gregory_glover 's review for:

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

5.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I feel like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me.  Some of the most beautiful and atmospheric writing I’ve encountered in a long time.  Deeply significant subject, beautifully wrought.  “I remember the feeling of aching love, how it seeped into my skin.  Clogging the marrow in my bones and shriveling my heart…That was when I realized.  That love was a terrible agony.” (P. 244). On every level—nature, weather, time, eternity, national and international, village, city, family, friendship—it is all woven together into an unstoppable story that flows like a river (tsunami?) to the sea and back again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail