21st Century Literature discussion

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Greek Lessons
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Greek Lessons - Initial Thoughts
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I've read The Vegetarian and Human Acts, both of which I loved.
I also loved this one, but it's so different from the others. I saw it almost as a prose poem. Henk, I like your comment on how she gives voice to the voiceless, especially as relates to this book.
I also loved this one, but it's so different from the others. I saw it almost as a prose poem. Henk, I like your comment on how she gives voice to the voiceless, especially as relates to this book.

Greg wrote: "Whitney, that's a really good sign for me that you say it's like a prose poem. I'm even more eager to read it now!"
I'm thinking you'll like it, as you do seem to appreciate the more poetic writing.
I'm thinking you'll like it, as you do seem to appreciate the more poetic writing.


The woman brings her hands together in front of her chest. Frowns, and looks up at the blackboard.
“Okay, read it out,” the man with the thick-lensed, silver-rimmed spectacles says with a smile.
The woman’s lips twitch. She moistens her lower lip with the tip of her tongue. In front of her chest, her hands are quietly restless. She opens her mouth, and closes it again. She holds her breath, then exhales deeply. The man steps back toward the blackboard and patiently asks her again to read.
If you’re reading this letter now—if it wasn’t returned to me unopened—your family will still be living on the first floor of the hospital, back in Germany.
The stone building, said to have been built as a printing house in the eighteenth century, would by now be covered in pale ivy. Tiny violets would have bloomed and faded in the cracks between the stone steps leading down to the courtyard. The dandelions would have withered, leaving only a crown of pale ghost-like seeds. The wild ants would be marching up and down the steps in regimented lines, looking like thick punctuation marks.
The best way to find out about Kang is to sample her prose. She often uses figuative languange, employing literary technigues like metaphor and allusion. I just randomly quoted the opening lines of three different chapters of Greek Lessons to give you a taste. Note the allusion to Borges in the first quote and the different voices in all three.

As expected, I am really enjoying it based on the evocative prose alone, even though I'm finding the two unnamed protagonists mysterious. The woman's disability has a feel of something symbolic, but I'm not far enough yet to guess at exactly what it might signify.
This is a fairly short book; so I'll go ahead and open up the spoiler thread, though after opening it, I probably won't go back there until I've gotten a bit further.


I feel puzzled in chapter 5 as to (view spoiler)

Books mentioned in this topic
We Do Not Part (other topics)The Vegetarian (other topics)
This book is by an author I'm guessing almost everyone has heard of, Han Kang, who has written quite a few critically acclaimed books, including the often mentioned The Vegetarian.
I'm curious. What else has everyone read by her, and what are your favorites?
I'll be starting toward the end of the week as I finish up a couple other books that I already have underway, but feel free to start the discussion. I'll create a spoiler thread in a few days, after things get going.