I wish I could say this book was easy to read, but it was brutal and very real. I do think If you can get your hands on this book, all adults should read this book. Maybe I’m just ignorant, or uniformed (whatever you want to call it ) but I did not know about this happening, at least not in this way, in South Korea. This is not a happy cozy, curl-up-in-bed book! It’s important that these interconnected stories of truth be heard. There are parts that I wanted to give up and read a happy story, due to the violence and oppression, but I pressed on. The way this book is written is so unique brave and touching ! 5 stars!
In 1980, during a student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is killed. This is a story of this tragedy and loss. There are several interconnected chapters, one being that of Dong- ho after he is murdered, one of his best friend, another of a prisoner, a factory worker, an editor struggling against censorship. Lastly, (which was so hard to read) comes the chapter of Dong-ho’s mother. These are just some of the voices that need to be heard. They all share their stories of agony of the brutal massacre.
Favorite Excerpts:
‘Why would you sing the national anthem for people who’d been killed by soldiers? Why cover the coffin with the Taegukgi? As though it wasn’t the nation itself that had murdered them.’ P 17
“Hasn’t enough blood been shed? How can all that blood be simply covered up? The souls of the departed are watching us. Their eyes are wide open.” P 22
‘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. The flowers that bloom in spring, the willows, the raindrops and snowflakes became shrines. The mornings ushering in each day, the evenings that daily darken, became shrines.’ P 102
‘Before, we used to have a kind of glass that couldn’t be broken. A truth so hard and clear it might as well have been made of glass. So when you think about it, it was only when we were shattered that we proved we had souls. That what we really were was humans made of glass.’ P 129-130
‘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.’ P 132
‘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 that history has confirmed as inevitable?’ P 133
‘Those were fifteen-hour days with only two days off per month. “Weekends” were nonexistent. The wages were half of what the men got paid for the same work, and there was no overtime pay. You took pills to keep you awake, but exhaustion still battered you like a wave. The swelling of your calves and feet as morning wore into afternoon. The guards who insisted on body-searching the female workers every night before they went home.’ P 152
‘I read an interview with someone who had been tortured; they described the aftereffects as “similar to those experienced by victims of radioactive poisoning.” Radioactive matter lingers for decades in muscle and bone, causing chromosomes to mutate. Cells turn cancerous, life attacks itself. Even if the victim dies, even if their body is cremated, leaving nothing but the charred remains of bone, that substance cannot be obliterated.’ p 203
Product details:
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Hogarth; Reprint edition (October 17, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 110190674X
ISBN-13: 978-1101906743
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars 77 customer reviews
Author Page: Han Kang
https://www.amazon.com/Han-Kang/e/B00JOV97C8/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0https://www.amazon.com/Han-Kang/e/B00JOV97C8/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Press My Spine 