Welcome to Litsy!

A woman has become mute. She has lost her husband, teaching job, and custody of her 8-yr-old son. Lost herself, she takes a course in Ancient Greek taught by an instructor about her age who is losing his sight. Somehow a gentle warm story comes out of this, layered onto of darker histories and life pains, and terrific interesting prose. This completes my two week run through Han‘s four English-translated novels. (Another is due out in January)

Starting the next book - more from Nobel winner Han Kang

This is so hard to review - there is so much space in here for the reader to create their own understanding - or to get hopelessly lost! I did feel lost at points but also extremely moved by the beauty of the writing, the incredible imagery used to experience one person losing language while another loses vision. Perhaps it is exploring the separateness of human existence, of individual grief and pain, the importance of being seen or heard. 😢

Hmmmm. Some parts I was engrossed in and thought the writing was beautiful. Other parts I felt detached and couldn‘t wait to get them over with. Han Kang always has unique concepts that I find myself drawn to. Even if I didn‘t thoroughly enjoy it, I still loved that two human beings found each other through loss and mourning.

Started this one a couple of days ago. A woman that has lost her speech and her professor that is losing his vision are drawn to one another. I‘m almost at the halfway point- where the professor‘s interest for the woman is escalating. So far, the writing is moody and atmospheric just like you‘d expect from Han Kang 🖤

A nearly blind professor of Greek bonds with one of his students, a woman who has stopped talking and then lost custody of her child. I like Han Kang‘s writing and the way she explores physical manifestations of mental anguish.

7 chapters in WOW! I was not a fan of Kang‘s Booker winning ‘The Vegetarian‘ but with this new work she captures the tender and deeply felt above the horrific. The structure is marvellous and makes readers active in the creation of meaning. It has touches of Calvino! Just really enjoying this text.

i would have liked to have gotten to know the characters a little more intimately, but overall i enjoyed the gorgeous prose and the examination of loss. this is my first han kang novel, so i‘m looking forward to reading more of her works.
#womenintranslation #translatedfiction

Like @squirrelbrain I found this a bit opaque, but I was also very moved at times, so it gets a pick. Sometimes my mind would wander, though, because of the very slow pacing. #BorrowNotBuy

A woman has lost custody of her son, and her deep pain has caused muteness. She takes ancient Greek lessons from a professor who is losing his sight. They are brought together one night and find a common language through their pain.

A book that's difficult to review. There's barely a story; the style is distilled, crystalline—almost like a prose poem. I can understand why some people find it too insignificant or slight, especially compared to The Vegetarian, which was like a hothouse flower blooming into a grotesque, unforgettable shape. In comparison, this one is like the barely perceptible rustle of a cool breeze. But there was a sadness to this strange, quiet book

I might‘ve gone a little crazy at the library yesterday looking for some holiday weekend reading material! I have the tagged and Homebodies from the #CampLitsy23 longlist, a couple of graphic memoirs, a Le Guin for June #AuthorAMonth, and three others just because!

Can anyone tell me why it is that I always forget my tote on days I checkout more than 4 books?? 🤣

Physical manifestations of stress & grief & loneliness in a woman losing ability to speak, man losing eyesight. Switch between 1st person, 3rd person narratives a bit jarring, unintegrated. Language & silence. Solace. Deprivations: sensory & communicative, forced & self-inflicted. Distanced and withholding. Trans 2023.

53 “Sometimes she thinks of herself as more like some form of substance, a moving solid or liquid, than like a person.”

This is my least favorite Han Kang book. I absolutely love her first three (English translated) books, and she is an auto buy author of mine. But this book was so slow, mixed with my general reading slump I had a hard time caring about the characters. A book that should have taken me an afternoon to read took me over a week
As always I LOVE Kang's use of language, her translators do such a great job. I might try to read this again later this year.

Another book that was on the #camplitsy23 long list. It did reasonably well in the voting and, actually, would have made for some great discussions. It‘s a very opaque book; I‘m not really sure what was going on most of the time and, personally, I don‘t like that in a book.

The book switched between two viewpoints, one first-person and one third-person and it wasn‘t clear at the start that there were two MCs so I was very confused. ⬇️

In my defence... I'm preparing for #camplitsy23 🥳 Got all the books ready now! Looking forward to reading the new Han Kang too.

This book wouldn‘t go into my brain. I started it twice yesterday but was super distracted and thought that might be why. So I restarted it again today when I could really focus and it still didn‘t work. There‘s nothing wrong with the audio, so that‘s not it. It‘s all about language and communication and facing the loss of those things. I should have loved it, but I‘m clearly the wrong reader for this book. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Love that this email came because I 💯 forgot I pre-ordered this book!! I had planned on going to the bookstore after work tomorrow to get it 😂

I‘m not sure what to write about this. It feels almost irreverent to review it. I wanted to read every sentence aloud. This combination of Han Kang and her translators has resulted in something that is so moving and beautiful that I want to just sit in silence with it for a while. It‘s fiction. It‘s poetry. It‘s raw humanity.