The Vegetarian book review.
“When a person undergoes such a drastic transformation, there’s simply nothing anyone else can do but sit back and let them get on with it.”
Wow. I went into this read completely blind. And wow, that’s all i can say about this one. There’s something so utterly beautiful and bizzare about Han Kang’s The Vegetarian.
The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-Hye, who after a vivid and gruesome dream, decides to became a vegetarian. The story is told from the perspective of her husband, her brother in law, and her sister as they recount her deteriorating mental (and physical) health. Kang’s writing is exquisite, and she delves deep into the complexities of human relationships, the power of choice, and the consequences of non-conformity.
“Before my wife turned vegetarian, I’d always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.”
The first act:
Yeong-Hye as described through her husband, is completely unremarkable. She doesn’t stand out physically, nor does she expresses unhappiness or great desires. She takes care of their home, and never kicks up a fuss when her husband happened to be late. Her husband, Mr. Cheong is an unremarkable character too. And together their live an uneventful life. Until one day in February five years into their marriage where Mr Cheong found his wife emptying their freezer of all meat, then declaring then and there that she is going to be a vegetarian. Her only explanation when asked is "i had a dream".
The dream Yeong-Hye had and will continue to have, is a gruesome, bloody, and violent. Some recounts of the dream made my skin crawl.
The husband, Mr Cheong and the narrator of the first act, is a completely self absorbed man. He let his wife’s physical health deteriorate and only decided to do something (calling her family) about it when it effected him (after the work dinner). Her family decide to talk her about her vegetarian diet at their next family gathering. And it all goes downhill from there.
“Yeong-hye had been the only victim of their father’s beatings. Such violence wouldn’t have bothered their brother Yeong-ho so much, a boy who went around doling out his own rough justice to the village children.”
At the family dinner, we are introduced to the whole family and their dynamics. Yeong-Hye’s husband, sexuliases her sister. We learn that her brother in law is an artist, that contributes nothing to the household. Her sister; In-hye, owns a cosmetic store. The abusive father, and the brother who has similar tendencies to his father. And the mother who keeps trying to convince Yeong-Hye to eat meat.
After the family fails to get Yeong-Hye to eat meat, her father resorts to more forceful ways. He ends up force feeding her meat after slapping her. The sister is shocked and seems to be torned between intervening or not. And Yeong-Hye in revolt, slaches her own wrist.
I have to admit, the start of the first act set my mind onto a certain plot and by the end of it i was no longer certain on what to expect next. And boy, was i surprised by the rest of the book.
The second act
The second act hits different. Where i was annoyed by the asshole Mr. Cheong. With the second narrator; an unsuccessful artist, who becomes obsessed with her Mongolian mark, i was filled with disgust from his actions. He essentially takes advantage of a person who is recovering from a severe crisis just for his own sexual gratifications. And ends up cheating on his wife.
In this act, we are given a clue about Yeong-Hye true nature of her wanting to be a vegetarian. A clue that i failed to consider until much, much later. The flowers.
The third act
"Though the ostensible reason for her not wanting Yeong-hye to be discharged, the reason that she gave the doctor, was this worry about a possible relapse, now she was able to admit to herself what had really been going on. She was no longer able to cope with all that her sister reminded her of. "
For the third and final act, we get the sister In-hye narration about where things stopped in the last part.
In-hye is divorced, left to take care of her child and her sister. She feels as if she has never lived. Safe to say In-hye is barely hanging in there.
“She didn’t understand why, but faced with those decaying buildings and straggling grasses, she was nothing but a child who had never lived."
We also get to know Yeong-hye’s diagnosis from her doctor. He said that she has anorexia nervosa, and because of her dreams and visions, schizophrenia. No one actually seems to have asked her why she stopped eating meat, nor ask about the dreams. Either way, Yeong-hye time at this hospital seems to be doing her good, that is, until she disappears into the forset one rainy day. After that, she slowly retreats into herself. She stops eating, then stops talking. She believes that she can become a tree.
The vegetarian is not about a diet, but in this case about a person completely denouncing their physical form.
In-hye in this part, is described as this person driven by a sense of familial responsibility. But as it progresses on she comes to the realization that, there is only so much she can do to help.
I went into this final act thinking Kang is going to warp everything in it, but ended up with more questions that i started with.
Don't let the title foul you. The vegetarian is not about eating animals, it is barely mentioned at all. This book in it's short run (less that 200 pages) talks about society conformity, expectations of martial roles, patriarchy that progressively drives Yeong-hye insane until she desires to no longer be a human.
In this act, we come to realize the violence that surrounds Yeong-hye. Her father was not only abusive to her, but to animals too (the dog scene). Her own husband’s indifference to her. The father force feeding then hitting his own adult daughter. And then the marital rapes of both sisters.
"In-hye stares fiercely at the trees. As if waiting for an answer. As if protesting against something. The look in her eyes is dark and insistent."
Finally, the story of The Vegetarian ends with In-hye looking at the trees. Here is when my brain stopped working. Is she coming to understand her sister's rebellion? Does the trees represent how much both of them endured?
I'm not really sure about all of it, but i really enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend reading it.
