ?????????(??? ???) -????? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ????????...
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??? ??? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????? ??? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ....?? ?????!
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?????...
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???? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ??????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ????? ?????? -?????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ?????????(??? ???) -????? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ????????...
?????? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ??????? ???? ??????? ??? ??????? ?? ??????? ???????? ?????..
??????? ???? ??? ?? ????? ?? ??????..?? ???? ?????..?????? ????? ?????? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ..? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ???????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?????...
??? ??? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????? ??? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ....?? ?????!
"?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???????.?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???????.."
February 10, 2017
Another powerful book by Han Kang, author of The Vegetarian.
Some historical background: After 18 years of authoritarian rule, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was assassinated on October 26, 1979. Hopes for democracy were dashed when Army Major General Chun Do-hwan seized power in a military coup on December 12, 1979. On May 17, he placed the entire country under martial law under the pretext of national security concerns. The next day university students in Gwangju held a demonstration protesting his oppressive actions. Government troops were sent to forcefully suppress the opposition, but their brutality did not deter the citizens of Gwangju. People from all walks of life came out to defend their community. The fighting continued until May 27, when government forces succeeded in crushing the rebellion. ()
In Human Acts, fifteen-year-old Dong-ho's best friend Jeong-dae is killed during a demonstration. Dong-ho ran for safety and feels immense guilt for leaving his friend behind ("There will be no forgiveness. Least of all for me"). The dead bodies are collected in a gymnasium so that families can walk through to find and identify their loved ones. While Dong-ho searches for his friend amongst the dead, he's recruited as a volunteer and incidentally becomes part of the rebellion. Dong-ho is killed by government troops. The chapters that follow are a collection of individual experiences all connected by the Gwangju Uprising and Dong-ho's death.
The book covers a thirty-year period, from 1980 to 2013. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different person in a different year, but they are all living with the effects of that week in 1980. We hear from Dong-ho, his best friend's spirit, an editor that deals with censors, a man and woman who were imprisoned and tortured for their political activities, and Dong Ho's mother. The epilogue is told from author Han Kang's perspective. During the time of the Gwangju Uprising, she was only 9 years old and her family had just moved from Gwangju to Seoul. While she was out of harm's way, knowledge of the event left an indelible mark on her. She writes about what compelled her to write this book and about the real-life Dong-ho.
The introduction by translator Deborah Smith provides vital historical context and notes about her translation process. She also translated The Vegetarian. Both books are relatively short, but every single word packs a punch. The writing style is accessible, but the content emotionally difficult. There's a visceral physicality to the language and I felt the impact of every word. Han Kang has a remarkable ability to sum up a person or a relationship in just a couple of sentences. That ability is showcased in the portrayal of the relationship between Jeong-dae and his sister Jeong-mi. There are so many moving scenes, but one of my favorites is in "The Editor" chapter, which details the performance of a play with a censored script. It shows how impossible it is to suppress everything. Dong-ho's confusion about the displays of patriotism in a nation where the government is attacking its own citizens and the discussion of what a nation is also made an impression on me.
The Vegetarian was the more unique reading experience, but Human Acts evoked stronger feelings in me. I prefer realism and Human Acts is more grounded, while The Vegetarian is surreal and dream-like. However, in both books characters suffer from the long-lasting effects of trauma and the desire to escape the confines of the body. There were several events in Human Acts that reminded me of The Vegetarian, especially in "The Editor" and "The Factory Girl" chapters. I think that reading The Vegetarian would be an even richer experience after reading Human Acts.
In Human Acts , people's lives suddenly become unrecognizable. Many of them feel an instinctive call to protect their freedoms and the future of their nation, even in the face of almost certain defeat. Through the characters, we explore the push and pull of nobility and barbarism on human nature. What does it mean to be human? If we aren't innately good or bad, is there a way to steer us towards our better impulses? There are several instances where a character assumes decency in another, only to be proven wrong soon after. As bleak as many of the perspectives are, Han Kang doesn't ignore the good in the people. She also writes about the helpers and the soldiers who disobeyed their orders. It's been about six months since I read this book and I still get the same pit in my stomach when I think about it. It's a tough read, but worth the time.
NOTES:
? I highly recommend reading the informative .
? I've read a number of books about citizen uprisings from the last seventy years that have taken place all over the world and there's a common thread that runs through most of them: United States support of these oppressive government crackdowns.
? The election of Park Chung-hee's daughter Park Geun-hye in 2013 reopened old wounds. She is currently suspended from office while undergoing .
? Related Books: Green Island (citizen uprising/martial law/brutal regimes/Asia), The Buried Giant (collective memory/scars from the past), Between the World and Me (destruction of the body).
I received this book for free from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It's available now!
After you died I could not hold a funeral,
And so my life became a funeral.
Some historical background: After 18 years of authoritarian rule, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was assassinated on October 26, 1979. Hopes for democracy were dashed when Army Major General Chun Do-hwan seized power in a military coup on December 12, 1979. On May 17, he placed the entire country under martial law under the pretext of national security concerns. The next day university students in Gwangju held a demonstration protesting his oppressive actions. Government troops were sent to forcefully suppress the opposition, but their brutality did not deter the citizens of Gwangju. People from all walks of life came out to defend their community. The fighting continued until May 27, when government forces succeeded in crushing the rebellion. ()
In Human Acts, fifteen-year-old Dong-ho's best friend Jeong-dae is killed during a demonstration. Dong-ho ran for safety and feels immense guilt for leaving his friend behind ("There will be no forgiveness. Least of all for me"). The dead bodies are collected in a gymnasium so that families can walk through to find and identify their loved ones. While Dong-ho searches for his friend amongst the dead, he's recruited as a volunteer and incidentally becomes part of the rebellion. Dong-ho is killed by government troops. The chapters that follow are a collection of individual experiences all connected by the Gwangju Uprising and Dong-ho's death.
Our experiences might have been similar, but they were far from identical. What good could an autopsy possibly do? How could we ever hope to understand what he went through, he himself, alone? What he'd kept locked away inside himself for all those years.
The book covers a thirty-year period, from 1980 to 2013. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different person in a different year, but they are all living with the effects of that week in 1980. We hear from Dong-ho, his best friend's spirit, an editor that deals with censors, a man and woman who were imprisoned and tortured for their political activities, and Dong Ho's mother. The epilogue is told from author Han Kang's perspective. During the time of the Gwangju Uprising, she was only 9 years old and her family had just moved from Gwangju to Seoul. While she was out of harm's way, knowledge of the event left an indelible mark on her. She writes about what compelled her to write this book and about the real-life Dong-ho.
You feel the weight of an enormous glacier bearing down on your body. You wish that you were able to flow beneath it, to become fluid, whether seawater, oil, or lava, and shuck off these rigid impermeable outlines, which encase you like a coffin. Only that way might your find some form of release.
The introduction by translator Deborah Smith provides vital historical context and notes about her translation process. She also translated The Vegetarian. Both books are relatively short, but every single word packs a punch. The writing style is accessible, but the content emotionally difficult. There's a visceral physicality to the language and I felt the impact of every word. Han Kang has a remarkable ability to sum up a person or a relationship in just a couple of sentences. That ability is showcased in the portrayal of the relationship between Jeong-dae and his sister Jeong-mi. There are so many moving scenes, but one of my favorites is in "The Editor" chapter, which details the performance of a play with a censored script. It shows how impossible it is to suppress everything. Dong-ho's confusion about the displays of patriotism in a nation where the government is attacking its own citizens and the discussion of what a nation is also made an impression on me.
At that moment, I realized what all this was for. The words that this torture and starvation were intended to elicit. We will make you realize how ridiculous it was, the lot of you waving the national flag and singing the national anthem. We will prove to you that you are nothing but filty stinking bodies. That you are no better than the carcasses of starving animals.
The Vegetarian was the more unique reading experience, but Human Acts evoked stronger feelings in me. I prefer realism and Human Acts is more grounded, while The Vegetarian is surreal and dream-like. However, in both books characters suffer from the long-lasting effects of trauma and the desire to escape the confines of the body. There were several events in Human Acts that reminded me of The Vegetarian, especially in "The Editor" and "The Factory Girl" chapters. I think that reading The Vegetarian would be an even richer experience after reading Human Acts.
Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only hinge we share as as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered--is this the essential fate of human kind, one that history has confirmed as inevitable?
In Human Acts , people's lives suddenly become unrecognizable. Many of them feel an instinctive call to protect their freedoms and the future of their nation, even in the face of almost certain defeat. Through the characters, we explore the push and pull of nobility and barbarism on human nature. What does it mean to be human? If we aren't innately good or bad, is there a way to steer us towards our better impulses? There are several instances where a character assumes decency in another, only to be proven wrong soon after. As bleak as many of the perspectives are, Han Kang doesn't ignore the good in the people. She also writes about the helpers and the soldiers who disobeyed their orders. It's been about six months since I read this book and I still get the same pit in my stomach when I think about it. It's a tough read, but worth the time.
Some of those who came to slaughter us did so with the memory of those previous times, when committing such actions in wartime won them a handsome reward. It happened in Gwangju just as it did on Jeju Island, in Kwantung and Nanjing, in Bosnia, and all across the American Continent when it was still known as the New World, with such a uniform brutality it's as through it is imprinted in our genetic code.
NOTES:
? I highly recommend reading the informative .
? I've read a number of books about citizen uprisings from the last seventy years that have taken place all over the world and there's a common thread that runs through most of them: United States support of these oppressive government crackdowns.
? The election of Park Chung-hee's daughter Park Geun-hye in 2013 reopened old wounds. She is currently suspended from office while undergoing .
? Related Books: Green Island (citizen uprising/martial law/brutal regimes/Asia), The Buried Giant (collective memory/scars from the past), Between the World and Me (destruction of the body).
I received this book for free from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It's available now!
March 1, 2025
¡°The door leading back to that summer has been slammed shut; you¡¯ve made sure of that. But that means that the way is also closed that might have led back to the time before. There is no way back to the world before the torture. No way back to the world before the massacre.¡±
Gwangju uprising in South Korea in 1980, crushed. Innocent young idealism on one side. Slaughter and gleeful torture on the other. A story that repeats itself over and over again in human history, when an attempt to better the society and further democratization - often accompanied by national anthem and flags as symbols of hoped-for justice - runs head-on into autocracy holding on to power with white knuckles and enforcers who view torture as fun and career-advancing. And survivors for whom the nightmare still goes on, because how can you ever move on from such horrors and such dehumanization?
¡°Some memories never heal. Rather than fading with the passage of time, those memories become the only things that are left behind when all else is abraded. The world darkens, like electric bulbs going out one by one. I am aware that I am not a safe person.
Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered¡ªis this the essential fate of humankind, one that history has confirmed as inevitable?¡±
Han Kang¡¯s Human Acts is hard to read. It¡¯s full of visceral horror that gnaws into your mind - the pain that you can¡¯t shrug off; the loss, the trauma and guilt that haunts the rest of the lives of those who survived. Told in surreal, lyrical writing that yet doesn¡¯t shy away from nightmarish images and gruesome details, it made me want to beg for a break. What human can and apparently delight in doing to others - all those are human acts, despite their dehumanizing nature. But human acts are also those of love and courage and sacrifice, and that all those can be found within us is terrifying and uncomfortable. We are fragile and yet resilient, and we can shatter inside while the outside stubbornly clings to life, floating though it like a ghost, never able to leave the horror that makes the transition between before and after.
¡°Looking at that boy¡¯s life, Jin-su said, what is this thing we call a soul? Just some nonexistent idea? Or something that might as well not exist?
Or no, is it like a kind of glass?
Glass is transparent, right? And fragile. That¡¯s the fundamental nature of glass. And that¡¯s why objects that are made of glass have to be handled with care. After all, if they end up smashed or cracked or chipped, then they¡¯re good for nothing, right, you just have to chuck them away.
Before, we used to have a kind of glass that couldn¡¯t be broken. A truth so hard and clear it might as well have been made of glass. So when you think about it, it was only when we were shattered that we proved we had souls. That what we really were was humans made of glass.¡±
Through seven interconnected stories all centered on the Gwangju massacre, those who died and the survivors, with the heart of it all a young boy Dong-ho who was murdered while unarmed and surrendering, Han Kang hits you hard without unnecessary melodrama. The shifting points of view, the sliding between first, second and third person ¡ª it may keep some readers at a distance but speak to others, and for me it worked (but I love the second person narrative when well done, and this one is).
