Fionnáin reviewed White Book by Han Kang
These Pages
4 stars
The White Book is both a gorgeous, touching, spacious artwork and a poetic, personal journey. It comprises short vignettes, none more than three pages long in the English translation, all contemplations on the colour white and its resonance with the tragedy of the author/narrator's older sister, who died hours after her birth.
Even with the tragic content, the book retains a sense of the joy about the unlikely beauty of living in this world. The short chapters are occasionally punctuated by photographs that are themselves wonderful moments. The finished object is contemplative, and its strength is in its minimalism, leaving ample space to consider Kang's lyrical writing.
