MY RATING:
Synopsis:
From the winner of the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian
Writing while on a residency in Warsaw, a city palpably scarred by the violence of the past, the narrator finds herself haunted by the story of her older sister, who died a mere two hours after birth
Read More:
A fragmented exploration of white things – the swaddling bands that were also her shroud, the breast milk she did not live to drink, the blank page on which the narrator herself attempts to reconstruct the story – unfolds in a powerfully poetic distillation.
As she walks the unfamiliar, snow-streaked streets, lined by buildings formerly obliterated in the Second World War, their identities blur and overlap as the narrator wonders, ‘Can I give this life to you?’. The White Book is a book like no other. It is a meditation on a colour, on the tenacity and fragility of the human spirit, and our attempts to graft new life from the ashes of destruction.
This is both the most autobiographical and the most experimental book to date from South Korean master Han Kang.
- Pages: 161
- Genre: Fiction, Poetry
- Publication date: May 25, 2016
- Format: Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
- Source: Owned
PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON
KOBO
REVIEW:
As soon as I finished this book, I had to reread it. There is something about poetry that activates a different part of your brain, and it does take a while for you to get used to and decipher what the words in front of you are trying to convey.
This was a very difficult read, not because it is written in Latin or Old English, but for its deeper and hidden meaning of every word the author has written. Mind you, this book is translated from Korean, so I know some of the emotions and meaning of the prose might have been lost in translation. Regardless, the exploration of grief here is done so well and so intricately that it took me more than 2 weeks to digest and peel everything that has been fed to me, and I mean this in the nicest way possible.
As a mother, this collection of poetry hit me hard. It punched me in the gut and left me down on the floor. It was so beautiful, yet heartwrenching to read some of the passages, I could feel the pain and agony the author wanted us to.
Honestly, considering that I don’t often read poetry, which is something I would love to change, this book ignited my appetite for this genre.
Overall, a solid 4-star read for me. Not all of the poems resonated with me, and at times, it was difficult to grasp what the author wanted to deliver, but the ones that got to me hit me hard. This is one of those books that I will definitely be rereading and find a new meaning each time.
Lin's Perspective 
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