Honey in the Wound by Jiyoung Han weaves a story of broken silences in the wake of brutality and the connections that give voice to those silences. Magical moments live in the tears that grow into grass and a tiger that can rescue, but not save, the fate of her human family. And in the way mothers attend to each other while their dead children’s ghosts cry out. And in the transformation of gifts into love, resistance, and freedom.
Not until Young-Ja unearths the swell of grief for the granddaughter who resembles her long-gone father does she start to free herself from the merciless shame of her enslavement. Grandmother and granddaughter lift the veil to show that silence is never silent.
These forgotten women who were used as stock to help men forget their brutalities or provide relief to soldiers, finally use their bodies to protest the lapses in history’s memory and their words to help us all “learn and unlearn” and to show “how beliefs are made and taught.”
As much as I wanted Young-Ja to talk, I felt protective of all she’d been through and understood if she chose silence. I also rejoiced when the wisdom of young Rinako, simply wanting to be near her grandmother, allowed Young-Ja to finally release her voice, her tears, and her story.
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