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dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
The joke about fog is when I realized how much is lost in translation sometimes. But then again, that’s one of the themes of this collection, isn’t it?
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Geniales Konzept, sehr emotional, jedoch hat mir durch die kürze noch die entscheidende Tiefe gefehlt, damit es mich wirklich begeistern hätte können. Nichtsdestrotrotz kein schlechtes Werk.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
(maybe 2.5 stars)
I didn’t dislike this book but I can’t say I enjoyed it either. It just wasn’t really my thing. I don’t think it helped that I had really high expectations after The Vegetarian which was an amazing and addictive novel. This is technically a collection of short stories but it read more like poetry to me. I think poetry is an incredibly personal thing (more so than fiction) and this just wasn’t my kind of poetry. It felt a bit too experimental for my liking and a bit too much like an attempt to be profound. Though, there were indeed some profound and philosophical insights within. I can’t deny that it was beautifully written either.
Han Kang wonderfully wove together all the pieces in this book. They weren’t just superficially linked by the topic of things that are white but by other themes as well. The first part reads like a narrative of haunting loss; a discussion of the people we lose in life and how their memory remains with us. The second part feels less intimate than the first, more like a diary of fly on the wall observations. The third part brings these two sections together perfectly.
Structurally and stylistically, I can’t fault it. But, it just wasn’t my thing sadly.
Some stories/ poems I liked:
Wave on page 59, Sleet on page 61, and Sand on page 107.
Some quotes I enjoyed:
P69- “This vanishing fragility, this oppressive weight of beauty”.
P75- “Behind that pattern of dappling dark, the wan moon is concealed, wreathed with ashen or lilac or pale blue light, full or halved or a shape more slender still, waning to a single sliver”.
P77- “You are a noble person. Your sleep is clean, and the fact of your living is nothing to be ashamed of”.
I didn’t dislike this book but I can’t say I enjoyed it either. It just wasn’t really my thing. I don’t think it helped that I had really high expectations after The Vegetarian which was an amazing and addictive novel. This is technically a collection of short stories but it read more like poetry to me. I think poetry is an incredibly personal thing (more so than fiction) and this just wasn’t my kind of poetry. It felt a bit too experimental for my liking and a bit too much like an attempt to be profound. Though, there were indeed some profound and philosophical insights within. I can’t deny that it was beautifully written either.
Han Kang wonderfully wove together all the pieces in this book. They weren’t just superficially linked by the topic of things that are white but by other themes as well. The first part reads like a narrative of haunting loss; a discussion of the people we lose in life and how their memory remains with us. The second part feels less intimate than the first, more like a diary of fly on the wall observations. The third part brings these two sections together perfectly.
Structurally and stylistically, I can’t fault it. But, it just wasn’t my thing sadly.
Some stories/ poems I liked:
Wave on page 59, Sleet on page 61, and Sand on page 107.
Some quotes I enjoyed:
P69- “This vanishing fragility, this oppressive weight of beauty”.
P75- “Behind that pattern of dappling dark, the wan moon is concealed, wreathed with ashen or lilac or pale blue light, full or halved or a shape more slender still, waning to a single sliver”.
P77- “You are a noble person. Your sleep is clean, and the fact of your living is nothing to be ashamed of”.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
A fragile thing of beauty. Gossamer light. Not brittle by any means, but slight all the same, oh so slight, which is why I gave it 4 stars rather than the full complement as with her previous 2 books. Size may not be everything, but it does count for something.
Impressions, images, metaphors inspired by the colour white. Clouds, snow, white yulan flowers, the white fur of a dog, swaddling cloth and cere sheets/ burial shrouds, especially when the swaddling cloth is converted into a cere sheet for a baby that dies after just two hours of birth that permeates the whole book. The white of baby milk, expressed for the first time only after the premature born baby has died, so again barren whiteness associated with death. Death is normally associated with the colour black, or rather the absence of colour that is black. Here death is marked by whiteness, allowing for some hope of shoots of new life. Think the yin yang symbol where the white has a dot of black in its midst, while the black contains a dot of white and you have the essence of this book - white as "rejuvenation, revivification... Because white flowers have to do with life? Or with death? She'd read somewhere that the words 'blank' and 'blanc', 'black' and even 'flame' literally 'fire flower' in Korean, all have the same root in Indo-European languages".
The lyricism was sumptuous, but slight. An appetiser rather than a feast.
Impressions, images, metaphors inspired by the colour white. Clouds, snow, white yulan flowers, the white fur of a dog, swaddling cloth and cere sheets/ burial shrouds, especially when the swaddling cloth is converted into a cere sheet for a baby that dies after just two hours of birth that permeates the whole book. The white of baby milk, expressed for the first time only after the premature born baby has died, so again barren whiteness associated with death. Death is normally associated with the colour black, or rather the absence of colour that is black. Here death is marked by whiteness, allowing for some hope of shoots of new life. Think the yin yang symbol where the white has a dot of black in its midst, while the black contains a dot of white and you have the essence of this book - white as "rejuvenation, revivification... Because white flowers have to do with life? Or with death? She'd read somewhere that the words 'blank' and 'blanc', 'black' and even 'flame' literally 'fire flower' in Korean, all have the same root in Indo-European languages".
The lyricism was sumptuous, but slight. An appetiser rather than a feast.