This was the second book that I read by Han Kang, after previously reading “The Vegetarian” in 2019, which I rated with 4/5 ★. Even though I still have the author’s two other books, “The White Book” and “Human Acts” on my “to-read” list, I’m starting to think that the author might just not be for me. After reading “Greek Lessons“, I left feeling confused, delighted by some passages but mostly at a loss of words which made it difficult to give it a specific rating. I didn’t dislike it but I also wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, which is why I’d give it an average rating of 3/5 ★.

As a warning straight ahead, I simply don’t enjoy poetry. There was a bit of it within the book, or a style resembling poetry, especially towards the end, which made me finish it on a lower note. This therefore influenced my perception quite a bit. A lot of the time I was wondering who the narrator was and who the other characters were, since the changes in perspective weren’t really clear to me. It felt like this 150 page book was really long. It read really slowly and there were some passages that I actually wanted to re-read to soak in the visual comparisons. It took quite a while to get into it, especially because the storyline felt so blurry. Its style is definitely one of a kind and it ended up being the part that I enjoyed the most about the book, below are some examples of it.

The lit fuse of the chilly explosive primed in her heart is no more. The interior of her mouth is as empty as the veins through which the blood no longer flows, it is as empty as a lift shaft where the lift has ceased to operate.

p. 14

She tries to listen attentively, but is unable to concentrate on each word. That one sentence sticks in her ears, like a long fish cut into pieces, its postpositions and word endings not yet sealed.

p. 19

If snow is the silence that falls from the sky, perhaps rain is an endless sentence.

p. 136

Some signature and unexpected violence is once again present in the book, true to the typical Han Kang style. Most importantly though, I really enjoyed the reflections and meditations on the topic of language, what it consists of, its meaning and what a world without it could be like. For a novel, I also felt like I took along some valuable knowledge about the Greek language, hearing about some of its particularities for the very first time, awakening a new curiosity about it.

She no longer thought in language. She moved without language and understood without language – as it had been before she learned to speak, no, before she obtained life, silence, absorbing the flow of time like balls of cotton, enveloped her body both outside and in.

p. 8

Language worn ragged over thousands of years, from wear and tear by countless tongues and pens. Language worn ragged over the course of her life, by her own tongue and pen. Each time she tried to begin a sentence, she could feel her aged heart. Her patched and repatched, dried-up, expressionless heart.

p. 129

There’s something really magical and mystical about the author’s writing, making you feel like you dive into a parallel universe while reading. Her observations and descriptions of things and situations that are mundane made you see your own world in a bit of a different way. A particular passage especially spoke to me, when dealing with the topic of spending your life in different places, with different languages and how your identity changes due to that:

To be honest, there are times when I feel envious watching the students. Of their certainty, their unwavering firmness, perhaps – something only those whose life, language and culture have never been broken in two, as they have for us, are able to possess.

p. 58

The readers that I would see really enjoying this book would be those, who are drawn to the poetic, the abstract, to philosophical reflections and those who are not too critical about not having a clear and structured storyline. Han Kang definitely has a very particular style of writing and I was nevertheless glad to once again have had the possibility to dive into her new invented universe.

★★★☆☆ (3/5)

_{Edition: ISBN 978-0-241-60027-6
Hamish Hamilton, 2023 (originally published in 2011)}