Human Acts: A Novel

The story is superbly narrated in a very different innovative way. Literary speaking it is beautiful. It is worth reading even just to indulge in the wonderful use of language and the devices of its prose, but it is so much more. It is a testimony, a lament, a warning and a chant filled with pain. It allows hope too, the victims are so human, so real, it becomes a testament to what it means to be human. Capable of the cruelest acts and capable of unending love, courage and inner strength. A must read.

I understand why this novel would win a Nobel. The 1980 Gwangju Massacre was made vivid and real, and there is a universal theme of the after effects of trauma and torture that is so well presented. But I just want to point out a small quirk of the British translator—the repeated image of the MonAMI ballpoint pen. Deborah Smith calls the ballpoint pen a Biro. No one in Korea calls a ballpoint pen a biro. American English is the standard, and in fact a ballpoint pen is called a ballpen (in a Korean accent). Also a yogurt pot was consumed early on as a snack, but there was no yogurt in the entire country in 1980. The character consumed a liquid Yakult, the peachy colored beverage with the green foil lid in that quirky shaped plastic container. These details are petty, but the Britishisms make it one step more exotic/British/translated than it needs to be.

Dong-ho is only 15 years old when he's violently killed during the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea. In a series of interconnected stories, Han Kang tells the story of Dong-ho and the people around him whose lives were taken or forever changed. If you've read Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno, you'll recognize Kang's approach: while each story is distinct, together they unravel a loosely connected narrative. There's such immense, unflinching brutality in these page. This is a book about oppression, torture, violence, cruelty, trauma and death, and Kang isn't in the business of sugarcoating any of it. It's upsetting to confront the reality that this is all part of humanity—and has been all along. Kang reminds us that we're all bodies and those bodies can be destroyed in an instant, without a second thought. And yet there's also beauty in these pages. Because humanity is more than just its worst parts. And those bodies are more than just flesh and blood. Kang is an exceptional writer with prose that flow like poetry, and some of the stories in Human Acts are deeply affecting. That said, this book presumes a knowledge of recent South Korean history that I just don't have, so I think some it didn't resonate with me as much as it could have. This, of course, is not Kang's fault, however I rate books based in part on my subjective enjoyment of them so I feel compelled to reflect that in my rating. Some of the stories were 5-stars reads for me, others more like 3 stars, so I'm rating this in between.

This novel is heartbreaking, gut-wrenching eour de force. One of the greatest books I've ever read.

In a student uprising in South Korea last century, the young boy Dong-Ho was killed. The book is written in interconnected chapters that speak of Dong-Ho and of people around him who lived and were somehow aware of or experienced the same episode. These people are his best friend, an editor who works and struggles against censorship, a prisoner, a worker, his mother, who together and independently raise their voices to let us know of the terrible things that happened then. The author is gifted with her excellent writing, and in this book she never shies away from or disguises what happened. Accordingly, it is a raw book that narrates in detail what human beings are capable of doing and the pain they are willing to inflict.

This book is easy to read in that I finished it in about three days (busy schedule) and Deborah Smith did a fine job in translating - with a bit of a British angle to it. This lends the book its international flavor as it is not a typical book from an American novelist. I was surprised by its simple and straight forward prose, which reminded me to Hemingway's books. I read four to five of this great American author and in no way comparing Ms. Kang to him; but, she does appear to write in not an overly high Academic style, one I guess expects of a Nobel prize author. HOWEVER, I underwent several different emotions from sadness*, anger (at the Government soldiers), despondency and finally some hope. You have to read all the way through and Ms. Kang ties it all very well at the last chapter. Great job by this author. Footnote*: Sadness in that the Gwangju Massacre occurred in 1980, which is too recent and within my lifetime.

By both interviews and research, Han Lang has written a beautiful novel about a massacre of students and workers in 1980 Gwangju South Korea by federal forces under a brutal military dictator. Focusing on the experience of one 15 year old schoolboy and others associated with the events of those days, she brings the reader an understanding of the terror and enduring pain caused by the government forces. Her epilogue at the end of the novel gives context to the history, and her family's relationship to the events. The writing is beautiful.

I really loved her style. However, the details of this horrific event made me hate reading it, and I couldn't wait to finish it. It truly is a masterpiece but not for the faint of heart or weak stomach.

