A review by brose
We Do Not Part by Han Kang

5.0

'I had not reconciled with life, but I had to resume living.’ 

 

This book is a dream. It has a nightmare logic that pulls the reader deeper down into the abyss. It has a slippery quality to it. It feels like a branch has snapped somewhere off in the woods behind you, and you turn your head just too slow to make out what it is. Motifs circle around and push on the reader repeatedly, until it finally cracks open for you. It is a story that you feel in your body as you read, the cold seeping into you as well. The soft touch of feathers and snow. Intense but somehow calming at the same time. 

 

A truly beautiful ode to love and memory. The relationship between our two main characters was like the shining light at the core of this book. What saves this book from being too sad to think about is how they are not alone in it. They have each other. This book holds your hand and pulls you all the way to the bottom of the sadness and horror, and in the calm shows that we must continue. That nothing ever leaves us fully. It is a haunting. 

 

I feel lucky that I get to be alive at the same time as Han Kang. This is required reading. I will be re-reading again I'm sure. 

Big thank you to Penguin for sending me a copy to review.