¡°After you died I couldn¡¯t hold a funeral, so my life became a funeral.¡±
Nothing is safe. The societal and cultural norms, the institutions designed to protect, and even our own bodies ¡ª all of it can be turned against you at any time, and it¡¯s horrifying. Atrocities come with a soul-shattering price.
4.5 stars.
¡°I think of the festering wound in my side.
Of the bullet that tore in there.
The strange chill, the seeming blunt force, of that initial impact,
That instantly became a lump of fire churning my insides,
Of the hole it made in my other side, where it flew out and tugged my hot blood behind it.
Of the barrel it was blasted out of.
Of the smooth trigger.
Of the eye that had me in its sights.
Of the eyes of the one who gave the order to fire.¡±
¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª
Also posted on .
December 12, 2024
Compared to the dizziness that The Vegetarian gave me, Human Acts surrounds me with a bone - chilling coldness, much like the wet towel mentioned in the book hanging overhead, with cold water dripping down my spine.
If The Vegetarian depicts the cracks in family life torn open by a woman, Human Acts presents the gushing wounds of fresh blood in the face of national disorder, violence, and war, with the collapse of authority and abuse enveloping Gwangju like a nightmare.
Amidst the protest marches and the task of guarding bodies, Han Kang focuses on a 15-year-old boy named Dong-ho. Following his gaze and footsteps, more vivid individuals begin to emerge - Jeong-dae, who becomes a ghost, Eun-sook and Seon-ju, who live in scrutiny and trauma, Jin-ho, who chooses to question and ultimately die, and the mother in memories who always walks toward a place full of blooming flowers.
¡±We merely live in the illusion of dignity, always on the verge of becoming worthless, turning into insects, beasts, sores, corpse water, lumps of meat, right? Humiliation, persecution, murder, these have long been proven by history to be the nature of humanity, correct?"
The living carry the memories of pain and shame, hiding them as they live on; the dead souls cannot speak, they detach from their bodies amidst the fire, floating over the city. This book is constructed from the panoramic narration of different people's perspectives, making the psychological depiction of each individual precise and real, especially the trauma caused by witnessing violence. Recalling Ueno Chizuko's reflections on women's "forced absence" in student movements, Han Kang highlights the contributions of young women and the more inhumane abuses they suffer. This underscores the necessity of women's historical narratives.
Throughout this process, I, like them, wondered how me and my loved ones got entangled in this brutality. The power that killed them is the country, yet when they wave the national flag and sing the national anthem, their hearts still think of "reclaiming and creating a country of their own." I was equally puzzled as to why soldiers, meant to protect the nation, would shoot nearly unarmed surrendering youths. The intersection of humanity's banality of evil and conscience's goodness sees the latter being overwhelmed.
The story of Gwangju is not an end; war still exists in corners of the world. Therefore, Han Kang, who wrote this book, refuses to celebrate any Nobel Prize recognition. Her narrative seeks to address not just history, but the present.
The Nobel Prize inscription "Confronting Historical Trauma" reminded me of a Chinese book "The Survivors," which also discusses memory and trauma. Han and Zhao's experiences are similarly striking - they were triggered by individual pain sparked by cold, academic research materials, leading them to sensitive, female - authored narratives outside academia, urging themselves and the world not to forget, and standing firm against the accusations of those ashamed of exposing trauma.
Han Kang is like Dong-ho's mother walking on scorching cement, like Eun-sook repeatedly calling the city hall to stop the fountain despite knowing it's impossible, and like a playwright telling the world, even with lip movements:
¡±After you died, I couldn't hold a funeral for you, turning my life into a funeral.
Right after you were wrapped in waterproof fabric and taken away by a garbage truck;
After the unforgivable water column leapt out of the fountain, temple lights illuminated everywhere.
Among the blossoming flowers in spring;
Among the snowflakes;
In the day-after-day darkness;
Among the flames where you placed candles in empty drink bottles."
4.6 / 5 stars
If The Vegetarian depicts the cracks in family life torn open by a woman, Human Acts presents the gushing wounds of fresh blood in the face of national disorder, violence, and war, with the collapse of authority and abuse enveloping Gwangju like a nightmare.
Amidst the protest marches and the task of guarding bodies, Han Kang focuses on a 15-year-old boy named Dong-ho. Following his gaze and footsteps, more vivid individuals begin to emerge - Jeong-dae, who becomes a ghost, Eun-sook and Seon-ju, who live in scrutiny and trauma, Jin-ho, who chooses to question and ultimately die, and the mother in memories who always walks toward a place full of blooming flowers.
¡±We merely live in the illusion of dignity, always on the verge of becoming worthless, turning into insects, beasts, sores, corpse water, lumps of meat, right? Humiliation, persecution, murder, these have long been proven by history to be the nature of humanity, correct?"
The living carry the memories of pain and shame, hiding them as they live on; the dead souls cannot speak, they detach from their bodies amidst the fire, floating over the city. This book is constructed from the panoramic narration of different people's perspectives, making the psychological depiction of each individual precise and real, especially the trauma caused by witnessing violence. Recalling Ueno Chizuko's reflections on women's "forced absence" in student movements, Han Kang highlights the contributions of young women and the more inhumane abuses they suffer. This underscores the necessity of women's historical narratives.
Throughout this process, I, like them, wondered how me and my loved ones got entangled in this brutality. The power that killed them is the country, yet when they wave the national flag and sing the national anthem, their hearts still think of "reclaiming and creating a country of their own." I was equally puzzled as to why soldiers, meant to protect the nation, would shoot nearly unarmed surrendering youths. The intersection of humanity's banality of evil and conscience's goodness sees the latter being overwhelmed.
The story of Gwangju is not an end; war still exists in corners of the world. Therefore, Han Kang, who wrote this book, refuses to celebrate any Nobel Prize recognition. Her narrative seeks to address not just history, but the present.
The Nobel Prize inscription "Confronting Historical Trauma" reminded me of a Chinese book "The Survivors," which also discusses memory and trauma. Han and Zhao's experiences are similarly striking - they were triggered by individual pain sparked by cold, academic research materials, leading them to sensitive, female - authored narratives outside academia, urging themselves and the world not to forget, and standing firm against the accusations of those ashamed of exposing trauma.
Han Kang is like Dong-ho's mother walking on scorching cement, like Eun-sook repeatedly calling the city hall to stop the fountain despite knowing it's impossible, and like a playwright telling the world, even with lip movements:
¡±After you died, I couldn't hold a funeral for you, turning my life into a funeral.
Right after you were wrapped in waterproof fabric and taken away by a garbage truck;
After the unforgivable water column leapt out of the fountain, temple lights illuminated everywhere.
Among the blossoming flowers in spring;
Among the snowflakes;
In the day-after-day darkness;
Among the flames where you placed candles in empty drink bottles."
4.6 / 5 stars
July 16, 2024
Typically, I read for joy and escapism, and actively steer clear of books that might shatter my heart into a trillion tiny pieces. However, my book club chose this one, and I¡¯m glad they did. This book is brilliant and important, but also horrific, shocking, raw, and heartbreaking. It¡¯s based on the real events of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising/Massacre in South Korea and told from the perspective of multiple characters.
The Gwangju Massacre saw citizens rise up against an authoritarian government, demanding democracy. The response was barbaric¡ªhundreds of civilians, many of them students, were killed, and countless others were wounded or imprisoned.
I highly recommend this for its historical significance because it was enlightening for me and I learned a lot. However, make sure you¡¯re in the right headspace and have a much lighter read lined up afterwards, maybe a picture book with puppies.
I read this book a couple of years ago, but it¡¯s one of those unforgettable stories that has haunted me since.
The Gwangju Massacre saw citizens rise up against an authoritarian government, demanding democracy. The response was barbaric¡ªhundreds of civilians, many of them students, were killed, and countless others were wounded or imprisoned.
I highly recommend this for its historical significance because it was enlightening for me and I learned a lot. However, make sure you¡¯re in the right headspace and have a much lighter read lined up afterwards, maybe a picture book with puppies.
I read this book a couple of years ago, but it¡¯s one of those unforgettable stories that has haunted me since.
March 31, 2020
Esta ha sido una lectura dif¨ªcil y muy dura, y al mismo tiempo no he podido parar de leer desde que la comenc¨¦.
La novela relata desde diferentes puntos de vistas, de personajes encontrados (m¨¢s conocidos o menos) la sublevaci¨®n popular en la ciudad de Gwangju durante los a?os 80 que termin¨® en masacre por la terrible respuesta del ej¨¦rcito.
El libro es muy pesimista.
Habla de la capacidad del ser humano para la violencia, la crueldad, la falta de "humanidad"... A mi me ha gustado much¨ªsimo, no solo por aprender un poco de ese pedazo terrible de la Histoira de Corea del Sur, sino por lo bien que est¨¢ narrado, por esa estructura a trav¨¦s de la que vas avanzando en el tiempo y conociendo a sus personajes, las diferentes voces (en primera, segunda o tercera persona) que te apelan como lector y te ponen en situaciones terribles... A veces es seca, a veces emotiva pero nunca excesiva a pesar de relatar hechos excesivos.
Me ha marcado la reflexi¨®n de que la gente que ha soportado este nivel de sufrimiento jam¨¢s se recupera, y el da?o hecho no se cura sino que crece y cambia de diferentes maneras con el paso del tiempo.
En fin, una novela que me ha dejado muy tocada. Me ha gustado much¨ªsimo y sin duda seguir¨¦ leyendo a Han Kang porque a pesar de todo lo que hab¨ªa escuchado ya de ella ha logrado sorprenderme para bien.
La novela relata desde diferentes puntos de vistas, de personajes encontrados (m¨¢s conocidos o menos) la sublevaci¨®n popular en la ciudad de Gwangju durante los a?os 80 que termin¨® en masacre por la terrible respuesta del ej¨¦rcito.
El libro es muy pesimista.
Habla de la capacidad del ser humano para la violencia, la crueldad, la falta de "humanidad"... A mi me ha gustado much¨ªsimo, no solo por aprender un poco de ese pedazo terrible de la Histoira de Corea del Sur, sino por lo bien que est¨¢ narrado, por esa estructura a trav¨¦s de la que vas avanzando en el tiempo y conociendo a sus personajes, las diferentes voces (en primera, segunda o tercera persona) que te apelan como lector y te ponen en situaciones terribles... A veces es seca, a veces emotiva pero nunca excesiva a pesar de relatar hechos excesivos.
Me ha marcado la reflexi¨®n de que la gente que ha soportado este nivel de sufrimiento jam¨¢s se recupera, y el da?o hecho no se cura sino que crece y cambia de diferentes maneras con el paso del tiempo.
En fin, una novela que me ha dejado muy tocada. Me ha gustado much¨ªsimo y sin duda seguir¨¦ leyendo a Han Kang porque a pesar de todo lo que hab¨ªa escuchado ya de ella ha logrado sorprenderme para bien.
October 10, 2024
Well deserved Nobel Laureate for Literature 2024!
A visceral book about trauma and the ripple effects violence has on survivors, similar to the effects of a nuclear explosion, impacting people a long time after the facts themselves.
Soundlessly, and without fuss, some tender thing deep inside me broke. Something that, until then, I hadn't even realized was there.
The 1980 Gwangju Uprising of students fighting for democracy and better worker rights, forms the hart of this novel. Almost 2.000 people are thought to have died in resistance to the military dictatorship:
I mention the Wikipedia page of the event above, because I at least had no idea about the atrocity of the dictatorship in South Korea during this period.
Feelings of loss, survivor guilt and trauma abound in this book. One of the characters muses the following: After you died I could not hold a funeral. And so my life became a funeral.
The brutality of the suppression of the protest is chilling, from cigarette burns on eyelids, vaginal insertion of objects leading to infertility, bajonet stabbings, removing of fingernails, constant beatings, waterboarding, shootings of schoolchildren who surrendered, food deprivation and continuous forcing of a pen in someones hand till the bone is exposed.
No wonder the stories of survivors, loosely tied around a schoolboy who died during the protests and who is the You in most of the book, fall into depression, obsession, isolation, alcoholism or suicide. Even years later nightmares pervade their sleep, if they manage to get any. We also get the tale of the boy himself, his observation of the decay of his own body, being amongst hundreds rotting away after being dragged to a sport centre by garbage trucks.
