Greek Lessons

Hardcover, 160 pages

English, engelsk language

Published 2024 by SD Books.

ISBN:
978-0-241-99706-2
Copied ISBN!
4 stars (8 reviews)

In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them. 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. Greek Lessons is a tender love letter to human connection, a novel to awaken the senses, vividly conjuring the essence of what it means to be alive.

4 editions

reviewed Greek Lessons by Kang Han

Greek Lessons

4 stars

A woman who has retreated from speaking takes a class in Ancient Greek taught by a man who is slowly losing his sight. That's a bald statement of the plot, but Han movingly explores language and communication through her characters that have physical and emotional blockages to communication. I found her writing on the physicality of communication to be quite evocative. I don't claim to understand everything that happened in the novel, but it did make me think about what we go through when we decide to reach out to other human beings.

Ord som forvirra meg

No rating

Denne var vanskeleg å ta inn over seg, tykkja eg. Kanskje eg ikkje var heilt i humør. Eller riktig tilstades mentalt. Til tidar var det veldig bra. Foreleseren og kvinna var bra figurar. Eg kunne kjenne kjenslane deira. Men så... Forvann det. Inn i ord som forvirra meg. Eg lurar på om eg må lese boka om att seinare.

Review of 'Greek Lessons' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

My first foray into Han Kang, Greek Lessons was an impulse pick from the library shelf. Having studied Ancient Greek, I was drawn to the premise solely for that reason—after all, it’s in the title. Still, this is a novel more about the role of language in how we relate to others, and ancient Greek being the specific medium of that exploration is ultimately neither here nor there. (Though there are some nice one-liners that explore the nuances of ancient Greek, so she must have done the research, or at least had consulted someone who has.)

The characters were a bit strange, admittedly; the protagonist is a middle-aged woman who seemingly goes mute without explanation. She has gone through a messy separation with her husband and has a child she can only see occasionally; like her world, her language closes in around her, cutting her off from other human beings. …

Beautiful Book about the limits and possibilities of language

No rating

I think you have to be in a particular mood for Kang, because she switches perspectives and voices so much (though, at least from what I remember, The Vegetarian does this less than others I've read from her). This book addresses language, communication, expression, and translation in really interesting ways.

avatar for I.P.Freely

rated it

5 stars
avatar for thymudi

rated it

5 stars