pickA woman has become mute. She has lost her husband, teaching job, and custody of her 8-yr-old son. Lost herself, she takes a course in Ancient Greek taught by an instructor about her age who is losing his sight. Somehow a gentle warm story comes out of this, layered onto of darker histories and life pains, and terrific interesting prose. This completes my two week run through Han‘s four English-translated novels. (Another is due out in January)
pickHan begins with a room of unclaimed corpses. South Korea has a dark history. In May 1980, in response to a coup, university students and young female factory workers joined to inspire an uprising in Gwangju, a university town. The government responded with an intentionally brutal crackdown and massacre. Han, a born in Gwangju, is uncharacteristically direct here, and brings us to the crackdown and to its long aftermath. It‘s an important book.
pickDrawing from true events, this book smacks the reader in the face with graphic brutality from the word go and shows how that violence reverberates across the lives of those involved for decades. I knew nothing about this event from 1980 and I‘m glad I read this, though it wasn‘t an easy read. Phenomenal book.
“As if trying her best to mend a broken friendship from her childhood, she immersed herself into the books, day and night, never leaving their side.”
#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl
“An old woman sits on the beach, a cushion strapped to her bottom, sorting algae that‘s washed ashore.”
pickThis reads like a collection of prose poetry. A series of white things, with a theme on an older sister who only lived a couple hours. Each topic gets a page or so. A blizzard is characterized by "this oppressive weight of beauty", a handkerchief is falling "like a soul tentatively sounding out the place it might alight". Very interesting, if generally mystifying to me.
pickWorking through Han‘s novels. They‘re short! And only 4 in English. I started with her International Booker Prize winner. Ok - you might know the theme, the wife who turns vegetarian driving everyone crazy. What you may not know is how fun this book is up front, and how opaque is becomes. We never get her view. Only those around her, and these narrators have serious issues. But also it always undermined what I expected. Thought provoking.
