Human Acts

This is a book by author of "The Vegetarian", Han Kang. At first - I was expecting it to be not nearly as good as its predecessor, but after getting into it, I found that it was probably almost just as good. The premise of "Human Acts" is murder, massacre, guilt, betrayal and suspicion in a world of censorship and a population so inquisitive and volatile that you get this hyper-realistic and almost three dimensional view of all emotion encountered. 

I found this book, yes again whilst browsing in a Waterstones. I think it was Han Kang's name that made me pick it up - I found "The Vegetarian" so well written and so exciting that I had to read his other books. I was quite happy I found this. 

Characters:

My favourite character is Dong-Ho's mother. She seems like the one most struck with emotion - of course, her son has been killed. You will find that this book takes a massive leap from emotion to state and surrounding and then back again - and especially with Dong-Ho's mother, these incoherencies is what is shaping her grief and making the memory of her son almost indelible. It's a classic lamentation with a modernist suave that brings about questions of suspicion and sympathy. 

Themes:

The best theme in the entire book, by far, was voice. It is Dong-Ho's murder that gets the ball rolling, but we encounter many people - journalists, prisoners, Dong-Ho's friends etc. that seem to be at a loss, some of which don't even know Dong-Ho. These brutal voices are battered by their own self-conscious struggles and seem to always be combatting something. The language use is poetic, but not romanticised - which I like. Something about romanticising pain seems a little overdone in the modern era, a cliché, it seems that Han Kang is very good at avoiding. 

Storyline:

I'm sorry for having gone on forever, but I did really enjoy this book. However, the storyline is a point of question seeing as the very beginning of the book is the most captivating of all. Once you get into the main premise of the novel, you begin to wonder what actually perpetuated this mass consciousness of combat - you start to wonder if this is representative of a mass population rather than just the populous of the book. I'm saying "however" because sometimes, it can lose the flow with all those events. A lot of things take place in what is just over 200 pages and I think that even though it was required - the book could've been longer as to cater to that populous. 

Verdict:

I give this book 9

100% for characters: I think that Dong-Ho's mother, friends and all the other characters are a direct representation of a modernist society in search for answers to everything. Even things that don't need answering. A population of curiosity and psychedelic panic - one of Han Kang's great traits. 

100% for themes: The voices that are contained within the novel are beautiful - an entire populous of people - a kind of struggle ladder in which the ones at the very bottom are probably the better off as the ones at the top keep dying. These changing voices reflect age, gender, wisdom, class, job etc and Han Kang gets it just right.

100% for storyline: There is something always there in Han Kang's writing that deals with the strange and the psychotic. I believe that this mass concentration on the psyche makes the novel more disturbing without being graphic and I also believe that Han Kang has now become one of my favourite modern authors. 

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Note
If you made it this far, I thank you. 
Sorry that this review was a little long,
I had a lot to say. 

5ft 2 xxx