We Do Not Part by Han KangMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Before reading this book, I had an impression of Jeju being a beautiful vacation spot in South Korea. I only found out through this book about the brutal military repression that took place in 1948, where soldiers massacred women and children as well as men on the flimsiest suspicion of communist or insubordinate beliefs.
WE DO NOT PART is similar in theme, and yet so different in execution from the same author's HUMAN ACTS.
Nobel Laureate Han Kang has written a book that investigates yet another harrowing moment in South Korea's violent history: the Jeju Uprising/ Massacre.
This book has more elements of fantasy than HUMAN ACTS, with a lot of times that I wasn't sure if the narrator was dead, or if she was speaking to the dead.
This was my second Han Kang, and I'm wondering if all her other books carry the weight of remembrance that HUMAN ACTS and WE DO NOT PART contain. Heavy indeed is the pen of one who would resurrect history before it is forgotten. When we think of how many decades the government repressed the stories of the innocents who died on the beaches of Jeju, we come to realize that Han Kang is a woman on the mission to preserve what was nearly forgotten.
In an age where governments are actively trying to push their narrative of history by deleting or destroying any document contrary to the official party propaganda, Han Kang is becoming necessary reading.
It has happened before. It is happening still.
It is up to us to read and remember.
(If you could read only one Han Kang, I would recommend that you prioritize HUMAN ACTS over this book. The rage burns brighter, the tears come faster with that one... perhaps because of the author's more intimate ties with Gwangju.)
View all my reviews
