I started but it didn’t hold me. Wrong time I think, try again someday. ( )

72. Greek Lessons by Han Kang
translation: from Korean by Deborah Smith & Emily Yae Won (2023)
OPD: 2011
format: 173-page hardcover
acquired: Library loan read: Oct 20-26 time reading: 5:34, 1.9 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Novel theme: Nobel 2024
locations: contemporary South Korea (2011)
about the author: A South Korean writer and the 2024 Nobel Prize winner. She was born in Gwangju, South Korea (1970). Her father Han Seung-won, older brother Han Dong-rim and younger brother Han Kang-in are all novelists.

In many ways this is a beautiful little book. A Korean woman nearing 40 has become mute and no one can figure out why. 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. This Ancient Greek is a dead elaborate language the instructor is infatuated with. What we readers get is a pair of self-explorations, and an exploration of language and being and how they relate.

I found myself into the prose. It's translated, but it comes across smart and thought-provoking to scan through. But mainly when we look at the woman. Somehow a gentle warm story comes out of this, layered onto of darker histories and life pains.

I've now read Han Kang's four available English-translated books. Han Kang thinks things through deeply and writes thought-provoking novels, but they are serious and overall leave me looking around for something to re-light the literary fire. This one stands out from her other English-translated works as the most interesting on the sentence level. But it's quiet and I'm not sure what will stick. I enjoyed it.

2024
https://www.librarything.com/topic/365030#8655322 ( )

316 reviews
2 followers
October 17, 2024
Last year, I read this novel. This was when it was first published in English (even though the book was released in Korea in 2011). I had just come off of "The Vegetarian" and even though it shares certain aspects of mood and atmosphere and of course, a female protagonist who feels powerless, I felt it a little too schematic and simplistic, and thus enjoyed it less.

After Kang won the Nobel, I reread it. This time, I think I appreciated it a bit more, but still it didn't really impress me. There are two characters, written in different tenses. One is losing sight, the other speech. The speed with which the different narratives communicate and intertwine is each other was more clear to me on the second read. Nonetheless, the characters lacking blood and passion tended to just seem like literary constructions and it was hard to connect with them. It seemed like first she had the concept and then wrote the story to illustrate the concept.

Regardless, this novel is very heady. There is so little plot but so much of the story seems to happen in thought. In mental space. I'm sure that is why it's hard for many readers to get on with this book. I do love that it is a challenging book and appears to ask more of the reader. I also like books that have characters who are into languages.. ( )

[b:Greek Lessons|61686012|Greek Lessons|Han Kang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675083122l/61686012._SY75_.jpg|42281994] is a melancholy meditation on loneliness and communication, in which a mute woman attends lessons in Ancient Greek given by a teacher who is losing his sight. The writing is as beautiful and meditative as the other fiction by [a:Han Kang|4119155|Han Kang|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1612962456p2/4119155.jpg] that I've read. I loved the discussion of learning languages, particularly the pleasures of complex grammar.

Musing over the letters on the blackboard, she picks up her pencil and writes the word in her notebook. She hasn't come across a language with such intricate rules before. The verbs change their form according to, variously: the subject's gender and number; the mood; the tense, of which there are various grades; the voice, of which there are three distinct types. But it is thanks to these unusually elaborate and meticulous rules that the individual sentences are, in fact, simple and clear. This one word - modified to denote that the subject is singular, third-person male; the tense perfect, meaning it describes something that occurred at some point in the past; and the voice middle - has compressed within it the meaning 'He had at one time tried to kill himself'.

For the first time I can see the appeal of learning Ancient Greek. At the moment I'm learning Korean, so enjoyed the inclusion of a little Hangeul.

I found the writing and translation of [b:Greek Lessons|61686012|Greek Lessons|Han Kang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675083122l/61686012._SY75_.jpg|42281994] beguiling. In fewer than 150 pages, it brings the two main characters vividly to life and draws them into communication with each other despite their sensory problems. This focus on sensory limitations gives the narrative a particularly visceral feeling. I am struggling to articulate why exactly it impressed me, but it really did. I think [b:The Vegetarian|25489025|The Vegetarian|Han Kang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478196580l/25489025._SY75_.jpg|18449744] and [b:Human Acts|30091914|Human Acts|Han Kang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1462662940l/30091914._SX50_.jpg|48190343] are more narratively straightforward novels and therefore easier to praise. [b:Greek Lessons|61686012|Greek Lessons|Han Kang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675083122l/61686012._SY75_.jpg|42281994] seemed ostensibly less substantive, yet it was a subtle and profound pleasure to read. ( )

Originally published in Korean in 2011 it has finally been released in early 2023 in English with a translation from Deborah Smith.

In Greek Lessons, the nameless narrator finds the echo of words in her mind so overwhelming, that she loses her capacity to speak. She signs up for a for ancient Greek language course to see if she can communicate in a language other than her native Korean.
Her instructor is captivated by the silent woman since he himself is slowly going blind.

Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence when his sight finally fails him completely .

Greek Lessons is the narrative of an improbable friendship between these two people, as well as a beautiful discourse on human closeness and connection. Greek Lessons is a remarkably deep book for such a short tale.


https://quizlit.org/book-of-the-month-june-2023 ( )