Book review: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

06:13 theslowslothreads 0 Comments

Goodreads Synopsis:
"Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether. "


Publishing: Originally published in Korean : 30th of Ocotber, 2007
Published in English 2nd of February, 2016

No. of pages (for my edition): 188


First of all, I just want to say, wow. The book is really complex, hidden with lots of messages and metaphors. I think there are many different opinions and views for this book, and also different messages will get to you.

The book it split up in 3 POV's the first POV is Yeong-Hye's husband, the second is her borther-in-law and third is her sister and all of them set in the different time.
These stories were originally published as 3 different but somehow linked stories, and just after that has been put together as 1 Novel. this couls explain some disconnection in the story, like between the first and second story.


First: We will be introduced to Yeon-Hye's and her husband by his eyes. This is the time when Yeong-Hye has the dream, and turns into Vegetarian (vegan), and this is when her surroundings starts seriously consider that she has some serious issues (not only mentally but physically ), and by the end everything  turns into chaos.

Second: This has been viewed by the brother-in-law's point, including In-hye (the sister). I felt like it was too sexual for me, but the ending was quite surprising.

Third: In-Hye's view while she's visiting Yeong-Hye  in the Psychiatric Hospital, watching back to both of their lives.


Characters:

(Spoilers!)

Yeong-Hye's husband is an absolute jerk, he only follows his own comfort, and he uses his wife whenever and however he wants. He has not feelings towards her, He really doesn't give a damn about Yeong-Hye's feeling, not even when she tries to commit suicide.

The bother-in-law has an almost unhealthy/sexual obsession towards Yeong-Hye, and the way he acts (at least for me) is not acceptable.

The dad (and the family in general). they are clearly not supporting Yeong-Hye in any sort of way. When she turns vegan, her own dad tries to push (literally) meat down in her throat. He is violent and abusive since their childhood. As soon as Yeong-Hye gets into the hospital, they just leave her, like she doesn't exist.

In-Hye (the sister) the only one who actually tries to help, and the third story we can a part of a really deep, emotional story.


My opinion:

First, I really liked the writing style, it was slightly different form Human Acts, but I absolutely understand why. (However the Sister's story line was very similar)
As you may know, and as I mentioned the story has 3 POV with different timelines, which I am absolutely okay with, my slightest problem was , that the first has been told in first person , and second and the third part told the story in third person.

I really didn't know how to start with review, that's why , as you can see, I wrote so many sections here. It was hard to start.
The book is very layered. So many things happening, and you have so many different emotions. Yeong-Hye is described as an ordinary girl up until she turns vegan. Turning vegan wasn't the only problem here, it was mainly the change of her behaviour. And to be honest, she was not ordinary before either, she was a bit different than other people, and not because of a mental health issue. This issue comes with all the negative effect she had in her life. A husband who uses her, a dad/family who doesn't show his love towards her and the nightmare she had. All of these were a big effect on her life, and she was just running away from this world, from these people, to find peace. Peace like the nature, trees, flowers.

The book includes mental health issues , eating disorder, abusive behaviour both mentally and physically so if you are sensitive for these topics I would not recommend it, also the book includes sexual content, so I wouldn't not recommend for younger  readers.

I might rewrite this review for  1000 times. I will definitely reread it too and probably write a new review. It is a very interesting book, however, I think I still prefer Human Acts.

4/5 ★  for now .... I might change it too

(oh, and just let you, there's a movie adaptation of this book)