Human Acts

Human Acts by Han Kang (3 stars, 226 pages, paperback) 

This novel tells several perspectives of the events and aftershocks of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea. It starts off following a boy, Dong-ho, looking for his friend among the bodies of those slain by the military. The following chapters run with the perspectives of other characters introduced in the first chapter, taking place up to 33 years after the event itself. More and more heartbreaking details about the events of one fateful day reveal themselves as the story goes on.  

There’s a good chance you never knew this happened. (Even if you were tuned into world news in 1980, the only American newspaper carrying coverage of this event on Newsbank was the Christian Science Monitor.) Maybe you never knew that South Korea even had dictators at all. I sure didn’t. The book struggles with difficult themes of death and whether a culture or even just a person can recover from atrocity. And I really mean struggles. I’m not certain the author (and/or translator) knew 100% what she wanted to say.

This was a difficult book to read. Every new chapter brought with it the realization of who we were following and what they were going to tell me, and I would moan and say aloud “Please no!” Whatever it was I was afraid of did not fully manifest, though. I was never reduced to a puddle of sorrowful tears, like I was expecting. The language was brutally beautiful and evocative, but somewhat scattershot. I was always left a little unsure how to feel. But then, this is a very difficult theme to write effectively about, and not a theme I seek out, so I don’t really fault the author (and/or translator). Ultimately, this is a troubled, difficult exploration of grief.