We Do Not Part

This is a strange and uncomfortable read, very esoteric. I would have to add nightmare to the blurring of boundaries between dream and reality. It is unrelenting in its portrayal of the horrors of genocide, yet, at the same time there is something very gentle, soft and quiet about the book. There is a definite muffling of the world. Must be all the snow. The story is a slow burn, it draws you in, I wanted to find out just what was going on. However, I never did find out. A little boring to begin with but stick with it, it does improve even if it doesn’t quite live up to its promise. By this I mean there are some promising themes which I would have liked to have seen explored further. Supernatural elements are touched upon but don’t go anywhere. There is also no real resolution and so is ultimately unsatisfying though hopeful. It is a bit of a grim read if I’m honest yet it’s a good book, a worthy book, but fun it isn’t. I’m still really glad I read it though and it’s definitely one that stays with you. Cautiously recommended. Read as part of Gloucester Book Club.

Unfortunately our group was disappointed with this book. Most found the narrative confusing and disjointed ,though we all learned something about the Korean War and culture.
This book was gifted to us by Penguin so thank you to them. It’s great to get the opportunity to read something a bit different to what we might ordinarily choose.

I had high hopes of this book. I had really enjoyed Pachinko and learning about Korean history and culture. This is a very different kind of book. It is very atmospheric, dreamy and ghostly. At lot of the time I didn't know whether the narrator was hallucinating as she died from hypothermia in the snow, or being visited by ghosts, or it was real. It turned very dark and hard to read as we found out about the horrendous massacre on Jeju Island.
I read it as part of Gloucester Book Club, who were kindly given copies. I'm glad to have read it because I got a slightly fuller picture of later twentieth century Korean history, but the inhumanity, killings, and desperate searching for survivors upset me and I would never reread it.

On the back of this book, it states that it is 'blurring the boundaries between dream and reality' and this is certainly true.
On a winter morning in Seoul, whilst dealing with a mental health crisis, the main character Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend to go and see her in hospital. This starts a journey for Kyungha that takes her through snow storms, ill health, being close to dying and entering a different realm of reality. I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book. However, the last third just felt long winded and slightly boring. I was disappointed after such a great start to the book!

Set in Jeju, a South Korean island, We Do Not Part has a slow, beautiful and snowy beginning. Dreams, reality and hallucinations intermingle lending a dreamlike quality to the narrative. But brace yourself for the second half which becomes quite harrowing as the Jeju uprising and subsequent genocide of 1948/49 are uncovered. A brilliant book that left me stunned.