Whats it about?
The Vegetarian is a short allegorical novel set in South Korea about a young lady Yeoung-hye, who stops eating meat after a graphic and bloody dream. Her families reaction to her decision leads to a sequence of disturbing events, ending with, what appears to be, a decent into madness. Its told in three parts, from the perspective of the protaganists husband, her brother in law and finally her sister.
Bookclub thoughts… nobody liked this book. Do you have to like a book for it to be good? Apparently not. The group unanimously acknowledged it was interesting, thought provoking and well written. The male characters were despised and it was stated early that this is a powerful feminist novel.
‼️SPOILERS ‼️
Unsurprisingly, we found the violence disturbing. But also the subjectification of the body, of women and of mental health.
The authors commentary on the medical system struck a chord with some members as they recall experiences of common misdiagnosis in women going through menopause or hormonal changes.
Part two see’s Yeoung-hyes artist brother-in-law become sexually obsessed with her, persuading her to participate in an rrt piece involving him having sex with her. At this point we are unclear on Yeoung-hyes mental state which sparked an interesting conversation on consent. Particularly as Han Kang writes the scene to be such a positive and freeing experience for Yeoung-hye, its hard to reflect on what is right here. Great writing
It was said that the three part structure kept the reader engaged and the text pacy. Most felt that a great deal was added to the book by the changing perspectives… what could have been predictable became surprising and engaging as we switched characters and tried to relearn a new personality. The stark contract in the description of Yeong-hye between the first perspective, the husband, and the second perspective, the brother in law, made us all doubt how well we understand any story told from a single perspective. We thought it would have been interesting to hear from the father or mothers point of view.
All agreed the translation was outstanding and words visceral. Though we cant read the Korean, it would be fascinating to compare
Conclusion
A powerful feminist text with a dark commentary on human violence towards each other. No one wanted to read it again, some want to read more of Han Kang's writing, all agreed it was deserved of a writing prize.
We would recommend it to literary fiction readers, those who want to think, discuss and reflect.
Further reading... Human Acts by Han Kang, Greek Lessons by Han Kang