Human Acts

Human Acts by Han Kang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I admit this is a hard read. There is death and torture and the horribleness of humanity on display. So why read it? Because it rings true--it is a novelization of a historical event and it becomes a humanization of the facts and statistics. It helps us to understand, to bear witness to, to grieve for these characters who stand in for real people. Kang lays bear all of the horribleness and its aftermath but somehow by giving it a human depth, she creates empathy and hope, too.

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the Korean context, such issues can also be connected to animist beliefs and the idea of somatic integrity--that violence done to the body is a violation of the spirit/ soul that animates it.  

if we can only keep our eyes open, if we can all hold our gazes steady, until the bitter end.