Book Review: GREEK LESSONS by Han Kang

Greek Lessons by Han Kang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Are the gods perhaps beings that look, or the look itself?”

Brief but brutal, Han Kang’s tale of a woman without speech and a man going blind is a reminder on the sacredness of communication and its prerequisite: to behold the other, fully.

Having previously read Nobel laureate Han Kang’s historical tales (Human Acts and We Do Not Part), I think I came into the book expecting it to be like these two previous travels through South Korea’s collective trauma.

I’m finding out on my third Han Kang that she also writes about female rage, yet in a different, quieter way.

Both the male and female characters, never named, are dealt heavy hands by fate. She is about to lose custody of her child, and he is rapidly losing his sight despite his youth. They meet in an adult night class where he teaches Greek, and she is a student. The ending came as a complete surprise, as the two protagonists literally shared only glances before, but it’s an extremely satisfying outcome that I never saw coming.

Although… I guess I should have.

My own faith’s religious book, after all, speaks of The Word becoming flesh. And in Genesis, the way all life began was with a word, when God said “Let there be light.”

Kang is a most visceral author, and despite the brevity of this book, you feel every pulse, you bleed and you get get hurt right along with her characters. And to think she accomplishes all this, despite the gap between languages (I read it in the English translation).

One does not merely read Kang. One experiences her.

This book, in particular, resurrected memories of my late father dealing with the increasing darkness brought about by diabetes-induced eye decay, as well as the more joyful recall of teaching three-year-olds the beginnings of a lifelong relationship with the written word: forming letter sounds.

For such a short book, it says a lot about what makes us fully human, and partially divine: this breath of life in us expressed as words, that bring us close to everyone and everything, and makes new life possible.

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