The account of one of the prisoners was most chilling, with him reflecting on the wish to no longer have or be a body, to erase oneself if only to no longer feel pain and no longer being reduced to a clump of meat:
¡°Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, slaughtered - is this the essential of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?¡±
The author makes you feel that surviving, instead of dying through being shot in resistance to the regime, could be called a worse fate. The book made me think of both and its torture scenes and the bleakness of by .
Remembrance is seen as a way out, bearing witness and reminding the world of the atrocities as a means to find purpose and humanity.
But in no way does that feel easy or simple in the face of such violence that people do against each other, everyday in so many anonymous headlines in the newspapers.
Chilling and unsettling, like a gut punch, by is a second five star read of the author, after the more intimate but equally brutal .
A visceral book about trauma and the ripple effects violence has on survivors, similar to the effects of a nuclear explosion, impacting people a long time after the facts themselves.
Soundlessly, and without fuss, some tender thing deep inside me broke. Something that, until then, I hadn't even realized was there.
The 1980 Gwangju Uprising of students fighting for democracy and better worker rights, forms the hart of this novel. Almost 2.000 people are thought to have died in resistance to the military dictatorship:
I mention the Wikipedia page of the event above, because I at least had no idea about the atrocity of the dictatorship in South Korea during this period.
Feelings of loss, survivor guilt and trauma abound in this book. One of the characters muses the following: After you died I could not hold a funeral. And so my life became a funeral.
The brutality of the suppression of the protest is chilling, from cigarette burns on eyelids, vaginal insertion of objects leading to infertility, bajonet stabbings, removing of fingernails, constant beatings, waterboarding, shootings of schoolchildren who surrendered, food deprivation and continuous forcing of a pen in someones hand till the bone is exposed.
No wonder the stories of survivors, loosely tied around a schoolboy who died during the protests and who is the You in most of the book, fall into depression, obsession, isolation, alcoholism or suicide. Even years later nightmares pervade their sleep, if they manage to get any. We also get the tale of the boy himself, his observation of the decay of his own body, being amongst hundreds rotting away after being dragged to a sport centre by garbage trucks.
The account of one of the prisoners was most chilling, with him reflecting on the wish to no longer have or be a body, to erase oneself if only to no longer feel pain and no longer being reduced to a clump of meat:
¡°Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, slaughtered - is this the essential of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?¡±
The author makes you feel that surviving, instead of dying through being shot in resistance to the regime, could be called a worse fate. The book made me think of both and its torture scenes and the bleakness of by .
Remembrance is seen as a way out, bearing witness and reminding the world of the atrocities as a means to find purpose and humanity.
But in no way does that feel easy or simple in the face of such violence that people do against each other, everyday in so many anonymous headlines in the newspapers.
Chilling and unsettling, like a gut punch, by is a second five star read of the author, after the more intimate but equally brutal .
February 20, 2024
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? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ( ??????? ???? ) ??? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???????? ?????? . ???? ????? ??????? ??? ???? .
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??? ??? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ????? ????????. ?? ??? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ????????? ???????? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???????????? .???? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ????????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? .
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??????? ????? ??? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?????? .?? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?????? . ????? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? .
?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???????. ?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???????
??????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ????? . ????? ??????? ???? ?????? ? ???????? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ????? .
?? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ????
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??? ??????? ?? ???????? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ???? .
????? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ???????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ???????? ??? ???? ???????? ! ??? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ???? . ? ???? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??????? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ????????? ?????? ????? .
????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??? . ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ?????? ???????? ????? ??????? ???
?? ???? ?????? ??????? ????? ??????? ???????? ???? ?????? ? ?? ????? ????????? ??????
?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ??????? ? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ??????? ??? - ????? ?????? ?
?? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ??? ????!!
?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ? ?? ?? ??? ???? ????? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ??????? ????? .
??? ???? ????? ??? ??? ?? ??????? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ????? .
??? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ??????? ?! ??? ?????? ??????? ???? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ???????? ??????? . ?????? ?????? ??? ???????
?????? ?????? ?????? . ?????? ??????? ????? !
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??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? .
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???????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?? ??? ???? . ?? ????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??? ??? ? ??? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ????? . ??? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ???? ????? ???? . ??? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ???? .?
? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ( ??????? ???? ) ??? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???????? ?????? . ???? ????? ??????? ??? ???? .
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???? ??????? ?????? ??? ??????? ????? ????? ? ?????? ? ???????? .??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? ??????? .
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??? ??? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?? ??????? ? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ????? ????????. ?? ??? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ????????? ???????? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???????????? .???? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ????????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? .
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??????? ????? ??? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?????? .?? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?????? . ????? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? .
?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???????. ?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???????
??????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ???? ????? ?????? ????? . ????? ??????? ???? ?????? ? ???????? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ????? .
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February 7, 2017
This book was pretty horrific in the sense of what happened to these kids and different people in the took. I won't lie, I didn't understand some of the ways the author wrote the story but I grasped it's meaning all the same.
This is about the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea in the 80's . The author tells about really brutal deaths of people and school children. This was no peaceful protest.
There are different stories in the book that intertwine together. They are all really sad in more of a shocking way when you read it then crying your eyes out. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I was just shocked at reading about these things, the detail of how some were killed. I don't doubt anything and shouldn't be shocked at anything, there are shocking killings and things that go on today.
The story of the people that worked on the dead that were brought to hopefully be claimed by family members was sad. How they were piling up and the volunteers trying their best to clean them and cover then depending on how badly they were beaten and there were some horrific descriptions.
They have a Memorial Garden where there are graves and different memorials set up at least from what I read on the internet. I found this picture to be the most heart-wrenching and it puts across so many feelings.
Just the thought of a mother having to do that to her child because of so much stupidity, violence and ignorance makes me so sad.
I think Han Kang did a great job with this book. I really loved "The Vegetarian" but this book is on a whole other level.
Now I need to go read something happy!
*I would like to thank BloggingForBooks for a print copy of this book*
MY BLOG:
This is about the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea in the 80's . The author tells about really brutal deaths of people and school children. This was no peaceful protest.
There are different stories in the book that intertwine together. They are all really sad in more of a shocking way when you read it then crying your eyes out. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I was just shocked at reading about these things, the detail of how some were killed. I don't doubt anything and shouldn't be shocked at anything, there are shocking killings and things that go on today.
The story of the people that worked on the dead that were brought to hopefully be claimed by family members was sad. How they were piling up and the volunteers trying their best to clean them and cover then depending on how badly they were beaten and there were some horrific descriptions.
How long do souls linger by the side of their bodies?
Do they really flutter away like some kind of bird? Is that what trembles the edges of the candle flame?
They have a Memorial Garden where there are graves and different memorials set up at least from what I read on the internet. I found this picture to be the most heart-wrenching and it puts across so many feelings.
I buried you with my own two hands. Removed your PE jacket and your sky-blue tracksuit bottoms, and dressed you in your dark winter uniform, over a white shirt. Tightened your belt just so and put clean gray socks on you. When they put you in a plywood coffin and loaded it up onto the rubbish truck, I said I'd ride at the front to watch over you.
Just the thought of a mother having to do that to her child because of so much stupidity, violence and ignorance makes me so sad.
I think Han Kang did a great job with this book. I really loved "The Vegetarian" but this book is on a whole other level.
Now I need to go read something happy!
*I would like to thank BloggingForBooks for a print copy of this book*
MY BLOG:
January 17, 2025
A 17 de enero ya he le¨ªdo el mejor libro que leer¨¦ en 2025
January 30, 2019
The novel at first felt fragmentary, stuttering, hesitant, and understated, but as I read along every sentence, every thought built upon the last, until the story became not only a interwoven chronicle of wrenching human happenings, but also an examination of how humans behave toward one another; how people behave in crowds; how human beings survive trauma (or not); and how they find meaning in the aftermath of unrelenting tragedy.
There was nothing cinematic about the treatment of the Gwangju massacre here. There is not much resembling what you might call a 'scene.' Instead the story builds on one small detail after another. The voices interweave in surprising ways. The structure serves to graphically illustrate the interconnection of human beings, as well as the fragility of these connections--people are separated by death, by experience, by class and gender and age, no matter how much they try to remain connected.
I was very surprised at how this novel worked--surprised that it worked at all. I was surprised at how gut-punchingly sad the revelations in the second chapter were, even though the chapter was narrated by a ghost, and the tragedy the ghost tells is told obliquely, not graphically; even so the story in this chapter left me defenseless when it came to the unexpected death of one of the characters.
The nature of obligation and conscience and of right and wrong kept prodding my thinking as I read. Characters wonder aloud about humanity's ability to be inhumane; about their ability to be compassionate.
I cried a few times.
The final chapter was for me a masterful way of wrenching the story from the realm of fiction and into the real world, where it belongs.
There was nothing cinematic about the treatment of the Gwangju massacre here. There is not much resembling what you might call a 'scene.' Instead the story builds on one small detail after another. The voices interweave in surprising ways. The structure serves to graphically illustrate the interconnection of human beings, as well as the fragility of these connections--people are separated by death, by experience, by class and gender and age, no matter how much they try to remain connected.
I was very surprised at how this novel worked--surprised that it worked at all. I was surprised at how gut-punchingly sad the revelations in the second chapter were, even though the chapter was narrated by a ghost, and the tragedy the ghost tells is told obliquely, not graphically; even so the story in this chapter left me defenseless when it came to the unexpected death of one of the characters.
The nature of obligation and conscience and of right and wrong kept prodding my thinking as I read. Characters wonder aloud about humanity's ability to be inhumane; about their ability to be compassionate.
I cried a few times.
The final chapter was for me a masterful way of wrenching the story from the realm of fiction and into the real world, where it belongs.
March 15, 2020
Despu¨¦s de leer esta pedazo de obra maestra, confirmo a Han Kang como una de mis autoras predilectas. La vegetariana fue una novela espectacular que me hizo sentir cosas que pocas hab¨ªan conseguido hasta ese momento. Su sombra era muy alargada y, sin embargo, Actos Humanos es igualmente espectacular. No sabr¨ªa decir cual de las dos novelas me parece mejor.
Hablar de este libro me resulta muy complicado, por todo lo que me ha hecho sentir. En ¨¦l, Han Kang nos va a sumergir en una historia real. En 1980, los j¨®venes universitarios sal¨ªan a las calles de Gwangju a manifestarse en contra de la dictadura que viv¨ªan, reclamando una democracia. El gobierno dictatorial liderado por Chun Doo-hwan, mando al ej¨¦rcito con la orden de acabar con las protestas masacr¨¢ndolos a todos.
Es curioso pensar que que de este suceso solo hace unos 40 a?os y que es una fecha hist¨®rica muy desconocida. Al menos, en Occidente lo es. Y la barbarie fue de tal tama?o y tuvo una censura tan grande durante a?os para ocultarlo, que a¨²n me llama m¨¢s la atenci¨®n que haya tenido que ser Han Kang en los 2010s la encargada de contar esto al mundo.
Han Kang, que naci¨® en Gwangju, va a valerse de personas reales que vivieron o padecieron esta gran matanza, para contarnos una historia espectacular. Dura, cruda e impactante, las p¨¢ginas de este libro te absorven completamente desde las primeras palabras a las ¨²ltimas. Por m¨¢s duro que sea lo que lees, no puedes soltar el libro. Personajes como Dongho, Eunsuk o Seonju te transmiten todos estos sentimientos de pena, miedo, tristeza, dolor e incomprensi¨®n, a la perfecci¨®n.
Me ha gustado mucho que la historia no solo se centre en el hecho y lo duro que fue, si no que haga hincapi¨¦ en una realidad pocas veces exploradas, esas heridas abiertas, raramente se cierran, y las personas que sobrevivieron a aquello, tuvieron que aprender a vivir con ello y no todos lo consiguieron. Han pasado 40 a?os, pero la violencia sigue muy viva.
Las reflexiones del libro tienen bastante en com¨²n con La vegetariana y es que ambos exploran la violencia del ser humano. ?Es el ser humano bueno por naturaleza y la sociedad lo vuelve violento? ?O muchos son violentos porque es algo tan natural en el ser humano la bondad? Impactante.
En fin, una gran JOYA, que todo el mundo deber¨ªa leer. Pocas autoras tan enormes como Han Kang he visto y sentido. Necesito que se traduzca TODO lo que ha escrito esta mujer, por dios <3.
