A review by readivine
Human Acts by Han Kang

4.0

“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 the 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, slaughtered - is this the essential of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?”

With the present atrocities present in 2020, this book eerily echoed how state violence and people's activism will always be rooted and driven in the same structures no matter the time and race involved.

Human Acts follows interconnected chapters that document the lives of some Koreans during the Gwangju Uprising in 1980 as well as the aftermath following it. Kang's subtle and unflinching prose is perfect in delivering the harrowing tales here equally detaching and immersing you in different plot points. I especially like The Boy's Friend, 1980 and The Boy's Mother chapter. Human Acts is quite a relevant book to read in this time.