Human Acts

Han Kang was born in Gwangju, which her family left when she was nine. She describes the Gwangju massacre, which happened a mere year later, as her first formative memory. Human Acts, in her usual uncomprimising fashion, tells the story of the massacre and its reverberations up until present day Korea. Han Kang sets out to answer the question: What makes one crowd act moral and what makes another become psychopathic murderers? Can we make up for the past or can we even capture it?

A truly haunting story, which is linked to the author's own life and the Gwangju Uprising (1980s South Korea), meditating on: What is humanity? In how far is cruelty engrained in it? In how far community and conscience? What is the essence of a person and where does it go? How can we learn from history? These and many more important, pressing questions are addressed throughout a multitude of previously unheard voices. A moving piece of literature, which is very eloquently written.

Chapter 2 was the clear standout on this rather confusing story. Given that we get a different perspective in each chapter, there's limited ways in which you have time to connect to the characters. While it's incredibly sad, I struggled to really delve into it emotionally with the exception of the second chapter and some of the final chapter before the epilogue. The book is beautifully written without a doubt. The writing style and prose is exceptional. It's not overly complicated but it isn't generic either. A lot of sentences flow well and some even stand out and made me wish to highlight the page. It's a nice slow read, but also so very dark. It is a little confusing at times and the perspectives in which it is written threw me every now and then. I don't think I remember ever reading a book using the "you" point of view. It really took me a lot of time to adjust to such a perspective. I'm still not quite so sure why it is that way, if it was meant to make us feel more immersed in the story and Dong-ho, or maybe I missed something in the details. The story itself was nice, though I'm not so sure I'd call it a typical one with pacing and plot that builds to a climax with a resolution. It's more little snippets of stories that intertwine at times at their core, and the core character and the story of it happens to be truly sad and rooted in reality, given that this is part of South Korea's true history. I don't really want to compare it to little diary entries but I suppose it does read a little bit like entries of certain moments for characters that lived through them or are remembering certain events. I wanted to love this, but I think I more just like it. It's not bad but it isn't as great as I had hoped given all its praise. However, I love the writing style, so I do think I'd read some of her work again.