Today’s Reading: THE WHITE BOOK by Han Kang (Finished)

The White Room by Han Kang

Yesterday I started, and today I finished, The White Book by Han Kang, who recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

First and foremost, this is not a novel. It’s more of a collection of single/double-page essays centered around the theme of “white.” In Korean culture, as with many Asian cultures, the color of mourning is white, not black. That is evidenced throughout this collection as she describes snow, the death of a fictional sister, the passing of her mother, and her own sense of loss.

I liked the book, very much, but as it’s not a novel there is not a central story to say, “Oh, this was good because these things happened and entertained me.”

This is more of an informal treatise on loss, and I am OK with that, but it requires, and deserves, deeper thought.

Some selected quotes I enjoyed:

Now and then, the passage of time seems acutely apparent. Physical pain always sharpens the awareness.

Breath cloud

On cold mornings, that first white cloud of escaping breath is proof that we are living. Proof of our bodies’ warmth. Cold air rushes into dark lungs, soaks up the heat of our body and is exhaled as perceptible form, white flecked with gray. Our lives’ miraculous diffusion, out into the empty air.

Don’t die. For God’s sake don’t die.

I open my lips and mutter the words you heard on opening your black eyes, you who were ignorant of language. I press down with all my strength onto the white paper. I believe that no better words of parting can be found. Don’t die. Live.

I got my copy from the local library, but I am thinking this may be a book I’ll need to own so that I can go back to it on occasion to re-read and rethink its deeper meanings over time.

Her prose is at times very poetic, so I am eager to read her novel Human Acts when it shows up next week.