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A review by kaylamanzanares
Human Acts by Han Kang
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
"Testimony. Meaning. Memory. For the future."
Through various characters, different perspectives, and vivid imagery, Han Kang shares with us individual stories, which eventually created a collective experience, as we revisit a very horrible and violent chapter in South Korea's history, the Gwangju Uprising.
In the Introduction, Deborah Smith wrote, "The past, like the bodies of the dead, hasn’t stayed buried. Repressed trauma erupts in the form of memory." In connection with this, there's been a mention of "memory struggle" in one of the MBC documentaries that I have watched. It was stated by Song Doo-hyul that, "Some people want to save their memories and heal, but other people choose to forget and want to be forgotten, trying to avoid the truth. We call it the ‘memory struggle.’ People need to put in effort to save their memory, rather than simply storing it. That effort can be a fight with yourself in a sense, or a fight with a force that encourages oblivion.”
Despite the book being categorized as a work of fiction, the stories and experiences which make up this book are testimonies that what happened in May 18 to 27 of 1980 are tragic, painful, and very much real. The numbers of lives lost, the sacrifices made during those days and succeeding years after, and the trauma people have carried afterwards are not just for any statistics or passing history lessons but they have meaning, names, and stories that deserve to be known and remembered.
I had a hard time reading this book in all honesty, not because of the writing structure or any of those technicalities since Han Kang's visceral writing is so sublime. At first, it was because I really lacked understanding behind the context of Gwangju Uprising which made it hard for me to connect with book. But after watching films and documentaries, my reason eventually became that it is emotionally heavy since it was painful and heartbreaking to read stories of violence, torture, and trauma. Despite the heavy themes surrounding this book, I really believe that it is a MUST READ as this book truly is a "reminder of the human acts of which we are all capable, the brutal and the tender, the base and the sublime."
Through various characters, different perspectives, and vivid imagery, Han Kang shares with us individual stories, which eventually created a collective experience, as we revisit a very horrible and violent chapter in South Korea's history, the Gwangju Uprising.
In the Introduction, Deborah Smith wrote, "The past, like the bodies of the dead, hasn’t stayed buried. Repressed trauma erupts in the form of memory." In connection with this, there's been a mention of "memory struggle" in one of the MBC documentaries that I have watched. It was stated by Song Doo-hyul that, "Some people want to save their memories and heal, but other people choose to forget and want to be forgotten, trying to avoid the truth. We call it the ‘memory struggle.’ People need to put in effort to save their memory, rather than simply storing it. That effort can be a fight with yourself in a sense, or a fight with a force that encourages oblivion.”
Despite the book being categorized as a work of fiction, the stories and experiences which make up this book are testimonies that what happened in May 18 to 27 of 1980 are tragic, painful, and very much real. The numbers of lives lost, the sacrifices made during those days and succeeding years after, and the trauma people have carried afterwards are not just for any statistics or passing history lessons but they have meaning, names, and stories that deserve to be known and remembered.
I had a hard time reading this book in all honesty, not because of the writing structure or any of those technicalities since Han Kang's visceral writing is so sublime. At first, it was because I really lacked understanding behind the context of Gwangju Uprising which made it hard for me to connect with book. But after watching films and documentaries, my reason eventually became that it is emotionally heavy since it was painful and heartbreaking to read stories of violence, torture, and trauma. Despite the heavy themes surrounding this book, I really believe that it is a MUST READ as this book truly is a "reminder of the human acts of which we are all capable, the brutal and the tender, the base and the sublime."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Rape, War, Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, Torture, Violence, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings