Review of the book “White” by Han Kang
Review/Opinion:
White by Han Kang is a short but deeply introspective novel that focuses on the symbolic meaning of the color white in the life of an unnamed narrator. Through a series of poetic vignettes, the narrator meditates on objects, events and sensations related to white: from snow to white sheets, rice, clouds and scars. Each of these elements evokes memories and emotions related to loss, grief and the fragility of life. The book is structured as a kind of diary or collection of thoughts where the narrator reflects on the death of her older sister, who passed away. shortly after birth. This early absence has marked her life invisibly, and throughout the novel, she attempts to reconcile with the memory of the sister she never knew, while exploring her own sense of identity and mortality. White is, in essence, a meditation on loss, absence and purity, using the color white as a metaphor for the immaculate, the ethereal and the unrecoverable.
Blanco is a unique work within Han Kang’s corpus, largely due to its fragmentary structure and deeply introspective approach. Instead of a traditional narrative, the book is composed of a series of short meditations orbiting around the color white and the objects that represent it. Each of these reflections serves as a portal into the emotions of the narrator, who grapples with unresolved grief over the death of her sister, a tragedy that occurred before her own birth, but which has left an indelible mark on her life. .
The decision to center the novel on the color white is significant. White, in many cultures, is the color of mourning and death, but it also represents purity, innocence and rebirth. Han Kang explores these dualities throughout the work, using images of objects such as snow, cotton, milk, and ashes to symbolize both the ephemerality of life and the possibility of reconciliation. Snow, for example, covers everything with serene beauty but eventually melts, serving as a metaphor for both the transitory presence of people in our lives and the pain that inevitably dissolves over time, though never completely.
What sets Blanco apart is his intimate and poetic approach. Unlike Han Kang’s other novels, such as The Vegetarian or Human Acts, which explore violence in an explicit and visceral way, Blanco is a softer, quieter exploration of pain. Here, the violence is not in the external acts, but in the absence and in the narrator’s internal struggle to find meaning in the loss. In many ways, Blanco is a meditation on silence: the silence of death, the silence between memories, and the silence that often surrounds unexpressed emotions.
Another theme that runs through the novel is motherhood and the female body. Through her reflections on her lost sister, the narrator also thinks about the experience of her mother, who carried life and death in her body. The female body is a recurring theme in Han Kang’s work, and in Blanco, the body becomes the terrain where pain is inscribed, not only through physical scars, but also in memory and emotional legacy.
Han Kang’s prose in Blank is minimalist and lyrical. Each word seems carefully chosen to evoke a sense of stillness and contemplation. This economy of language not only underlines the meditative nature of the book, but also allows the reader to immerse themselves in the emotional world of the narrator without distractions. The brevity of the vignettes does not diminish the depth of the reflections; rather, it reinforces the sense that the most painful and meaningful human experiences are often the most difficult to put into words.
Han Kang is a South Korean writer born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea. She is known for her poetic literary style and her explorations of themes such as trauma, memory, and alienation. Since her debut in the 1990s, Han Kang has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Booker International Prize in 2016 for her novel The Vegetarian. In addition to Blanco, his other notable works include Human Acts and The Greek Class, which explore themes of violence and grief on both a personal and collective level.
Han Kang comes from a family of writers: his father, Han Seung-won, is also a well-known novelist in South Korea. She studied literature at Yonsei University in Seoul and has worked as a creative writing teacher. His literary style is characterized by its delicacy and its ability to interweave the physical and the spiritual, the personal and the universal, often using the body and language as powerful metaphors.
Blanco is a meditation on grief, loss and the fragility of life, using the color white as a central symbol.
The book is made up of a series of poetic vignettes, each focused on an object or concept associated with white, such as snow, sheets or rice.
The novel reflects on the death of the narrator’s older sister, who died at birth, and how that absence has marked the protagonist’s life.
The work also explores themes such as motherhood, the female body and memory, with an introspective and minimalist approach.
Han Kang’s prose style is delicate, lyrical and loaded with symbolism, creating an atmosphere of silent and deep contemplation.
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/blanco-han-kang-opinion
