We Do Not Part by Han Kang - 4 stars

[Joy D]

We Do Not Part by Han Kang - 4* - My Review

“People walked past the window in bodies that looked fragile enough to shatter. Life was exceedingly vulnerable, I realized. The flesh, organs, bones, breaths passing before my eyes all held within them the potential to snap, to cease - so easily, and by a single decision.”

We Do Not Part is an artistic novel that blends the real with the surreal as it explores a dark episode in Korean history: the 1948 massacre that took place on the island of Jeju. It begins with narrator Kyungha’s dream of tall dark trees, snow, and graves by the sea. Upon waking she receives a text from her long-time friend and artistic collaborator, Inseon, who is hospitalized after a carpentry accident. Inseon asks Kyungha to rescue her pet bird, left in its cage after the accident in her home on Jeju. This first part is the most straightforward.

In the second part, Kyungha becomes enveloped in a snowstorm. As she reaches Inseon’s home, it appears that Kyungha starts losing touch with reality. The narrative takes on a dreamlike quality and collapses time. It is an effective way to enable the two friends to reveal the atrocities that took place in 1948. Part three is shorter and brings everything together into a powerful conclusion.

I wanted to read Han Kang’s latest work after learning she won the Noble Prize in Literature. I have read several of her other books and continue to find many connections among them. The writing is superb. The content is gut-wrenching. This work addresses the worst traits of human nature and a horrific event in history but, to the author’s credit, it left me with a feeling that healing is possible.