Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion

Our March discussion is Human Acts by Han Kang.

Here’s the discussion schedule:

Introduction * 3/1 thru 3/3
Chap 1 * 3/4 thru 3/6
Chap 2 & 3 thru 3/9
Chap 4 thru 3/13

Entire book open 3/14

Happy March 1st and our discussion for Human Acts by Han Kang.

Has anyone picked up the book and will join the discussion?
Has anyone already finished the book or currently reading it?
Have you read any of her other highly praised books?

Han Kang (Korean: 한강; born 27 November 1970[1]) is a South Korean writer. From 2007 to 2018, she taught creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.[2] Han rose to international prominence for her novel The Vegetarian, which became the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction in 2016. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, a first for an Asian woman and for a Korean….

Han Kang’s wiki
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Kang

Do you typically read the preface, introduction or foreword to a book? They are all different and used for good reasons. Do you typically read any of these before starting the first chapter; wait until you complete the book and return to it later; or, avoid it all together?

Human Acts has an introduction.

Introductions can be tricky. Sometimes they’re useful and other times not. This particular introduction provided some information that might be helpful in the book structure. That I liked. Conversely, it provided some information that I would’ve rather found out from just reading the book

I do typically read introductions as I find information there that gives me more insight into the author and the book. Most of the time my enjoyment of a book in increased when I read the introduction. Sometimes, though, it's not worth my time. For those intros I may just skim through them.

I don’t like introductions and usually skip them. If the book is especially compelling I may read it after I’ve finished the book.

Of course, in addition to the introduction, preface and foreword there’s the prologue. But, I think unlike the others, the prologue is part of the book and is absolutely necessary to read. I couldn’t imagine reading Tommy Orange’s There There and not reading that brilliant prologue. Blasphemous!

I typically never read introductions or forewords until recently and man am I kicking myself! They provide so much insight from a passionate and knowledgeable source, and I truly appreciate learning contexts and themes from their perspectives. Quite recently I read The Complete Fiction of Nella Larson and read the foreword from Charles Larson that talked about Nella Larson’s life and how they might have influenced her writing. Great stuff. Will definitely take the time to read the introduction to this book too!

Has anyone read a book based in South Korea?

Has anyone read anything by this author before? I understand her recently released novel We Do Not Part may be her best one yet. And then of course there’s her award-winning The Vegetarian.

Were any of you aware of this uprising prior to Human Acts? I was not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju...

Typically I read the introduction and the epilogue before reading the book. In the epilogue sometimes are important symbols to real life situations that I wish I knew when reading (cue Shadow of Blood and Bone).
If an introduction is only a memoir and it is mainly to say that this person thanks people, I skip it. I like the context or things to look for

Discussion of Introduction and chap 1 -The Boy

The first chap (The Boy) is filled with unsettling, even gruesome images. We don’t see them when they occur., but by literally pulling back the sheets of these victims we can surmise what has happened. How did this make you feel?

Up to page 30 and the visual of the two young women Eun-sook and Seon-ju helping with or maintaining these deceased bodies is heart wrenching. One scene in particular made me halt. 🥲

Currently discussing chapters 1-3

I was not aware of the Uprising before reading this book. This attests to the paucity of knowledge about Korean history in the world in general. A reason why it is so great that Han Kang won the noble prize! Also great that she writes about these and other events in recent Korean history.
I found the descriptions really hard to read but I found the contemplation of death, the unnecessary deaths, the passion and pain of youth— all of it was so important and amazing. This event should never be forgotten or ignored.
But I am curious about what others think of the description of the aftermath of the Uprising, the way Kang did.

I usually read introductions, especially as this is a translated book. I was not aware of The Uprising, so found the translator discussing historical facts helpful.

Now, I just started Chapter 1, The Boy. This is harsh to read and also have the Audio. Yet, it is truthful and gives a genuine sense of how the event happened and all the deaths. I like it so far, even though this is difficult to read. Interested in the story and also the actual history of this event.

I was blown away by this book, which to my mind is a quest to speak about trauma and grief in a safe manner. I also had a lot to say about the title and how this speaks to an important question re: "human nature". I posted my review here on good reads.

Entire book open for discussion

I am only starting Chapter 3. Han Kang is such an elegant writer. It is so hard to read certain passages and feel for the women helping get the bodies ready. For the friend looking for the boy. The sadness, the trauma, the grief, it is palpable.

Completed this novel a few days ago and I must say it was a great story. Yet, difficult to read at times. I love stories that tell historical events in fiction. It allows one to feel the emotions and understand the event better. Prior to this reading I had never heard of the tragedy in the city of Gwangju. It made me research more, making me more empathetic to other parts of the world that many of us don’t consider as having these issues. Hopefully, I read more by this author and others.

This is my favorite of Han Kang's books. I loved the Vegetarian but to be honest it was three stories that didn't hang together all that well as a novel. I loved the interleaving of fact and fantasy in Human Acts. It moved me in ways only fiction can do when written about real-live events.

i just finished the book and just. wow. i had known about the 1980 uprising, but the level of intimacy and violence han kang brought just made me experience it in such a visceral way. i would be remiss not to connect the student protests in gwangju to the ones happening around the world in response to the atrocities happening in palestine, sudan, congo, and beyond. for the most part, the police brutality didn’t result in the mass murder of children, but the same cannot be said for the children in refugee camps being bombed during a ceasefire, or those slaving away in mines for our new iphones.

i’m not saying this to be a downer. i just wanted to remind us all that human acts is about a real historical event, and that i hope the pain, grief, love, and loss that you may have felt affects you and stays with you as we look around us at the world we live in today.

han kang has managed to capture some beautiful, terrible emotions, exploring the various perspectives of those who suffered under brutal, human acts. as well as those who stood up for and cared for each other through kind, human acts.

Living through this trauma most certainly gives rise to certain philosophical questions, as alluded to in the title of the novel and described here by a person who everyday must confront that these atrocities were committed by another human being and constitute a “human act”:

“Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a raving beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered - is this the essential fate of humankind, one that history has confirmed inevitable?”

As tragic as these circumstances are we must also remind ourselves that the tragic stories we are sharing are being related by survivors. Damaged survivors, but survivors none-the-less. Survivors who in the intervening years have created a museum/memorial of the event. Why? Because we should not be allowed to forget. This should never have to happen again. We are all damaged by the trauma but also know it is powerful to live another day to tell the story.

That, I believe, is what the author Han Kang is doing when she set out to write this novel. Of course human beings are capable of immense cruelty, I will not deny this. But neither will I deny that human beings are also resilient creatures who are sometimes capable of enduring great cruelty as well. For many of us enduring such cruelty reinforces in us the desire to not create the harm that was done to us. As I currently live in a country of the cusp of political violence, and as political power currently appears poised to enact all kinds of human cruelty here and around the world, I think it is useful to remind ourselves that we are not the first people to have experienced these atrocities, we are not the last, and we too, may yet find a way to survive and thrive as one of perhaps the most noble of human acts.