Hablar de este libro me resulta muy complicado, por todo lo que me ha hecho sentir. En ¨¦l, Han Kang nos va a sumergir en una historia real. En 1980, los j¨®venes universitarios sal¨ªan a las calles de Gwangju a manifestarse en contra de la dictadura que viv¨ªan, reclamando una democracia. El gobierno dictatorial liderado por Chun Doo-hwan, mando al ej¨¦rcito con la orden de acabar con las protestas masacr¨¢ndolos a todos.
Es curioso pensar que que de este suceso solo hace unos 40 a?os y que es una fecha hist¨®rica muy desconocida. Al menos, en Occidente lo es. Y la barbarie fue de tal tama?o y tuvo una censura tan grande durante a?os para ocultarlo, que a¨²n me llama m¨¢s la atenci¨®n que haya tenido que ser Han Kang en los 2010s la encargada de contar esto al mundo.
Han Kang, que naci¨® en Gwangju, va a valerse de personas reales que vivieron o padecieron esta gran matanza, para contarnos una historia espectacular. Dura, cruda e impactante, las p¨¢ginas de este libro te absorven completamente desde las primeras palabras a las ¨²ltimas. Por m¨¢s duro que sea lo que lees, no puedes soltar el libro. Personajes como Dongho, Eunsuk o Seonju te transmiten todos estos sentimientos de pena, miedo, tristeza, dolor e incomprensi¨®n, a la perfecci¨®n.
Me ha gustado mucho que la historia no solo se centre en el hecho y lo duro que fue, si no que haga hincapi¨¦ en una realidad pocas veces exploradas, esas heridas abiertas, raramente se cierran, y las personas que sobrevivieron a aquello, tuvieron que aprender a vivir con ello y no todos lo consiguieron. Han pasado 40 a?os, pero la violencia sigue muy viva.
Las reflexiones del libro tienen bastante en com¨²n con La vegetariana y es que ambos exploran la violencia del ser humano. ?Es el ser humano bueno por naturaleza y la sociedad lo vuelve violento? ?O muchos son violentos porque es algo tan natural en el ser humano la bondad? Impactante.
En fin, una gran JOYA, que todo el mundo deber¨ªa leer. Pocas autoras tan enormes como Han Kang he visto y sentido. Necesito que se traduzca TODO lo que ha escrito esta mujer, por dios <3.
February 7, 2017
Human Acts was my second Han Kang book, and honestly I couldn't fault it. I rarely give out 5 star ratings, but I just couldn't find anything to dislike about this book.
Human Acts is based on real-life historical events, where Kang depicts the lives of several characters who are all connected by the events of the suppressed student uprising in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980. Each perspective travels a little further through time to show how incredibly painful and far-reaching the events of the uprising were, and how much they have affected people's lives as a result.
This book is harrowing to read. Although I wouldn't say I felt sad or emotional reading it, it is perhaps more accurate to say that the feeling I experienced while reading was that of complete and utter emptiness. At one point in the book, I even felt my stomach churn with the stress of what I was reading. The violence in this book, although not overkill, is often brutal and unflinching in its depiction, and the emotions of the characters come through so strongly.
I really loved the way that the characters and their stories were interlinked throughout the years. Often I wouldn't immediately recognise the links, as it was a little hard at times for me to keep track of the different Korean names, but the discovery of who each narrative followed was like a little bit of treasure that I had dug up myself. And the translation of this book should really be applauded - Deborah Smith has once again done a fantastic job of representing Han Kang's prose. It is minimalistic but also beautiful, stark and to-the-point, and I loved the fact that in her introduction to the book not only did she provide some historical context (which I followed up with some googling of course), but also commented on her approach at translating different South Korean dialects that Kang had used, in order to keep it as loyal to the original text as possible.
This wasn't an enjoyable read at all, but I do think it is an important one, and I found out about a section of history that I probably would never have learnt about otherwise. It is horrible to think that these events actually happened, and the depths of the depravity that some people will go too - the book was truly eye-opening, and a fantastic read that should be picked up by everyone.
Human Acts is based on real-life historical events, where Kang depicts the lives of several characters who are all connected by the events of the suppressed student uprising in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980. Each perspective travels a little further through time to show how incredibly painful and far-reaching the events of the uprising were, and how much they have affected people's lives as a result.
This book is harrowing to read. Although I wouldn't say I felt sad or emotional reading it, it is perhaps more accurate to say that the feeling I experienced while reading was that of complete and utter emptiness. At one point in the book, I even felt my stomach churn with the stress of what I was reading. The violence in this book, although not overkill, is often brutal and unflinching in its depiction, and the emotions of the characters come through so strongly.
I really loved the way that the characters and their stories were interlinked throughout the years. Often I wouldn't immediately recognise the links, as it was a little hard at times for me to keep track of the different Korean names, but the discovery of who each narrative followed was like a little bit of treasure that I had dug up myself. And the translation of this book should really be applauded - Deborah Smith has once again done a fantastic job of representing Han Kang's prose. It is minimalistic but also beautiful, stark and to-the-point, and I loved the fact that in her introduction to the book not only did she provide some historical context (which I followed up with some googling of course), but also commented on her approach at translating different South Korean dialects that Kang had used, in order to keep it as loyal to the original text as possible.
This wasn't an enjoyable read at all, but I do think it is an important one, and I found out about a section of history that I probably would never have learnt about otherwise. It is horrible to think that these events actually happened, and the depths of the depravity that some people will go too - the book was truly eye-opening, and a fantastic read that should be picked up by everyone.
March 11, 2021
Heartbreaking and beautiful. Between this and , Han Kang has positioned herself as one of the strongest and most thought-provoking writers of our age.
February 10, 2017
Humanity's essential barbarism is exacerbated not by the especially barbaric nature of any of the individuals involved but through that magnification which occurs naturally in crowds
.
The Putrefying Bodies piled up into one massive heap, fused in a single mass like the rotting carcass of some multi-legged monster, the blood of its collective hearts surging together into one enormous artery stained the streets in a congealed pool of crimson. Throughout human history, the brutality of wars has repeatedly draped itself over the earth, a uniform brutality it's as though it is imprinted in our genetic code, and so sustained and cyclical in human nature, it seems futile to expect such acts will ever cease. Under martial law - much like Taiwan's White Terror in 1947, or China's Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, - savage human rights violations (and denial of burial rites) happened in Gwangju in 1980 during a gruesome ten day debacle, transforming the South Korean city into a human slaughterhouse.
Readers of Han Kang's might recognize similar images of the human body being violated and eviscerated like animal meat. Though the gore is hardly restrained in the opening chapters of , the reader is nevertheless mesmerized, compelled to turn the page. Less a political discourse on oppressive and torturous actions of an authoritarian regime, the novel questions the axis of good and evil in mankind, the strength of human conscience as a collective force, and weighs the value of human loss to those left in the living. In eloquent prose that is an assured testament to the talents of both the author and her translator, meanders through time-shifts spanning thirty three years, and narratives that swiftly transition between the perspectives of its characters....
The struggle against power was the memory's struggle against forgetting.(Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera).
The native writer succeeds where the conscientious writer must: to remove the muzzle of silence and empower the voiceless masses in this world (or the other). When I think of those ten days in the life of that city, I think of the moment when a man who'd been lynched, almost killed, found the strength to open his eyes. This moment when, spitting out fragments of teeth along with a mouthful of blood, he held his failing eyes open with his fingers so that he could look his attacker straight in the face. The moment when he appeared to remember that he had a face and a voice, to recollect his own dignity, which seemed the memory of a previous life. She writes to preserve the memory of the hundreds of souls that fluttered away in 1980, like some kind of bird; to lead those struggling in the cold and darkness of their past, to a place where the light shines through to where the flowers bloom.
Author Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith were awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 for . Their second collaboration, is a lyrical healing anthem to a wounded nation and a powerful message to humankind to clean up its act. For me, even more remarkable than their first, this novel is not to be missed.
read about
The Putrefying Bodies piled up into one massive heap, fused in a single mass like the rotting carcass of some multi-legged monster, the blood of its collective hearts surging together into one enormous artery stained the streets in a congealed pool of crimson. Throughout human history, the brutality of wars has repeatedly draped itself over the earth, a uniform brutality it's as though it is imprinted in our genetic code, and so sustained and cyclical in human nature, it seems futile to expect such acts will ever cease. Under martial law - much like Taiwan's White Terror in 1947, or China's Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, - savage human rights violations (and denial of burial rites) happened in Gwangju in 1980 during a gruesome ten day debacle, transforming the South Korean city into a human slaughterhouse.
Readers of Han Kang's might recognize similar images of the human body being violated and eviscerated like animal meat. Though the gore is hardly restrained in the opening chapters of , the reader is nevertheless mesmerized, compelled to turn the page. Less a political discourse on oppressive and torturous actions of an authoritarian regime, the novel questions the axis of good and evil in mankind, the strength of human conscience as a collective force, and weighs the value of human loss to those left in the living. In eloquent prose that is an assured testament to the talents of both the author and her translator, meanders through time-shifts spanning thirty three years, and narratives that swiftly transition between the perspectives of its characters....
Was it horrifying, for you, Dong-ho, the boy no more than 15 years old, walking among the dead, tallying up the corpses as the putrid stink permeated through the bloodstained national flags that draped them?Why would you sing the national anthem for people who have been killed by soldiers? As though it wasn't the nation itself that had murdered them? Yet, this doesn't phase you as much as the sickening, dreadful need to find your friend out there. ....What terror you must have felt at having just been knocked from your body, the boy's friend ponders, while adapting to his strange new 'existence or nonexistence', like other souls hovering between light and shade , adrift, haunting the edges of the living, left to float aimlessly. How long do souls linger by the side of their bodies? Do they really flutter away like some kind of bird? Is that what trembles the edges of the candle flame? Does it mean I would now only exist in dreams..Or perhaps in memories? Do the survivors remember the dead in dreams? No... in nightmares, in the guilt and the shame such as the editor suffered everyday for the last five years. It occurred to her...that there was something shameful about eating....she thought of the dead, for whom the absence of life meant that they would never be hungry again. But life still lingered on for her, with hunger still a yoke around her neck. Through burning tears, she endured the publisher's abuse in silent revolt, while quietly echoing the censored words no longer readable in the manuscript she holds, After you died I could not hold a funeral, And so my life became a funeral. The death constantly disturbed the prisoner, Why did he die, while I'm still alive? We shared the same cell, were tortured the same brutal way , we ate the same meals - was it that he suffered more than me? .....Every day I fight with the fact of my humanity. Why was I left behind in this hell? thought the boy's mother - chasing you through the market square, but can never catch up with you, because I buried your bloodless body with my own two hands thirty years ago. You were so afraid of the darkness between the trees, on our walks by the riverside. You tugged at my hand, urging, "It's sunny over there, Mum,... Why are we walking in the dark, let's go over there, where the flowers are blooming." The memory stabs me like the cold steel of a bayonet, I can never forget it. Never forget, is why the writer, thirty three years later, interviewed the survivors and penned a requiem to memorialize the forsaken.
The struggle against power was the memory's struggle against forgetting.(Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera).
The native writer succeeds where the conscientious writer must: to remove the muzzle of silence and empower the voiceless masses in this world (or the other). When I think of those ten days in the life of that city, I think of the moment when a man who'd been lynched, almost killed, found the strength to open his eyes. This moment when, spitting out fragments of teeth along with a mouthful of blood, he held his failing eyes open with his fingers so that he could look his attacker straight in the face. The moment when he appeared to remember that he had a face and a voice, to recollect his own dignity, which seemed the memory of a previous life. She writes to preserve the memory of the hundreds of souls that fluttered away in 1980, like some kind of bird; to lead those struggling in the cold and darkness of their past, to a place where the light shines through to where the flowers bloom.
