It is fascinating to read of an author’s mind at work. How they write, what they think, what they feel about their work, their surroundings, their emotions, and how it feels when the work has ended, and a new book is about to begin.
Han Kang’s latest offering, “Light and Thread”, her first since she won The Nobel Prize in Literature is an intimate book of thoughts, of how life works, of how we are as humans (to some extent), and in all of this, the role nature plays, and the thread that connects us all, even if we choose to ignore it: “the gold thread that connects our hearts” – what an eight-year old Han Kang wrote in her diary: Love.
She speaks of her books, of “Human Acts”, “Greek Lessons”, “The Vegetarian”, and “We Do Not Part” – the ones we have enjoyed, been tortured about, and felt so strongly about – she speaks of her state of mind and heart while writing them. Of how violence has seeped in our lives, and yet there is so much hope left in humans, in love, in holding on to it, and spreading that love.
She speaks of her little north-facing courtyard garden in her home that she tends to with mirrors for sunlight and water and deep love, and how things grow, and how people have the same capability in them.
I read this book at a time when I needed it the most. To believe in kindness and goodness and love, despite the violence in the world, despite the hate in people’s hearts, in spite it being there like a large, dark shadow.
Han Kang’s writing is simple, it is simple so we understand, so we feel, so we know that flowers will bloom no matter what. We need to just understand how it all works – how love and kindness works – and how we then survive in a world like this.
Of Books and Reading 