Name: Human Acts
Rating: 4.304166666666666 (120 reviews)
ISBN: 978-1101906729

Human Acts

alyssa

Adrianna Ismar-Gaud Sawyers

𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮

Suddenly it occurs to you to wonder: when the body dies, what happens to the soul? How long does it linger by the side of its former home?

After you died I could not hold a funeral,

After you died I couldn't hold a funeral,

So these eyes that once beheld you became a shrine.

These ears that once heard your voice became a shrine.

These lungs that once inhaled your breath became a shrine.

Some memories never heal. Rather than fading with the passage of time, those memories become the only things that are left behind when all else is abraded. The world darkens, like electric bulbs going out one by one.

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 that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves this single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered - is this the essential fate of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?

Steph

I have no words. This is one of those lifechanging book that you just need to read to experience it. 

varsha venkat

han kang makes me want to reread every paragraph i just read and walk into oncoming traffic. at the same time. this book gives proves to anyone reading that historical fiction can indeed help humanize and reveal the "day-to-day" of critical historical events - but also subtly supports the idea that emotional detachment from our collective past, is dangerous and can help contribute to a misinterpretation. kang's description skills are also haunting, unsettling, yet central to driving forward the main theme of the book: that human acts can be so cruel that they do violence unto the very soul/being of the other person - yet these cruel human acts must be reckoned with alongside the acts of humanity in which people save lives and act in selfless bravery.

magistral,  me enamoré de la escritura poética de Han Kang

yuyu

i feel very ashamed to say that this is the first book of han kang that i failed to finish. the context and story is very important, i love how multiple perspectives are being shifted to tie a story, but i don't know if it's the prose or something else that made it quite difficult for me to stick still. there could always be a second chance for everything, though!

refutabilitas

ebrar

"It’s sunny over there, Mum, and there’s lots of flowers too. Why are we walking in the dark, let’s go over there, where the flowers are blooming."

Isabella 

a very heartwrenching book. shows the resilience and trauma of victims/surviviors during the uprising. very brutal; it captured the atrocious human acts people do. it's very hard to go through the book if you can't stomach such brutality. very impactful especially knowing that this happened in real life. the use of second pov, for me, was brilliant. it definitely pulled me in the story more. it was also beautifully written. definitely a recommend if you can handle it.

It was a hard read only because of the tragedy that is carefully described by the author. It places you as a witness to the barbarism of humanity and leaves you to question whether compassion can exist in the most unforgiving of situations and what comprises of the meaning to be human. It emphasises the fragility of human life and the collateral damage that it causes for many generations. It was a profound and sobering read.

sidni 

A dark, depressing and haunting retelling of the horrifying crimes against Gwangju. No detail left unspared, the rawness of the horror is depicted here. 

Holly

Sumayya Tsabitah

Wow. I got goosebumps. It’s so dark, the whole story. Brutal. Tragic. Imagine a mother buried her own son like that. It’s so sad.

At first, I actually had no idea what’s going on here. Then, it started to make sense. I feel like the book talked to me. It’s beautifully written, although the details were so painful.

Midori Kobayashi

based on the 1980 Gwangju uprising and it's aftermath, this book is based on the experiences of the people, trauma, etc. pls check TWs before going into it!

camilla

peguei esse livro por pura influencia do meu querido rm do bts. nao tinha ideia do que tratava e ainda bem que foi assim! 

é pequeno no tamanho mas carrega um peso gigante e necessário. uma historia (que por acaso eu não conhecia antes) que ocorreu tão longe da gente mas que ao mesmo é tão universal. a narrativa única e a escrita em grande parte suave e delicada mas também questionadora e brutal me fez ficar com um nó na garganta durante a leitura inteira. 

os paralelos feitos entre o bem e o mal.. como os nossos atos podem ter esses nuances: muitas das feridas da humanidade vieram das mãos do homem, mas contenções nessas mesmas feridas também vieram de um ato humano. o legado que foi deixado, a mancha que ficou na nação, nos sobreviventes, nas famílias dos que se foram. as chagas perduram sim mas também ficaram as tentativas de recomeço. somos capazes de tudo que existe de mais cruel, mas também do ato de lutar contra essas mesmas crueldades e praticar/buscar paz, coragem, solidariedade.

é doloroso, poético, violento, triste e repleto de humanidade. com certeza vou ler mais da autora

felicity yoon

eliz

I feel bad about this and for being detached most of the time. the povs, connection of characters, and timeline are all puzzling I had a difficult time (literally, 200 pgs 7 days) in comprehending the message of the story.

stephanie

(4.5/5 stars)
This book made my heart hurt big time...I think this is one of the most challenging books I've read in a while. I was also in awe of Han Kang's writing! She is so meticulous with her descriptions. I only regret that I don't know how to read this book in its original language, as I think it's inevitable that some meaning can be lost in translation. I'm glad that this book helped me learn about the Gwangju Uprising, which I hadn't known much about before...Anyway, I think I need some time to fully absorb what I just read. 😭 I'll be aiming to read Han Kang's other works, that's for sure.

Also some content warnings: Graphic descriptions of death, torture, violence, sexual violence. Also suicide & suicidal thoughts.

brie 🦪

Re-read. Just as brutal as I remembered, but this time I was better able to appreciate the prose and the way the author played with different narrative devices. Each chapter really folds the reader into the conflict. 

Yoomi

Reading this before bed was probably a mistake. It is brutal and heartbreaking. The imagery was so vivid I wanted to close my eyes. Worse, I can't believe I had never heard of Gwangju or what happened there. While the book is a work of fiction, it is based on real events. Han Jang examines the death of a boy from different perspectives and how the uprising haunts them all. Over and over again, I wondered at humanity and how and when people lose theirs. Or maybe they never had it. How else can people commit such acts?

Human Acts

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