Author Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith were awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 for . Their second collaboration, is a lyrical healing anthem to a wounded nation and a powerful message to humankind to clean up its act. For me, even more remarkable than their first, this novel is not to be missed.
read about
December 16, 2024
This is a remarkable book. It is almost a novel version of The Shock Doctrine ¨C although, I can understand why that might not make you want to rush out and buy it. It is stunningly well told. We are always inside someone¡¯s head, and the chief character makes up most of the book ¨C but the other characters we see the world from never feels forced. This is a book about trauma ¨C not least the trauma of living in a repressive regime, but also the ongoing effects of having been tortured by monsters. Whether you die at the time or die years later, your life in many ways ends when the torture begins. We like to believe that even failed acts of resistance stand as a testament to the human spirit, that their failure is a sign of a future success. But for the characters in this book, even when things do get better, they never get better for them. Their lives are held in check by the failure of their part in the struggle for justice and they spend the rest of their lives effectively waiting for death. It is a deeply tragic story ¨C one without normal standards of hope ¨C but a compelling story to read all the same.
There are speculations in this on the afterlife and what that might involve. Much like Hamlet and his to sleep perchance to dream, the afterlife is seen as both a potential release but also yet another phase in the endless torture their lives have become. There is talk of seeking revenge, even in death, but this is also denied the victims. All that is left is their own personal suffering that they cannot even share with those who had also gone through it themselves ¨C sometimes in a mirror fashion literally sitting opposite each other. The writing is sparce and beautifully crafted. The use of italics and various fonts isn¡¯t something I¡¯d considered before, but it is used to strong effect throughout.
The bit of this that I found most fascinating was in the translator¡¯s note at the beginning, At one point in this one of the characters speaks in a dialect and it is noted that this is impossible to translate into English. I¡¯m always interested in the use of dialect ¨C having been born in Northern Ireland and having come to Australia as a young child, I¡¯ve experienced the inability of those who are completely transparent to me when they speak being unable to understand a word I¡¯m saying. And more than this, I have also felt the closeness of hearing someone with a Belfast accent speaking across a room and of the sense that they are almost family ¨C or that they remind me, especially now that both of my parents are dead, of a voice from the past I had thought had been lost to me forever. However, the reason why this dialect is so difficult to translate ¨C and as far as I can see it was used for one sentence in the entire book ¨C is because rather than it being based around words, it is based upon a variation in grammar. This utterly intrigued me. It hadn¡¯t occurred to me that this might be something that would happen. The translator merely constructed the sentence using some Yorkshire slang ¨C I think it was that, I would need to look it up again, but I¡¯ve already given the book to my eldest daughter, so can¡¯t check.
Look ¨C I haven¡¯t really sold this book to you in the way I would like to. But she won a Nobel Prize for Literature for a good reason, and I suspect this book is a large part of that reason. I can¡¯t say you will enjoy this book ¨C parts of it are almost too painful to read. Years ago I wrote a short story for a degree I was taking in professional writing. In it I included scenes of torture. When we were discussing the story in class one of the students hated the story and said I¡¯d based it from pornography. I was totally taken aback. I said that I didn¡¯t believe people were all equal ¨C or that everyone was worthy ¨C but that, to me at least, the thing that makes us equal is the sense of revulsion we feel when we read of someone being tortured ¨C we all become the tortured. It was only years later that I realised how wrong I had been ¨C that for some, torture is a form of pornography ¨C that some see themselves as the torturer, rather than the tortured. I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever quite gotten over this realisation. It still shocks and dismays me. This book is likely to make you think ¨C and that can hardly be a bad thing ¨C even if it is not something you might otherwise what to think about.
There are speculations in this on the afterlife and what that might involve. Much like Hamlet and his to sleep perchance to dream, the afterlife is seen as both a potential release but also yet another phase in the endless torture their lives have become. There is talk of seeking revenge, even in death, but this is also denied the victims. All that is left is their own personal suffering that they cannot even share with those who had also gone through it themselves ¨C sometimes in a mirror fashion literally sitting opposite each other. The writing is sparce and beautifully crafted. The use of italics and various fonts isn¡¯t something I¡¯d considered before, but it is used to strong effect throughout.
The bit of this that I found most fascinating was in the translator¡¯s note at the beginning, At one point in this one of the characters speaks in a dialect and it is noted that this is impossible to translate into English. I¡¯m always interested in the use of dialect ¨C having been born in Northern Ireland and having come to Australia as a young child, I¡¯ve experienced the inability of those who are completely transparent to me when they speak being unable to understand a word I¡¯m saying. And more than this, I have also felt the closeness of hearing someone with a Belfast accent speaking across a room and of the sense that they are almost family ¨C or that they remind me, especially now that both of my parents are dead, of a voice from the past I had thought had been lost to me forever. However, the reason why this dialect is so difficult to translate ¨C and as far as I can see it was used for one sentence in the entire book ¨C is because rather than it being based around words, it is based upon a variation in grammar. This utterly intrigued me. It hadn¡¯t occurred to me that this might be something that would happen. The translator merely constructed the sentence using some Yorkshire slang ¨C I think it was that, I would need to look it up again, but I¡¯ve already given the book to my eldest daughter, so can¡¯t check.
Look ¨C I haven¡¯t really sold this book to you in the way I would like to. But she won a Nobel Prize for Literature for a good reason, and I suspect this book is a large part of that reason. I can¡¯t say you will enjoy this book ¨C parts of it are almost too painful to read. Years ago I wrote a short story for a degree I was taking in professional writing. In it I included scenes of torture. When we were discussing the story in class one of the students hated the story and said I¡¯d based it from pornography. I was totally taken aback. I said that I didn¡¯t believe people were all equal ¨C or that everyone was worthy ¨C but that, to me at least, the thing that makes us equal is the sense of revulsion we feel when we read of someone being tortured ¨C we all become the tortured. It was only years later that I realised how wrong I had been ¨C that for some, torture is a form of pornography ¨C that some see themselves as the torturer, rather than the tortured. I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever quite gotten over this realisation. It still shocks and dismays me. This book is likely to make you think ¨C and that can hardly be a bad thing ¨C even if it is not something you might otherwise what to think about.
March 2, 2021
?ok iyi. ?ok sert. ?ok ac?.
vejataryen'den ?ok daha fazla be?endim.
yaz?lacak ?ok ?ey var, yaz?lm?? da zaten kitapla ilgili ??kan yaz?larda.
?orum, mara?, gezi, cizre, suru?... daha neler neler... ka? y?ll?k katliamlar? sayal?m. hadi 1915'e dersim'e girmiyorum, tarihsel olarak romanla ayn? olsun 70'ler sonras?...
kore dizileri izleyip duran e?im ?ok benzedi?imizi s?yl¨¹yor, bu romanda da 80 y?l?nda sivillerin askerler taraf?ndan ?ld¨¹r¨¹lmesine verilen tepkiler, anneler, sessizce konu?an ??retmen ailesi, ?ncesinde i??i hareketleri... o kadar benziyor ki. hep akl?ma gezi sonras? el ele tutu?an anneler geldi mesela.
neyse...
roman par?a par?a yap?s?yla, ilk b?l¨¹mde tan?d???m?z 4 karakteri yava? yava? a?an farkl? anlat?c?larla ilerleyen b?l¨¹mleri, sert anlat?m?yla ?ok g¨¹?l¨¹ bir roman. 2. tekil ki?ili anlat?m? hi? sevmem, o bile uymu? bu sert romana. b?ylesi i?kence sahnelerini y?llard?r okumuyorum.
?evirenin, yay?ma haz?rlayanlar?n ellerine sa?l?k ?¨¹nk¨¹ koreceden ?evirmek ve t¨¹rk?eye uyarlayabilmek ?ok zor, biliyorum.
ke?ke... ke?ke son y?llarda ya?ad?klar?m?z? anlatan iyi bir roman yaz?lsa bunun gibi.
bir umut.
vejataryen'den ?ok daha fazla be?endim.
yaz?lacak ?ok ?ey var, yaz?lm?? da zaten kitapla ilgili ??kan yaz?larda.
?orum, mara?, gezi, cizre, suru?... daha neler neler... ka? y?ll?k katliamlar? sayal?m. hadi 1915'e dersim'e girmiyorum, tarihsel olarak romanla ayn? olsun 70'ler sonras?...
kore dizileri izleyip duran e?im ?ok benzedi?imizi s?yl¨¹yor, bu romanda da 80 y?l?nda sivillerin askerler taraf?ndan ?ld¨¹r¨¹lmesine verilen tepkiler, anneler, sessizce konu?an ??retmen ailesi, ?ncesinde i??i hareketleri... o kadar benziyor ki. hep akl?ma gezi sonras? el ele tutu?an anneler geldi mesela.
neyse...
roman par?a par?a yap?s?yla, ilk b?l¨¹mde tan?d???m?z 4 karakteri yava? yava? a?an farkl? anlat?c?larla ilerleyen b?l¨¹mleri, sert anlat?m?yla ?ok g¨¹?l¨¹ bir roman. 2. tekil ki?ili anlat?m? hi? sevmem, o bile uymu? bu sert romana. b?ylesi i?kence sahnelerini y?llard?r okumuyorum.
?evirenin, yay?ma haz?rlayanlar?n ellerine sa?l?k ?¨¹nk¨¹ koreceden ?evirmek ve t¨¹rk?eye uyarlayabilmek ?ok zor, biliyorum.
ke?ke... ke?ke son y?llarda ya?ad?klar?m?z? anlatan iyi bir roman yaz?lsa bunun gibi.
bir umut.
October 26, 2024
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??? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ? ?? ???? ???????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ?????????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ??????.
???? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ? ???? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ???????? ?? ? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??. ?? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ???????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ????? ? ??????? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ? ????? ????? ??? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ???????? ????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ????????.
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?????? ????? ?? ??? ? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ? ? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? ??: ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ? ????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ? ??? ???? ??????
??? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ??????? ???????? ?????? ?? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ??????? ????? ?????? ? ?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ? ?????? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??????.
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?????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ? ????????? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ???. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ? ????? ? ?????? ??????? ?? ???????. ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ? ????????? ???? ?????? ? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ???.
??? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ??????? ?????:
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????? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ???????? ????? ???? ???? ???? ? ????? ?????? ?????????. ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ??????? ???? ? ??????? ?????? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ????. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??? ???????? ?? ????? ?????? ? ???????? ????? ???? ? ??? ???.
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??? ?? ????????? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ???????? ????. ?? ??? ?? ?????? ????????? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ????????? ????? ????? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ???? ???. ??? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? ???? ??? ? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ? ????? ????? ? ?????? ?? ???????? ?? ????? ??????.
? ???? ??????? ? ???????
??? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ??????? ? ??????? ????? ??????? ? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ????? ??????. ??? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ????? ???? ???? ????. ????????? ???? ? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ? ???? ??????? ?? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ????? ???? ? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ? ??? ????? ??????. ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ????? ? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ? ????? ??? ?? ??? ????.
???? ???????? ????? ? ??????
???? ????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ? ???? ????? ???? ? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ???????? ?????? ? ??????? ???? ??????. ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ???? ? ????? ????? ?? ??? ? ???? ?????? ????????? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ? ???? ????? ? ??? ???? ??????. ??? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??????? ? ??????????? ????.
?????? ?? ??? ???? ? ????? ???? ???????
?? ??? ????? ??? ? ???????? ???? ? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ????. ??? ???? ?? ????? ????????? ?? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ? ??? ???????? ?????????? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ? ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??? ???. ??? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????????? ??????? ? ????? ?? ???? ???? ? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ??????.
???? ????????? ?? ???? ? ??????
???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ? ????? ??????? ?????????. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?????????? ???? ? ??????? ????????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ???????? ????? ? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?????????? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ??? ???????? ?? ????? ???? ? ??????? ???? ????? ????.
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???? ????? ?????? ???????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ????? ?? ?? ????? ??????. ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?????????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ????? ?? ??? ?? ????????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?? ????? ??? ????? ? ???????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???? ???. ??? ????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??? ??????? ? ?????? ?? ?????? ????.
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????? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ??????. ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ??? ??? ? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ? ???? ???????? ????? ??????. ??? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ????????? ???? ??? ? ??? ????? ?? ???? ? ????? ???. ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ????? ?? ?? ???? ? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ? ???? ??????? ? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ????. ????? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??? ??? ? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ???? ???.
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------------------------------
???????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ???? ?????. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ? ????? ?? ????? ??? ? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????????.
?????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ???? ? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ??? :)
???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ?????. ???????? ???? ????? ??? ?? ????? ? ???????? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ? ?? ??? ??? ???????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????.
???? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ? ??? ? ???????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???? ????. ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ? ?????? ????????? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ???.
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????? ?????? ??? ?????????? ???????? ? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ?????? ? ???????? ??????? ?? ??????. ???? ?? ?? ????? ?? ?? ???? ? ????? ????? ??? ???? ???. ????? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ? ??? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ? ??? ?? ???? ???????.
