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A review by hodgeonlucy
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
This is such a hard book to rate because of how serious a topic it covers, any review will appear insensitive.
As someone who has never learnt about the war in Korea and the mass genocide inflicted during and subsequent to this, this novel was a harrowing education. It was beautifully written prose which only went to highlight how brutal and gory the massacres described were.
Whilst I valued this education and the book is no doubt a literary feat of genius, I did struggle somewhat with it. I found the narrator extremely disconnected, arguably on purpose, but this did make resonating with the plot difficult. The plot itself was extremely loose and nebulous, again purposefully so but it did make the reading experience slightly more challenging.
Overall, I left this book feeling a little bit dumb - not due to the history that I wasn’t aware of (and will now ensure that I delve further into) but because some of the literary devices and approach of this author were just too high-brow for little old me. I will venture into more of Kang’s book but I have no doubt I will feel equally as outsmarted in them too.
As someone who has never learnt about the war in Korea and the mass genocide inflicted during and subsequent to this, this novel was a harrowing education. It was beautifully written prose which only went to highlight how brutal and gory the massacres described were.
Whilst I valued this education and the book is no doubt a literary feat of genius, I did struggle somewhat with it. I found the narrator extremely disconnected, arguably on purpose, but this did make resonating with the plot difficult. The plot itself was extremely loose and nebulous, again purposefully so but it did make the reading experience slightly more challenging.
Overall, I left this book feeling a little bit dumb - not due to the history that I wasn’t aware of (and will now ensure that I delve further into) but because some of the literary devices and approach of this author were just too high-brow for little old me. I will venture into more of Kang’s book but I have no doubt I will feel equally as outsmarted in them too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail