"is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as species?"

like i shared in a forum post, my motivations for picking up this book were two-fold: 1. to learn a little something about what my parents's generation lived through during their childhood in south korea, and 2. because i fear that the US is heading in the same direction of political cruelty and pain in the coming years.

i'd read han kang's VEGETARIAN a long time ago, so i knew not to expect the usual clear sequence of events/plot. however, i found myself pleasantly surprised by the contents of this book. if i had to choose one word to describe this book, it would be haunting. han kang begins with a second-person pov of a young boy, dong-ho, who was separated from his friend during the gwangju massacre. dong-ho inadvertently begins aiding the management of corpses of slaughter civilians that have become accumulating. over the course of several chapters, we see what lead to dong-ho's death and the aftermath of the uprising experienced by those who manage to survive it.

while there are certainly references made to the politics of the time, han kang casts a smaller net and focuses on the emotional aftermath of gwangju. it is a story that happens because of politics, yes, but han kang's lens is less about the "right" verses "wrong" side of history (though the brutality against civilians is clearly not endorsed in this text) and more about grappling with understanding humanity in the wake of despicable harm. "human acts" is a double entendre to me: it represents the violent cruelty enacted on civilians, but it also represents the response to said cruelty, such as the tenderness that dong-ho's mother remembers him by.

the narrative presses up against the fourth wall by the perspective of the writer seeking to unearth the truth of what happened to dong-ho. although the quote above--and much of the story--grapples with whether humans are fundamentally cruel, han kang shows that humans are, additionally, fundamentally empathetic, capable of great grief for others. grief is such a double-edged sword. it is so painful, but it is only painful because humans love, care, and empathize with one another. grief permeates every page, which is what leads me to think that this story isn't one of a political success or failure, but simply one of grief.

han kang's writing is precise. i felt like i was hyperaware of the physicality of each of the character perspectives, particularly because she employs that specificity in writing about corpses. i do feel like she/deborah smith succeeds in avoiding grotesque, sick gore. after all, the physicality of the corpses is all that's left to describe, as they are deceased. there's an eerie similarity between the dead and the living, in part because of this emphasis on physicality, and the continuous shifting between describing characters who are alive and the massacred corpses they're surrounded by. this is not an easy book to read. i got sucked into it often, but sometimes it felt a bit overwhelming and i had to step away.

did it settle my unease about the turmoil stirring in my country? admittedly, no, and i don't think anything will. but there's a companionship here, between reader and author and all the characters, and i've been thinking about why i feel that way. after some consideration, i've decided it's because han kang invites us into this story, this snapshot of history, with equal parts brutal honesty and gentleness. i like to think empathetic "human acts" include picking up a story like this and reading, to honor the dead by learning the truth. while i can't say i "enjoyed" this from an entertainment standpoint, i loved this book for the tenderness of humanity that's expressed in the wake of inexplicable violence.

i want to write a thorough spoiler-full post about my thoughts and what i love about this book, but i want to also convince you to pick up this book. because yeah, it's really fucking good. i went into STATION ELEVEN not knowing a thing about this book, and i highly recommend that you skip reading the summary and go in blind, because the experience is so worth it.

i think i'll put my full uncensored thoughts in the forum instead, so in the interest of keeping this is vague as possible, let me summarize why i think you should read this book:

• the writing is lovely. mandel experiments a bit with form in this, but it--along with every sentence--feels intentional and carefully constructed. there were several times when i reread a line or a passage just to sit with it for a little while.

• literary take on the post-apocalyptic genre. if you're looking for an action-packed story, this isn't it--it's quieter

• intricate storytelling that weaves past and present together beautifully

• ensemble of characters full of life, with fleshed out back stories that you want to know more of

i loved this book. i don't even know what to do now. read more of mandel's work, probably