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A review by ashalucienne
The White Book by Han Kang
5.0
Kang continues to baffle me. Her writing is unparalleled, she is truly one of the best authors I've read! My hat to her translators too. But this piece was such an interesting read considering I am working on a creative writing team this semester and have been struggling to feel confident in my creative writing voice. This book was so clear and confident, it stood its ground in its space and white pages, in its prose and changing narrative form. Kang has a mind that works in so many beautiful ways, she never fails to impress me with her stories and the way she builds characters through limited narrative structure. This was heart wrenching at times, particularly when the girl talks about her lost sister and the impact it had on her mother.
"Breast Milk" pg 41
The twenty-two-year-old woman lies alone in the house. Saturday morning, with the first frost still clinging to the grass, her twenty-five-year-old husband goes up the mountain with a spade to bury the baby who was born yesterday. The woman's puffy eyes will not open properly. The various hinges of her body ache, swollen knuckles smart. And then, for the first time, she feels warmth flood into her chest. She sits up, clumsily squeezes her breast. First a watery, yellowish trickle, then smooth white milk.
"Breast Milk" pg 41
The twenty-two-year-old woman lies alone in the house. Saturday morning, with the first frost still clinging to the grass, her twenty-five-year-old husband goes up the mountain with a spade to bury the baby who was born yesterday. The woman's puffy eyes will not open properly. The various hinges of her body ache, swollen knuckles smart. And then, for the first time, she feels warmth flood into her chest. She sits up, clumsily squeezes her breast. First a watery, yellowish trickle, then smooth white milk.