The Vegetarian is a novel written by Han Kang and translated to English by Deborah Smith. It is a contemporary fiction and was first published 2007 in Korean, before being released 2016 by Hogarth Press. The audiobook is narrated by Janet Song and Stephen Park.
The book is divided into three parts, The Vegetarian, the Mongolian Mark and the Flaming Trees. With Yeong-hye as the main focus of all three parts.
Vegetarian
Yeong -hye is haunted by horrible dreams that makes her stop eating meat. Her husband Cheong don’t agree with much of what she does, not understanding her. It becomes even worse when she slowly fading away, becoming thinner and thinner and refusing to eat. Ending with her being forced into a mental institution.
Mongolian Mark
The husband of Yeong-hye’s sister In-hye has started to desire his wife’s sister. Yeong-hye is his ideal woman and he intends to film her in a pornographic movie, not caring who hurts in the process.
Flaming Trees
In-hye is still caring for her sister, who now refuses to eat all together. Slowly In-hye starts to understand what broke her sister and that she might never get her back. At least not until Yeong-hye starves herself to death.
Since Yeong-hye’s action and instability is the focus of the book you would think we would get a deep insight in her mind but we don’t really do. In the first, it’s her husband Cheong we learn most about. We learn about his rather dull view of the world. He married Yeong-hye because she was perfectly normal, not to beautiful, not to interesting. He controls her life, shaming her when she wants to do things like not wear a bra or not wanting to eat meat. He sees her as an object he can shape and just want her not to bring shame to him.
In Mongolian Mark, it’s the husband of the sister In-hye who we learn about. His obsession of his work, his rising desire for Yeong-hye while already being married and his rather cold mind when he tricks a mentally instable woman to have sex so he can film it for “art”.
Lastly, in Flaming Trees, its In-hye we learn about. How their father had been abusive toward her younger sister and that In-hye hadn’t done anything out of fear of her becoming a victim as well. Her guilt for not doing something, and her helplessness for not being able to do something now to save her sister. Just as she wasn’t able to save her from her husband. Though In-hye wasn’t the main character in the first parts of the book, her inability to save her sister comes into full circle when she at the end of the book tries to save her.
This is a very complicated book with many layers and quite well-written. It shows a lot of elements foreign in western cultures that might confuse readers from, for example, Europe, but will make sense to a Korean. There is a strong sense of oppression in the book where the women are used as objects and forced to endure in a society that uses them and expect them to obey.
Now I did notice that some reviewers who where vegan or vegetarians said they relate to her and the hostility she met. Which I cannot utter much about, outside my lack of understanding what this has to do with vegetarianism. Yeong-hye has a mental illness from being abused, which manifest itself to her first not eating meat and then not eating at all. Even when she just didn’t eat meat, she had no real interest in eating healthy vegetarian food and just ate fruit which meant that she pretty much starved herself. Hopefully, that isn’t what vegetarians or vegans do. Relating is fine, but most of these reviewers seemed to miss the point which was that she was mentally ill.
So for those who think this is a book that argues for vegetarian food are wrong. This is about a mentally ill woman who were abused, and used by the men while being abandoned by the society to the point that she stopped eating and tried to die. There is a strong hint that she tried to take back the control of her body by doing so, refusing to let others tell her what she should be.
I thought the book was masterly done, with heavy subjects and an interesting style. That said, this isn’t a book I would read again. I prefer books that take me to another world, not one that hit me with reality. I would recommend the book though I think it can give people much even if they only read it once though I understand why some people might just find it annoying or dull. I would give it a 9 out of 10, and also give a fair bit of warning. This book seem to be aimed toward women. Women can relate to this better, so if you are not in that demographic then this book might feel a bit alien.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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