A review by sisa_moyo
Human Acts by Han Kang

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A moving and wonderful story on the Gwangju uprising. It's focus instead on the humans on, the death and the bodies, and the psychological impact on those of Gwangju instead of the action and the tanks and the resistance is moving.
though slow at times, it was still by the end an undeniable 5 stars.

There philosophical questions of death and what happens to us when we die, what is a soul, where does it come from where does it go, of forgiveness of self of humanity of other humans.
and how this one young boy, this one life affected these people to the ends of their life into death, is heartbreaking and soulcrushing, how in these fragile, mundane these they remember this boy who wanted to find his friend

The exploration into the trauma of the generations thereafter from Gwangju and the delicate way that Han Kang with her lyrical prose crafts their stories, how a people recover when their own government kills them, makes them less than human. It reminds of the translators' note in the book 'One Left' paraphased: is it possible for an entire nation to experience PTSD.
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