Review #4: Human Acts

Author: Han Kang

Rating: ★★★

What happens when you blame yourself for your friend dying? What happens when you feel that you left him or her because you were too scared. More importantly, what happens during an uprising in the 1980s in Gwanju (South Korea)? This book is all about that.

I've read the translation of her previous book, the Vegetarian, and I will say, I did not particularly enjoy it. The disturbance in the book, the content, it all left me with a sour feeling. Maybe that was the intention of the book, or maybe I just did not get the point of it, because it was a pretty depressing and mature topic to deal with. The same can be said about her latest venture, Human Acts.

When I did take on the task of reading this book, what caught my interest was the uprising, and how Han Kang would portray such a significant time in South Korea's history. Maybe my mind was not prepared for how sad lives could be, maybe because I've been blessed to be around a little of peaceful time, I do not relate to it, but I could definitely not digest a lot of the on goings of this book.

For those who have a stomach for disturbing events, and believe in extreme soul searching, maybe this book is for them, but it is definitely not for the faint hearted. So before you start reading Han Kang's books, I'd suggest you prepare yourself for a not so happy time.

#historicalfiction #bookreview