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??????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ????. ??? ???? ??? ??? ??????? ????????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ?????? ???? ? ???? ???? ????? ?? ???????? ?? ??? ?????? ???. ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?????????? ???? ???? ? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ???????? ?? ??? ? ???? ?? ?? ??? ??????.
?? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ????? ?? ??? ? ?? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ????? ??? ?????.
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"??? ???? ?????? ?????" ????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ? ????? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ? ?? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ????????? ????? ???? ? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ????.
??? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ? ?? ???? ???????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ?????????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ???? ???? ??????.
???? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ? ???? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ???????? ?? ? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??. ?? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ???????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ????? ? ??????? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ? ????? ????? ??? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ???????? ????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ????????.
------------------------------
???????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??????? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ????????? ?? ??? ????? ????????. ????? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ?????? ????? ??? ?????? ? ???????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ? ?? ????? ??? ???? ? ??? ?? ???? ? ??? ?? ????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ?? ?? ???????? ? ???? ????? ??? ??? ???? ? ?? ??? ? ??? ????. ??? ??? ??? ??? ??????? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ?? ??? ???? ? ?? ?? ???? ????? ????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ???????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ? ?????? ??????? ?? ??.
???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ? ??????? ??????? ????. ???? ?? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ? ???? ???? ? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???. ???? ?? ??? ????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ???????? ?????? ?? ???? ???????? ? ????????? ????? ???? ???? ????? ??? ????? ????? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ???? ????? ???? ? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???????? ????? ????? ? ???? ????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?????.?
??? ?? ????? ?? ?? ????? ???????? ???? ???? ? ????????? ? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ????? ???? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ???. ???? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ? ???? ?????. ???? ?? ???? ???????? ???? ????? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ??? ????? ? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ????? ???. ?????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ???? ? ???? ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ????? ?? ?? ?? ???? ??????. ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ?? ???? ? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ? ??? ? ??????? ?? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ??? ?????. ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??????????? ?????????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ??????? ? ????? ????? ????.
???? ????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ? ???????? ????????? ?? ????????? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ?? ??????? ??????. ??? ???? ???????? ????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ??? ? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ? ??? ?? ????? ????. ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ???????? ?? ?? ?? ?? ????????? ???? ? ??????? ???????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ??????.
?????? ????? ?? ??? ? ????? ????? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ? ? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? ??: ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ? ????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ? ??? ???? ??????
??? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ??????? ???????? ?????? ?? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??????? ?? ??????? ????? ?????? ? ?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ? ?????? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??????.
-------------------------------
?????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ? ????????? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ???. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ?? ???? ???????? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ? ????? ? ?????? ??????? ?? ???????. ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ? ????????? ???? ?????? ? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ???.
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-------------------------------
????? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ??????. ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ??? ??? ? ????? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ? ???? ???????? ????? ??????. ??? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ????????? ???? ??? ? ??? ????? ?? ???? ? ????? ???. ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ????? ?? ?? ???? ? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ? ???? ??????? ? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ????. ????? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??? ??? ? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ???? ???.
??? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ????????? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ????? ? ??? ????? ??????. ???? ?? ???????? ?? ??? ?????? ????????? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ????. ? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ? ??????? ??? ????????.
------------------------------
???????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ???? ?????. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ? ????? ?? ????? ??? ? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????????.
?????? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ?? ???? ???? ? ?????? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ??? :)
December 7, 2024
From the deserving winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life
When a living person looks at a dead person, mightn't the person's soul also be there by it's body's side, looking down at it's own face.
Just before you step outside, you turn and look back over your shoulder. There are no souls here. There are only silenced corpses, and that horrific putrid stink.
??? ?? (literally "[The] boy comes / is coming") by ?? (Han Kang) has been translated as Human Acts by Deborah Smith, who also translated Han's excellent The Vegetarian (/review/show...).
The writing in Human Acts is every bit as powerfully visceral as The Vegetarian, but the added political dimension of the novel raises it above that work for me and this is the book I've recommended to the many people who've asked me for recommendations since the author won the Nobel.
The author explained the title in her 2024 Nobel Lecture, as translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris:
Human Acts tells the story of the ?? ??? ??, the Gwangju Uprising, a popular uprising against the South Korean authoritarian regime, which lasted from May 18 to May 27 1980, when it was ended, in just 90 minutes of fighting, with a major military incursion and massacre.
The army had been provided with 800,000 rounds that day. This was at a time when the population of the city stood at 400,000. In other words they had been given the means to drive a bullet into the body of every person in the city, twice over.
The author chooses a literary approach, not tackling the subject directly but centring her story on a small group of civilian who take charge of an improvised mortuary for those killed during the revolt, and in particular ?? (Dong-ho), a middle-school student and the Boy of the Korean title. He questions why they hold memorial ceremonies for those killed, covering the coffins with the ??? (national flag) and singing the nation anthem. In part he realises this is to show that the civilians are not rebelling against the nation, it is the ruling authorities who are the real traitors, but mainly it is:
to make the corpses we were singing over into something more than butchered lumps of meat," and this highlights one of the author's key themes (see below).
And it allows the families to properly mourn, unlike many of those killed in the final battle, where their bodies were simply taken away by the troops and buried in mass graves or incinerated.
After you died I couldn't hold a funeral, so my life became a funeral.
After you were wrapped in a tarpaulin and carted away in a garbage truck.
The narration starts during the May revolt but proceeds over the next 30 years looking at the repercussions of the events on the lives of those involved, the killed and the survivors, and their families.
?? also uses different narrative styles in each of the seven chapters, which are beautifully translated by Deborah Smith.
The first two are set during the May 1980 events, but Chapter 1 which tells Dong-ho's story is written, unusually, in the 2nd person ('Looks like rain,' you mutter to yourself.) and the 2nd is narrated by the soul (? in Korean which doesn't have the religious connotations of the English word) of his friend Park Jeong-dae who was killed in the initial confrontation with troops before they temporarily withdrew from the city.
The mortuary team consists of Dong-ho and two girls Kim Eun-sook, a high school student and Lim Seon-ju, a machinist and union member, supervised by Kim Jin-su, a university student and one of the leader's of the civilian militia.
Chapter 3 1985 is set over seven days in 1985, representing the seven slaps Eun-sook, now an editor at a publisher of literature which frequently falls foul of censorship, receives from a police interrogator. Chapter 4 is one side of a dialogue as a worker tells the story of his involvement in the citizen's militia in May 1980 and his subsequent arrest, imprisonment and prolonged torture, to a university professor writing a thesis on the uprising, following the suicide of Kim Jin-su in 1990.
Chapter 5 set in 2002 is centred on Lim Seon-ju, and mixes 2nd person narration of the present with 1st person recollections of May 1980 (although here Deborah Smith has chosen to make the English readers task easier than the original by introducing sub-headings), and Chapter 6 is a monologue by the boy's mother to her son on the 30th anniversary of his death.
The epilogue is written in the first person by the author herself, inserting her own story into the novel of how she came to write it, and the background to the real-life Dong-ho who inspired the novel. Dong-ho's brother is initially reluctant to speak to her but eventually decides: Please write your book so that no one will ever be able to desecrate my brother's memory again.
Human Acts is no mythologising view of the uprising or those involved. Han Kang shows the bloody reality of wounds, death and torture, the mundane (the young militia members waiting with their improvised weapons for the coming of the troops asked if it was okay for them to quickly run back and fetch the sponge cake and Fanta they'd left), the extreme bravery but also allows the characters to admit to their own cowardice (Dong-ho sees Jeong-dae being shot but is too scared to run to his assistance).
One of her themes is how crowd psychology can massively magnify both the good (extremes of bravery, altruism) and the evil (the violence of the soldiers) inherent in ordinary human beings. The narrator in Chapter 4 describes how he felt during the uprising:
that terrifying intensity, that feeling as if you yourself have undergone some kind of alchemy, been purified, made wholly virtuous. The brilliance of the moment, the dazzling purity of conscience.
But he also recounts that once the soldiers opened fire he fled for his life:
that sublime feeling I'd been tapping in to, that enormous heart I'd briefly felt part of, was smashed to pieces, strewn over the ground as so much rubbish
This chapter is particularly powerful on the impact of torture, deliberately designed to degrade human beings to animals. He finds himself begrudging Jin-su, his fellow inmate, his portion of their shared meal:
a brute animal with whatever had once been human having been gradually sucked out...I stared with open hatred at any morsel of food that passed his lips, consumed with the fear that he might take it all for himself; those cold, empty, eyes, utterly devoid of anything that could be said to resemble humanity. Just like my own.
Throughout the novel Han Kang comes back to the psychological aftermath of the May 1980 events, the impact of torture (compared by one character to radiation poisoning - it never leaves your system), the right of survivors to choose whether or not to tell their stories, what drives people to such extremes of bravery and evil, and the need to keep one's humanity (we are noble is the slogan one group use to remind themselves).
Normal life is also impossible to restore, almost offensive to those involved. Eun-sook complains to the local authorities one month after the events that the municipal fountain has been turned on again:
It's been dry ever since the uprising began and now it's back on again, as though everything's back to normal. How can that be possible?
Even Han Kang herself while writing the novel and immersed in the history of what happened, 33 years later, had to walk out of a wedding:
There was something shockingly incongruous about the people there, their flamboyant clothes, the way they were laughing as though nothing was wrong. How was such a scene possible, when so many had died"
And her overall theme is summarised in one of the most powerful passages in the novel:
Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered - is this the essential fate of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?
Overall - powerful, visceral, moving, brilliant.
When a living person looks at a dead person, mightn't the person's soul also be there by it's body's side, looking down at it's own face.
Just before you step outside, you turn and look back over your shoulder. There are no souls here. There are only silenced corpses, and that horrific putrid stink.
??? ?? (literally "[The] boy comes / is coming") by ?? (Han Kang) has been translated as Human Acts by Deborah Smith, who also translated Han's excellent The Vegetarian (/review/show...).
The writing in Human Acts is every bit as powerfully visceral as The Vegetarian, but the added political dimension of the novel raises it above that work for me and this is the book I've recommended to the many people who've asked me for recommendations since the author won the Nobel.
The author explained the title in her 2024 Nobel Lecture, as translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris:
The Korean title of this novel is Sonyeon-i onda. The last word ¡®onda¡¯ is the present tense of the verb ¡®oda¡¯, to come. The moment the sonyeon, the boy, is addressed in the second person as you, whether the intimate or the less intimate you, he awakens in the dim light and walks towards the present. His steps are the steps of a spirit. He draws ever nearer and becomes the now. When a time and place in which human cruelty and dignity existed in extreme parallel is referred to as Gwangju, that name ceases to be a proper noun unique to one city and instead becomes a common noun, as I learned in writing this book. It comes to us ¡ª again and again across time and space, and always in the present tense. Even now.
Human Acts tells the story of the ?? ??? ??, the Gwangju Uprising, a popular uprising against the South Korean authoritarian regime, which lasted from May 18 to May 27 1980, when it was ended, in just 90 minutes of fighting, with a major military incursion and massacre.
The army had been provided with 800,000 rounds that day. This was at a time when the population of the city stood at 400,000. In other words they had been given the means to drive a bullet into the body of every person in the city, twice over.
The author chooses a literary approach, not tackling the subject directly but centring her story on a small group of civilian who take charge of an improvised mortuary for those killed during the revolt, and in particular ?? (Dong-ho), a middle-school student and the Boy of the Korean title. He questions why they hold memorial ceremonies for those killed, covering the coffins with the ??? (national flag) and singing the nation anthem. In part he realises this is to show that the civilians are not rebelling against the nation, it is the ruling authorities who are the real traitors, but mainly it is:
to make the corpses we were singing over into something more than butchered lumps of meat," and this highlights one of the author's key themes (see below).
And it allows the families to properly mourn, unlike many of those killed in the final battle, where their bodies were simply taken away by the troops and buried in mass graves or incinerated.
After you died I couldn't hold a funeral, so my life became a funeral.
After you were wrapped in a tarpaulin and carted away in a garbage truck.
The narration starts during the May revolt but proceeds over the next 30 years looking at the repercussions of the events on the lives of those involved, the killed and the survivors, and their families.
?? also uses different narrative styles in each of the seven chapters, which are beautifully translated by Deborah Smith.
