Book Review: The White Book by Han Kang

Halo book worm...

To be honest, I've never read any of Han Kang's books—who is said to have won a Nobel Prize for his work. This book was also implicitly recommended by fellow authors on Facebook. I didn't really read the reviews, just glanced at the praise some people had for it. Eventually, I ended up at a book bazaar in Senayan Park and saw it was on sale—although the discount wasn't much. But after purchasing it, it turned out that buying it on social media was much cheaper than the discounted price. Ah, I was hooked!

There was something that caught my interest when I read the blurb. It mentioned that the author had done a residency in a European country, so with that sentence, I immediately knew this book was just what I needed at that moment, so I took it home—after paying for it, of course.

Let's get it!

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The White Book by Han Kang

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This book tells the story of loss. The narrator, who doesn't give his name—but I know he's a man—tells the story of how his family lost their first child, a girl. The baby didn't survive for more than an hour. Even though the mother had said, "Please don't die, please don't die," the baby still wouldn't open her eyes. There was no real regret afterward because it happened quite naturally. But somehow, the boy born a few years later felt that loss and described every sadness through the color white.

This book has a narrative style similar to poetry but is written in prose. Each chapter is so short that I only read it twice. Each chapter tells the story of something white, and each sentence conveys a profound sense of loss. One chapter is about loss, another about fantasy, and the final chapter is a true story. I was impressed by how the author framed grief and linked it to everything white.

Honestly, this is a difficult book review for me to describe because it's not your typical fiction. It's a true work of literature, and even when I read it, I still had a hard time grasping what the author was trying to convey. This is different from reading George Orwell or Leila S. Chudori's books, where I could enjoy them page by page. This book is… a true work of literature that I might need to read again.

I rated this book with 3 star from 5 star.

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