Book 1,051: Excavations – Hannah Michell

If there is one book that I regret not getting my review pushed out as soon as I finished it to tell everyone about it, it is this one! Seriously, this book has stuck with me and I’ve thought of it off and on since I read it. And even when I read it, it was a year later than I should have because the publisher reached out in July of 2023!* OMG I didn’t even realize that which is a shock to me—I guess 2022-2024 were even more blurred than I thought.

This isn’t as hauntingly powerful as Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go or Murakami’s 1Q84, but it could hold its own. Interesting those are both also author’s of Asian descent, as is Hannah Michell. Michell has the British connection also to Ishiguro, but that is tangential to this review and this probably says more about me than it does those three authors.

This was a beautifully written story told through weaving three times together all circling a skyscraper collapse in Seoul, Korea. There is immediacy of the skyscraper’s collapse, the time moving forward after the collapse, and the various flashbacks. It is a romance and a thriller, and somehow starkly but luxuriously written to punch your emotions over and over again in ways you don’t really expect.

As intriguing as the modern day thriller/drama was around the skyscraper collapse and Sae’s missing husband, I found the flashbacks to when Sae and Jae were students to be more compelling. They were coming of age and finding out that what they thought was something was actually something else and they were broadening their horizons and learning different views of the world.

What had burdened them as students was the discovery of a system of power that held back key unsavory events in their history. They had come to the country’s best institution to further their knowledge, only to question what it meant to know at all. Part of their rebellion was a commitment to the reclamation of a more honest past. (Chapter 2)

Excavations was also incredibly interesting in how it portrayed generational trauma not through the immigrant lens. Perhaps this is something that has been done elsewhere or even in other languages, but this was the first time I’ve read it. The relationship between Jae and his father and Sae and their children was fascinating. Adding in that Sae was a reporter (in addition to a revolutionary) and this story has quite a few elements that if you believe US mass media would make this one a super unique outlier.

There are also so many minor characters that truly make this book a fascinating read. From the brothel madam and workers to the big-bad CEO to Sae’s best friend from her village growing up, they all add depth and breadth to a relatively compact story considering how much it covers in just over 300 pages.

Recommendation: This was definitely a little slow to get started, but overall it was a fantastic read and if you can get into it keep reading. The mix of thriller/mystery, romance, and multi-generation expansion really worked. And when you add in that there are still parts of the book that pop into my head randomly more than six months later, you know there was something special about it.

Opening Line: “Jae was a man of his word, and he had promised Sae he would be home at six o’clock.”

Closing Line: “‘Seung-min,’ she says. ‘I’m coming to see you.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Excavations
“His wails rose to a hysterical scream. All she wanted was a moment’s quiet to be able to pick out a single thought from the roar in her head and follow the thread of it. The wave of frustration she had been trying to ride washed over them, and she wanted to strike something. She yanked him from his chair, feeling the stretch of the joint in his shoulder where she gripped his arm.” (Chapter 7)

“It wasn’t until some months after that first encounter in the library that he handed her a work of fiction: The Unbearable lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Before this, they had only ever exchanged nonfiction—historical or theoretical texts. A work of fiction felt like an invitation of a different kind.” (Chapter 7)

“You see, before this trip the village, I didn’t know that there was other ways of living. Poverty is a condition that takes on new meaning when you see that it is only one of many possibilities. That’s when it becomes unbearable, like an itch in some unreachable corner under a shoulder blade. That journey to the market cast a light on the way we lived. I saw that faces could be rounder, that there could be lightness and laughter. Suddenly I found myself restless and eager to go back, to explore this other world. But I discarded these thoughts whenever they sprang to life. Because a son does not defy his father.” (Chapter 7)