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crothe77 's review for:

We Do Not Part by Han Kang
5.0
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
 
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

We Do Not Part by Han Kang is a first person-POV Korean contemporary novel focusing on the state violence in modern Korean history. When Kyungha visits her friend, Inseon, at a hospital in Seoul, it leads her to Jeju Island and some uncomfortable truths. 

I was sent this book by the publisher about a month or two ago due to my interest in Korean literature, I believe. I was going to wait a little longer to read it but made it a priority when the president of South Korea declared martial law a few days ago because I was aware of some of the content in Han Kang's works. I had never heard of the April 19th Revolution before reading this or the massacre of the people of Jeju Island or the way the US encouraged this violence in an effort to eradicate communism. I'm absolutely going to be looking into them now out of respect for those we have lost and all of the Korean citizens who were willing to fight for their democracy in the middle of the night because they remembered their history.

This is one of those books where I cannot say whether or not I like it because it's not really a novel that's about enjoyment; it's asking it's reader to remember the horrors of the past and gives those horrors human faces. It is profoundly uncomfortable in how the narration discusses the murder of thousands of people, including very young children. In a history textbook, it wouldn't be this challenging because a textbook often treats these events like they're just numbers to remember. Han Kang makes one of the characters a documentary filmmaker and uses those documentaries to give dreams, families, and more to these victims and then she gives the numbers. It is horrifying but also necessary to leave that lasting impact.

In many ways, this is a novel asking it's reader to bear witness, to remember, and to take that horror with them instead of leaving it behind. I will answer Han Kang's call and take these feelings with me government-sanctioned murder cannot keep happening and yet it is to this day.

Content warning for depictions of the systematic murder of thousands, including children 

I would recommend this to readers who want to learn more about the recent history of the Koreas and Jeju Island


 
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