The first two are set during the May 1980 events, but Chapter 1 which tells Dong-ho's story is written, unusually, in the 2nd person ('Looks like rain,' you mutter to yourself.) and the 2nd is narrated by the soul (? in Korean which doesn't have the religious connotations of the English word) of his friend Park Jeong-dae who was killed in the initial confrontation with troops before they temporarily withdrew from the city.
The mortuary team consists of Dong-ho and two girls Kim Eun-sook, a high school student and Lim Seon-ju, a machinist and union member, supervised by Kim Jin-su, a university student and one of the leader's of the civilian militia.
Chapter 3 1985 is set over seven days in 1985, representing the seven slaps Eun-sook, now an editor at a publisher of literature which frequently falls foul of censorship, receives from a police interrogator. Chapter 4 is one side of a dialogue as a worker tells the story of his involvement in the citizen's militia in May 1980 and his subsequent arrest, imprisonment and prolonged torture, to a university professor writing a thesis on the uprising, following the suicide of Kim Jin-su in 1990.
Chapter 5 set in 2002 is centred on Lim Seon-ju, and mixes 2nd person narration of the present with 1st person recollections of May 1980 (although here Deborah Smith has chosen to make the English readers task easier than the original by introducing sub-headings), and Chapter 6 is a monologue by the boy's mother to her son on the 30th anniversary of his death.
The epilogue is written in the first person by the author herself, inserting her own story into the novel of how she came to write it, and the background to the real-life Dong-ho who inspired the novel. Dong-ho's brother is initially reluctant to speak to her but eventually decides: Please write your book so that no one will ever be able to desecrate my brother's memory again.
Human Acts is no mythologising view of the uprising or those involved. Han Kang shows the bloody reality of wounds, death and torture, the mundane (the young militia members waiting with their improvised weapons for the coming of the troops asked if it was okay for them to quickly run back and fetch the sponge cake and Fanta they'd left), the extreme bravery but also allows the characters to admit to their own cowardice (Dong-ho sees Jeong-dae being shot but is too scared to run to his assistance).
One of her themes is how crowd psychology can massively magnify both the good (extremes of bravery, altruism) and the evil (the violence of the soldiers) inherent in ordinary human beings. The narrator in Chapter 4 describes how he felt during the uprising:
that terrifying intensity, that feeling as if you yourself have undergone some kind of alchemy, been purified, made wholly virtuous. The brilliance of the moment, the dazzling purity of conscience.
But he also recounts that once the soldiers opened fire he fled for his life:
that sublime feeling I'd been tapping in to, that enormous heart I'd briefly felt part of, was smashed to pieces, strewn over the ground as so much rubbish
This chapter is particularly powerful on the impact of torture, deliberately designed to degrade human beings to animals. He finds himself begrudging Jin-su, his fellow inmate, his portion of their shared meal:
a brute animal with whatever had once been human having been gradually sucked out...I stared with open hatred at any morsel of food that passed his lips, consumed with the fear that he might take it all for himself; those cold, empty, eyes, utterly devoid of anything that could be said to resemble humanity. Just like my own.
Throughout the novel Han Kang comes back to the psychological aftermath of the May 1980 events, the impact of torture (compared by one character to radiation poisoning - it never leaves your system), the right of survivors to choose whether or not to tell their stories, what drives people to such extremes of bravery and evil, and the need to keep one's humanity (we are noble is the slogan one group use to remind themselves).
Normal life is also impossible to restore, almost offensive to those involved. Eun-sook complains to the local authorities one month after the events that the municipal fountain has been turned on again:
It's been dry ever since the uprising began and now it's back on again, as though everything's back to normal. How can that be possible?
Even Han Kang herself while writing the novel and immersed in the history of what happened, 33 years later, had to walk out of a wedding:
There was something shockingly incongruous about the people there, their flamboyant clothes, the way they were laughing as though nothing was wrong. How was such a scene possible, when so many had died"
And her overall theme is summarised in one of the most powerful passages in the novel:
Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered - is this the essential fate of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?
Overall - powerful, visceral, moving, brilliant.
February 29, 2016
Human Acts is the author Han Kang's attempt to make some kind of peace with the knowledge and images of the Gwangju massacre in South Korea in 1980. Her family had left that city just one year before when she was 10 years old, when the 10 day uprising occurred, but she became aware of it through the overheard, whispered conversations of her family and the silence that surrounded them speaking of the home where they used to live, she learned three young people from that household had lost their lives, one, a boy Dong-Ho probably shared the same room she had lived in for many more years than he had.
What made the events sear into her mind and perhaps permanently affect her psyche, was the forbidden photobook that was given to her family, books circulated secretly to let survivors know what had really happened, a book her parents tried to hide from their children, but one she sought out, opening its covers to images she would be forever haunted by.
Asked why she felt motivated to write this book (my thanks to Naomi at for her post on the author/book discussion at Foyles Bookshop), which begins with the immediate after-effects of the massacre, the very real logistical management of the bodies, the bereaved, mass memorial rituals and the burials and goes on to enter the after death consciousness of one the victims, seeing things from outside his body; she said that that experience of seeing those images left her scared, afraid of human cruelty, struggling to embrace human beings.
It left her with two internal questions below, which were her motivation to enter into this experience and try to write her way out of and the external events of that massacre of the past in her birthplace of Gwangju and then the more recent social cleansing that took place in the Yongsan area of Seoul in 2009:
1. How can human beings be so violent?
2. How could people do something against extreme violence?
Human Acts, which seems to me to be an interesting play on words, is divided into six chapters (or Acts), each from the perspective of a different character affected by the massacre and also using a variety of different narrative voices.
The opening chapter entitled The Boy, 1980 introduces us to Dong-Ho, but seen from outside himself, written in the second person singular narrative voice 'You'. It is after the initial violence in the square and something has driven this boy, initially searching for the body of his friend who he witnessed being shot on the first day, to volunteer and help out, confronting him in a visceral way with so much more death and tragedy than he had escaped from on the day itself.
We meet the shadow of his friend in the second chapter, as he exits his body, but is unable to escape it, he tries to understand what is happening around him and observes his shattered body and others as they arrive, until something happens that will release him wherupon he senses the death of those close to him, his friend and his sister.
The following chapters skip years, but never the prolonged effect of what happened, the events never leave those scarred by them, the narrative works its way back to the origins of the uprising, to the factory girl, the hard working, little educated group of young women trying to improve their lot, to obtain fair wages and equal rights, the become bolder when they meet in groups and speak of protesting, they educate themselves and each other and feel part of something, a movement and a feeling they wish to express publicly, with the naive assumption they won't be arrested or killed.
It brings us back to humanity's tendency to group, to find common interests, to progress as a team with common interests, to support each other and to the tendency of those in power to feel angry, threatened and violent towards those who have an equal ability to amass support, regardless of the merits of their cause.
Han Kang so immersed herself in these stories and events, that it is as if we are reading the experience of a holocaust survivor, a torture sufferer; we know only a little of what it must be like to live with the memory and the reluctance to want to share it and the heavy price that some pay when they do.
I remember Primo Levi's , a memoir, and his words, which could easily have been a guide for Han Kang herself, in the way she has approached this incredibly moving, heart-shattering novel. It seems a fitting note on which to conclude this review, to recall his words and his intention in setting things down on paper.
What made the events sear into her mind and perhaps permanently affect her psyche, was the forbidden photobook that was given to her family, books circulated secretly to let survivors know what had really happened, a book her parents tried to hide from their children, but one she sought out, opening its covers to images she would be forever haunted by.
Asked why she felt motivated to write this book (my thanks to Naomi at for her post on the author/book discussion at Foyles Bookshop), which begins with the immediate after-effects of the massacre, the very real logistical management of the bodies, the bereaved, mass memorial rituals and the burials and goes on to enter the after death consciousness of one the victims, seeing things from outside his body; she said that that experience of seeing those images left her scared, afraid of human cruelty, struggling to embrace human beings.
It left her with two internal questions below, which were her motivation to enter into this experience and try to write her way out of and the external events of that massacre of the past in her birthplace of Gwangju and then the more recent social cleansing that took place in the Yongsan area of Seoul in 2009:
1. How can human beings be so violent?
2. How could people do something against extreme violence?
Human Acts, which seems to me to be an interesting play on words, is divided into six chapters (or Acts), each from the perspective of a different character affected by the massacre and also using a variety of different narrative voices.
The opening chapter entitled The Boy, 1980 introduces us to Dong-Ho, but seen from outside himself, written in the second person singular narrative voice 'You'. It is after the initial violence in the square and something has driven this boy, initially searching for the body of his friend who he witnessed being shot on the first day, to volunteer and help out, confronting him in a visceral way with so much more death and tragedy than he had escaped from on the day itself.
We meet the shadow of his friend in the second chapter, as he exits his body, but is unable to escape it, he tries to understand what is happening around him and observes his shattered body and others as they arrive, until something happens that will release him wherupon he senses the death of those close to him, his friend and his sister.
The following chapters skip years, but never the prolonged effect of what happened, the events never leave those scarred by them, the narrative works its way back to the origins of the uprising, to the factory girl, the hard working, little educated group of young women trying to improve their lot, to obtain fair wages and equal rights, the become bolder when they meet in groups and speak of protesting, they educate themselves and each other and feel part of something, a movement and a feeling they wish to express publicly, with the naive assumption they won't be arrested or killed.
It brings us back to humanity's tendency to group, to find common interests, to progress as a team with common interests, to support each other and to the tendency of those in power to feel angry, threatened and violent towards those who have an equal ability to amass support, regardless of the merits of their cause.
Han Kang so immersed herself in these stories and events, that it is as if we are reading the experience of a holocaust survivor, a torture sufferer; we know only a little of what it must be like to live with the memory and the reluctance to want to share it and the heavy price that some pay when they do.
I remember Primo Levi's , a memoir, and his words, which could easily have been a guide for Han Kang herself, in the way she has approached this incredibly moving, heart-shattering novel. It seems a fitting note on which to conclude this review, to recall his words and his intention in setting things down on paper.
I believe in reason and in discussion as supreme instruments of progress, and therefore I repress hatred even within myself: I prefer justice. Precisely for this reason, when describing the tragic world of Auschwitz, I have deliberately assumed the calm, sober language of the witness, neither the lamenting tones of the victim nor the irate voice of someone who seeks revenge. I thought that my account would be all the more credible and useful the more it appeared objective and the less it sounded overly emotional; only in this way does a witness in matters of justice perform his task, which is that of preparing the ground for the judge. The judges are my readers. Primo Levi
August 23, 2018
Aqu¨ª la videorese?a:
?Qu¨¦ decir de este libro? No tengo muchas palabras. Palabras dignas de esta novela no, al menos. Me ha roto el coraz¨®n tres millones de veces y a¨²n as¨ª creo que leerlo ha sido una gran experiencia.
Han Kang tiene un don para hacerte vivir las experiencias de sus personajes, aunque no entiendas bien lo que ocurre o lo que pasa por su cabeza, Kang consigue que empatices. Es capaz de relatarte lo peor de forma casi po¨¦tica sin que dejes en ning¨²n momento de ver la oscuridad, la suciedad, el cieno que se aposenta en el fondo.
Me puse a leer esta novela sin saber nada de los hechos que narra y puedo decir que si bien al principio me cost¨® un poco entender algunas cosas (m¨¢s que nada porque soy mal¨ªsima recordando nombres coreanos) al final todo cobr¨® sentido y la uni¨®n de los distintos personajes, qui¨¦nes son y c¨®mo se conectan exactamente, me pareci¨® casi lo m¨¢s interesante del libro.
Hay retazos de fantas¨ªa (uno de los personajes es un alma), pero no por ello creo que la novela pertenezca al g¨¦nero fant¨¢stico. No es realismo m¨¢gico, es solo un mecanismo narrativo que la autora utiliza en un punto determinado (y de forma muy efectiva) para desarrollar y ampliar el relato.
Al final, lo importante es averiguar la verdad. Desenterrar un crimen que a¨²n tiene resonancias en la Corea del Sur actual y que no deber¨ªa olvidarse. Porque algunas heridas no cierran nunca.
?Qu¨¦ decir de este libro? No tengo muchas palabras. Palabras dignas de esta novela no, al menos. Me ha roto el coraz¨®n tres millones de veces y a¨²n as¨ª creo que leerlo ha sido una gran experiencia.