"When a living person looks at a dead person, mightn’t the person’s soul also be there by its body’s side, looking down at its own face?" As someone who has been exploring Asian Literature for a few years, and has a massive TBR physical collection, I knew of Han Kang. The Vegetarian was infamous and she became a Nobel Prize Winner. I knew I wanted to pick up one of her books. But which one? The Vegetarian is a series of short stories which will never be the first thing I pick up. Not that I’ve never read a collection of short stories because I have, and some I’ve seriously enjoyed, but it will never be a priority read for me. The White Book is supposedly high concept and probably not the best book to buy. We Do Not Part was not yet released (I now have a sprayed edged edition of that book), so that left me with Greek Lessons and Human Acts. So I went book shopping. I am a browser, and enjoyed my time in Waterstones whilst deciding on which book to pick up first (along with perhaps a few more that I didn’t go for!). I approached it the same way as I approach any decision making when it comes to deciding what I want to read next, and that is read the first paragraph or page and see whether I unconsciously keep reading. "As though the raindrops suspended in the air, held breath before the plunge, are on the cusp of trembling down, flittering like jewels." Human Acts is a historical, political and literary piece of fiction. It uses multiple points of view throughout, following different but interlinked characters to tell a version of the historical event that took the lives of many young people during a student uprising in Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980. This is not in any way a nice book, yet it is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, I have found that the most tragic narratives which are often cemented in fact, are the most phenomenal of books, maintaining the intrigue whilst blanketed in the horror of humanity. The protagonist is Dong-ho. A young boy whose life becomes intertwined with others in order for Han to present an intimate picture of the impact the 1980’s uprising had on the youth, and families of Gwangju. Most of the characters we experience are well established by the time we reach their story, bar a couple who perhaps could have been fleshed out a little more to heighten empathy (don’t get me wrong, the empathy was there, just noticeably different to the characters we had met time and time again). Through all the horror, Han manages to include complex relationships and the realities of class and gender in South Korea. The atmosphere is tense, sickening, shocking, horrifying – it’s a page turner. I wanted it to stop, but I couldn’t put it down. I was hopeful, I was championing them, I was devastated and heartbroken. The emotions were raw. Han has done an incredible job of capturing something that only a Gwangju resident could tell, and for good reason. I cannot comment on Han’s written style from a Korean point of view, simply through translation. I feel, to the most, Deborah Smith, who translated Human Acts and most of Han’s other works, has translated very well. Han is known for her intellect and writing abilities, so with that in mind I feel this is an incredible piece. I have one complaint, and for me it’s a pretty big one. Smith had the audacity to ‘smuggle in the tiniest bit of Yorkshire…’. Though she argues that for her, ‘faithfulness’ to the translation process is vital and that in context of translating a language that does not use language in the same way, when she needed to be more creative in that translation she always attempted to maintain Han’s original sentiment. And yet, with full admittance, she did indeed squeeze in a bit of Yorkshire towards the end, and it stuck out so hard it made me furious. To me it screamed disrespect. Han couldn’t be further from the Yorkshire culture if she tried. As someone born literally around the corner from Yorkshire, I did not find it quaint. For this reason, when I saw Smith did not translate We Do Not Part, I can’t say I was disappointed – though I haven’t read it yet. Overall, this book is a must read. Don’t let the political aspect of it put you off as it’s not buried under political garb, more that it is connected to the political landscape and figures of the time. The narrative follows the lives of a group of students who got caught up in the events of 1980, rather than an in depth political discourse. It is a sad one. Trigger warnings listed below. I have included very little plot or storyline because to feel the impact you just need to read the book. I now own all previous titles mentioned. I have read the short story, The Vegetarian but I have yet to finish the book, so do pop back for a review of that one later on.

I chose to read Human acts because I loved "The vegetarian" novel by Han Kang, however this one has nothing in common with the mentioned novel. It is very original in the way it is written and estructured. It doesn't focus on one character in particular as it imagine the consecuences of a massacre through time accross decades with different characters and thematic. It is a great novel in every aspect, it will leave a strange feeling with you after reading it.

This book is beautifully written from multiple perspectives about an important but often ignored atrocity

Fue un regalo de navidad y llegó en perfecto estado.

Good book to red nd see the reality of the world