Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“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?”
Each character in this book, every story carries the thread of humanity been stripped away from the self in a senseless bewildering instance resulting state of shock that lasts a lifetime. None of them, the author included, had the priviledge to live in a day and time where this brutality was past, the regime and oppressor continues to stay in power, and the victor frames the narrative, or the lack of it. There was no time for them where they could say that zeitgeist would be able to openly call out what was wrong or right. With the inside and the outside in conflict the trauma becomes never ending for the living.
“After you died I couldn’t hold a funeral,
So these eyes that once beheld you became a shrine.
These ears that once heard your voice became a shrine.
These lungs that once inhaled your breath became a shrine.”
The book starts with the journey of a group of charged youths enraged by injustice, full of courage and solidarity to their sudden violent deaths after which their souls are left to watch the body wither away.
The middle, which is the following almost 80% of the back ahead are tales of atrocities, repression, fear, courage, gut wrenching torture, suffering and solidarity. Here, the author choses to be kind to the reader, allowing you to read through, but stay dis-connected. She spared the readers gut wrenching emotional pain that could have come from as more immersive storytelling, unlike the authorities who & spare no horror to the victims you read of.
And just when I was about to write off the book as cold, like the beginning the end draws you in again to the pain of a mother searching for her dead child. She struggles to reconcile the love she remembers from his lifetime and the brutality she knows his last moments were. And the author's
epilogue, talking about watching the world and people around her shaped by these happening, being meagrely 9 years old when this happens. Despite having the privilege to watch from afar, she is unable to look away and finds herself back in her hometown where the uprising happened and takes the bold decision to document it.
“Permission? Yes, you have my permission, but only if you do it properly. Please, write your book so that no one will ever be able to desecrate my brother’s memory again.”
There is a masterful direction of the readers experience to tailor
which parts of the book are humanised and emotionally draw you in and which you go through feeling cold and disconnected almost like the victims who live in shock through this de-humanisation is what makes this book a stroke of genius. For the worst of it she takes us somewhere colder, somewhere safer and then draws us back in as we walk with Dong-ho and his mother, putting the senseless loss back into perspective and tying all the stories into one neat thread.
Quotes:
- Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. I forgive no one, and no one forgives me.
- 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?
- After you died I could not hold a funeral,
And so my life became a funeral - It happened in Gwangju just as it did on Jeju Island, in Kwantung and Nanking, in Bosnia, and all across the American continent when it was still known as the New World, with such uniform brutality it's as though it is imprinted in our genetic code.
- 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.
emotional
informative
sad
tense
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
still as good as it was when i first read it three years ago, i love this book so much (i don’t really enjoy audiobooks but my library had it and i saw sandra oh<3 still not a huge fan of them but this was nonetheless amazing)
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced