“After you died I could not hold a funeral, and so my life became a funeral.”
History is often shaped by horrifying, unbelievable events; moments of such distilled fear and pain that to those of us who think of these events years later, those moments might feel alien. But it is the violent and painful, the wretched and the dark that make up some of the most pivotal moments of our collective history. Perhaps, they are the most representative of all human actions.
“Human Acts” is Han Kang’s sixth full-length novel and an exploration into one such violent moment in South Korea’s history, and its repercussions. Translated to English by Deborah Smith, the book is called 소년이 온다 in Korean, which roughly translates to ‘Here Comes A Boy.’ This book is set during the Gwangju Uprising of 1980, and for those unfamiliar with Korean history here’s a little background. The authoritarian South Korean President Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979, and all hopes of a democracy were dashed by a military coup soon after. The entire country was placed under martial law and in May 1980, university students in a province named Gwangju held a protest against the military regime. The murder of these students by the martial government caused the flame of revolution to erupt across South Korea, and this novel is a glance into the shadow of this uprising, which still looms over the country’s consciousness.
“Human Acts” spans across 1980 to 2013, and given that Gwangju is the author’s hometown, there is also a personal tinge to the book. It begins with the story of a young boy named Kang Dong-ho and his death during the May uprising. It is through this death and those of a thousand others in the uprising that Han Kang weaves this interconnected sequence of characters; ranging from Dong-ho’s best friend, an editor, a factory worker, a prisoner to Dong-ho’s grief stricken mother. The stories of these characters are an exploration of the suppression, pain and massacre they endure, all creating up a collective agony and moments of hope that pierce through their lives.
“Human Acts” is bursting with polyphonic voices that amplify the howls of grief rising from a grieving nation. Han Kang does not explore the revolution through the violence it brought forth; instead, the novel is essentially about grief, the bereavement of all that we hold dear and true. It also delves into the discussion of how to define a nation, where the line between patriotism and nationalism lies. A passage that truly struck a chord with us elaborates on the irony of the nation’s flag being placed over the bodies of protesters, when it is in fact that the nation that killed them. It brings up an uncomfortable question, what is the point of being loyal to a nation that snatches away the lives of its own people, with nothing but a flag as consolation?
Much like Han Kang’s other popular work, ‘The Vegetarian’, this is a short novel and just as emotionally difficult. There is something visceral about Kang’s writing that is haunting and morbid but captivating all at the same time. While it is a subject broached by many, Han Kang’s story of the Gwangju uprising is not about the specifics; it is about how a single event, the culmination of several human acts has the power to change so many lives and of an entire country. Kang’s writing has a quality of making everything feel all the more physical, taking the palpable despair, heartbreak and chance moments of hope seem all the more intense.
“Human Acts” can be viewed as controversial, given the sensitive events forming the backdrop of the story. In fact, Han Kang and this book were blacklisted by the Park Geun-hye administration in South Korea, due to the strong ideological differences. While the characters mourn all that they’ve lost, it’s also quite clear that they see how vital change is. This is a book about grief, oppression, denial and dissent, and it truly makes any reader wonder, what happens if dissent becomes a luxury?
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