Han Kang tiene un don para hacerte vivir las experiencias de sus personajes, aunque no entiendas bien lo que ocurre o lo que pasa por su cabeza, Kang consigue que empatices. Es capaz de relatarte lo peor de forma casi po¨¦tica sin que dejes en ning¨²n momento de ver la oscuridad, la suciedad, el cieno que se aposenta en el fondo.
Me puse a leer esta novela sin saber nada de los hechos que narra y puedo decir que si bien al principio me cost¨® un poco entender algunas cosas (m¨¢s que nada porque soy mal¨ªsima recordando nombres coreanos) al final todo cobr¨® sentido y la uni¨®n de los distintos personajes, qui¨¦nes son y c¨®mo se conectan exactamente, me pareci¨® casi lo m¨¢s interesante del libro.
Hay retazos de fantas¨ªa (uno de los personajes es un alma), pero no por ello creo que la novela pertenezca al g¨¦nero fant¨¢stico. No es realismo m¨¢gico, es solo un mecanismo narrativo que la autora utiliza en un punto determinado (y de forma muy efectiva) para desarrollar y ampliar el relato.
Al final, lo importante es averiguar la verdad. Desenterrar un crimen que a¨²n tiene resonancias en la Corea del Sur actual y que no deber¨ªa olvidarse. Porque algunas heridas no cierran nunca.
October 10, 2024
Este livro ¨¦ um murro na alma, ¨¦ um questionamento profundo sobre a natureza humana (somos bons ou maus, afinal?), ¨¦ um apelo dilacerante ¨¤ nossa consci¨ºncia coletiva.
Em 1980, a repress?o brutal de um movimento de cidad?os sul-coreanos resulta na morte de v¨¢rios jovens estudantes, alguns n?o mais do crian?as.
A mesma autora de A Vegetariana n?o poupa nos detalhes dos assassinatos, das torturas, do apodrecimento dos corpos. Ela funciona como os nossos olhos, embora queiramos fech¨¢-los, pois a realidade ¨¦ demasiado cruel, ela ¨¦ o dedo na nossa ferida de ocidentais confortavelmente instalados nas nossas democracias. Ela vai mais longe e mostra as consequ¨ºncias da barb¨¢rie a m¨¦dio e longo prazo, a inaptid?o para continuar a viver de quem se intitula como sobrevivente.
Han Kang ¨¦ muito gr¨¢fica, de facto, e isso provoca pesadelos. A mim provocou. E faz pensar sobre o valor do indiv¨ªduo isolado e sobre a for?a do bando ou da multid?o. Destaco, por isso, aquele que elejo como um dos trechos mais marcantes desta obra.
"Ainda n?o est¨¢ claro qual o fator decisivo que influencia a moralidade da multid?o. (...) Algumas multid?es n?o hesitam em pilhar lojas, assassinar, estuprar, enquanto outras apresentam um altru¨ªsmo e uma coragem que seriam dif¨ªceis de ser apresentados por indiv¨ªduos isolados. N?o que os indiv¨ªduos que perten?am ao segundo tipo de multid?o sejam necessariamente sublimes, mas a sublimidade que o ser humano possui por natureza ¨¦ realizada atrav¨¦s da for?a da multid?o; tampouco ¨¦ o caso de os indiv¨ªduos do primeiro tipo de multid?o serem especialmente b¨¢rbaros, mas a barb¨¢rie original do ser humano ¨¦ potencializada por meio da for?a da multid?o."
Em 1980, a repress?o brutal de um movimento de cidad?os sul-coreanos resulta na morte de v¨¢rios jovens estudantes, alguns n?o mais do crian?as.
A mesma autora de A Vegetariana n?o poupa nos detalhes dos assassinatos, das torturas, do apodrecimento dos corpos. Ela funciona como os nossos olhos, embora queiramos fech¨¢-los, pois a realidade ¨¦ demasiado cruel, ela ¨¦ o dedo na nossa ferida de ocidentais confortavelmente instalados nas nossas democracias. Ela vai mais longe e mostra as consequ¨ºncias da barb¨¢rie a m¨¦dio e longo prazo, a inaptid?o para continuar a viver de quem se intitula como sobrevivente.
Han Kang ¨¦ muito gr¨¢fica, de facto, e isso provoca pesadelos. A mim provocou. E faz pensar sobre o valor do indiv¨ªduo isolado e sobre a for?a do bando ou da multid?o. Destaco, por isso, aquele que elejo como um dos trechos mais marcantes desta obra.
"Ainda n?o est¨¢ claro qual o fator decisivo que influencia a moralidade da multid?o. (...) Algumas multid?es n?o hesitam em pilhar lojas, assassinar, estuprar, enquanto outras apresentam um altru¨ªsmo e uma coragem que seriam dif¨ªceis de ser apresentados por indiv¨ªduos isolados. N?o que os indiv¨ªduos que perten?am ao segundo tipo de multid?o sejam necessariamente sublimes, mas a sublimidade que o ser humano possui por natureza ¨¦ realizada atrav¨¦s da for?a da multid?o; tampouco ¨¦ o caso de os indiv¨ªduos do primeiro tipo de multid?o serem especialmente b¨¢rbaros, mas a barb¨¢rie original do ser humano ¨¦ potencializada por meio da for?a da multid?o."
November 28, 2024
??????????
Review posted on my website in and please check it out!
¡°After you died I could not hold a funeral,
And so my life became a funeral.¡±
The Nobel prize was the primary motivation for me to pick this up. I am ashamed that it took me so long to pick this book up. Nevertheless, I am very proud that an author from Korea one such an honourable award with this book and many other previous works.
Some time has passed after the tears of Gwangju were shed. What country, what people have we become? Han Kang was reminded of Gwangju when she watched a tragic news. To us, Gwangju had become a symbol of what was broken down with power, what was isolated, and what shouldn't have been damaged but was damaged anyway. There are people who keep the fire of Gwangju from being extinguished. I feel extremely moved as a Korean that the fire could cross the language boundaries to move people's hearts around the world, leading to the prize.
The book is about Gwangju's pro-democracy movement and the lasting pain after it. It starts on the day of Gwangju and covers the story of six people in each six chapters, leading to now.
From this work, I could deeply think about the choices people make when they are lead to extremes by governmental power. The story starts with Dong-ho, a middle school kid, and shows the raw deaths and pain. The Nation leads despicable aggression on. The characters, run away, refrain from running away, don't shoot the military while having a gun in hand, shoot mercilessly, and love.
In the epilogue, it is mentioned that "like there were excessively aggressive soldiers, there were also specially passive soldiers". This got me questioning the core of humans, power of a nation, and choices of people.
The heavy questions Han Kang asked with her book set in an uncomfortable way. The pains in the book were so heavy that it was impossible to ignore. Isn't that what a person's responsibility is? I think one of the roles of an author is answering the uncomfortable, looking out for then with bright eyes and writing them down on paper. This book was a shock for me as a person dreaming of becoming an author. It reminded me freshly of real responsibilities of an author, and left me stunned about possibilities of literature.
In this book, with the coldness and violence, we can fine warmth. The last chapter ends with Dong-Ho's mother.
If so, how about us.
Violence is pain.
A nation can suppress an individual.
We are individuals.
We can make choices.
Violence. Is. Pain.
???
?? ???.
??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???. ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?????, ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ? ??? ?? ?? ? ?? ?????.
??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???. ??? ?? ??, ?? ??? ????. ?? ???? ?? ? ??? ?? ??? ????. ???? ??? ??? ??? ?, ??? ?, ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???. ??? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??. ? ??? ??????? ??? ??, ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ???.
??? ??? ?????? ????, 6?? ???? ??? ? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ???.
"????, ?? ??? ????? ??. ?? ??? ??????? ???? ???, ????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??."
??? ? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?? ??? ? ? ??. ???? ?????? ??? ????, ?? ??? ???? ????. ?? ??? ???? ??? ????. ? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???, ????, ???? ??, ???? ????.
????? "??? ??? ???? ??? ? ?? ??? ???? ??? ???"?? ?? ???. ??? ????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??, ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ? ? ???.
??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???? ?? ?? ?????. ? ?? ??? ?? ???, ??? ? ???. ??? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ??? ????, ???? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ? ???? ????. ? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????. ?? ??? ??? ?? ??????, ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???.
???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ?? ? ??. ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??.
???? ???.
??? ????.
??? ??? ?? ??? ? ? ??.
??? ????.
??? ??? ?? ? ??.
??? ????.
--------------------------------
Pre-read
I will probably be writing the review for this in both Korean and English. Before I start, I'm so proud of the accomplishment that this book and the author made, and I'm just incredibly inspired, since I'm also a Korean who dreams of becoming an author.
??? ???? ??? ? ????? ?? ????? ???? ? ?? ?? ????. ?? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ? ?? ?????, ?? ??? ? ?? ?? ??? ????
Review posted on my website in and please check it out!
¡°After you died I could not hold a funeral,
And so my life became a funeral.¡±
The Nobel prize was the primary motivation for me to pick this up. I am ashamed that it took me so long to pick this book up. Nevertheless, I am very proud that an author from Korea one such an honourable award with this book and many other previous works.
Some time has passed after the tears of Gwangju were shed. What country, what people have we become? Han Kang was reminded of Gwangju when she watched a tragic news. To us, Gwangju had become a symbol of what was broken down with power, what was isolated, and what shouldn't have been damaged but was damaged anyway. There are people who keep the fire of Gwangju from being extinguished. I feel extremely moved as a Korean that the fire could cross the language boundaries to move people's hearts around the world, leading to the prize.
The book is about Gwangju's pro-democracy movement and the lasting pain after it. It starts on the day of Gwangju and covers the story of six people in each six chapters, leading to now.
From this work, I could deeply think about the choices people make when they are lead to extremes by governmental power. The story starts with Dong-ho, a middle school kid, and shows the raw deaths and pain. The Nation leads despicable aggression on. The characters, run away, refrain from running away, don't shoot the military while having a gun in hand, shoot mercilessly, and love.
In the epilogue, it is mentioned that "like there were excessively aggressive soldiers, there were also specially passive soldiers". This got me questioning the core of humans, power of a nation, and choices of people.
The heavy questions Han Kang asked with her book set in an uncomfortable way. The pains in the book were so heavy that it was impossible to ignore. Isn't that what a person's responsibility is? I think one of the roles of an author is answering the uncomfortable, looking out for then with bright eyes and writing them down on paper. This book was a shock for me as a person dreaming of becoming an author. It reminded me freshly of real responsibilities of an author, and left me stunned about possibilities of literature.
In this book, with the coldness and violence, we can fine warmth. The last chapter ends with Dong-Ho's mother.
If so, how about us.
Violence is pain.
A nation can suppress an individual.
We are individuals.
We can make choices.
Violence. Is. Pain.
???
?? ???.
??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???. ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?????, ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ? ??? ?? ?? ? ?? ?????.
??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???. ??? ?? ??, ?? ??? ????. ?? ???? ?? ? ??? ?? ??? ????. ???? ??? ??? ??? ?, ??? ?, ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???. ??? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ??. ? ??? ??????? ??? ??, ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ???.
??? ??? ?????? ????, 6?? ???? ??? ? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ???.
"????, ?? ??? ????? ??. ?? ??? ??????? ???? ???, ????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??."
??? ? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?? ??? ? ? ??. ???? ?????? ??? ????, ?? ??? ???? ????. ?? ??? ???? ??? ????. ? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???, ????, ???? ??, ???? ????.
????? "??? ??? ???? ??? ? ?? ??? ???? ??? ???"?? ?? ???. ??? ????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??, ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ? ? ???.
??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???? ?? ?? ?????. ? ?? ??? ?? ???, ??? ? ???. ??? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ??? ????, ???? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ? ???? ????. ? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????. ?? ??? ??? ?? ??????, ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???.
???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ?? ? ??. ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??.
???? ???.
??? ????.
??? ??? ?? ??? ? ? ??.
??? ????.
??? ??? ?? ? ??.
??? ????.
--------------------------------
Pre-read
I will probably be writing the review for this in both Korean and English. Before I start, I'm so proud of the accomplishment that this book and the author made, and I'm just incredibly inspired, since I'm also a Korean who dreams of becoming an author.
??? ???? ??? ? ????? ?? ????? ???? ? ?? ?? ????. ?? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ? ?? ?????, ?? ??? ? ?? ?? ??? ????
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