📖 Novel of the Week: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

 

'The Vegetarian' is a short but intense novel narrating Kim Yeong-hye's transition from omnivorous to vegetarian (borderline vegan) through three short stories told from the point of view of the protagonist's husband, brother-in-law, and older sister.

The husband describes his wife Yeong-hye as a common, almost banal young woman with no noteworthy physical or intellectual attractions, but whom he married anyway because she has no particular defects and he was interested in leading a quiet life, as predictable and ordinary as possible; he himself admits, in fact, that he cannot say he's unhappy as Yeong-hye isn't demanding at all and does not expect anything more than her husband already gives her. The first story focuses on her husband's total inability and indifference to understanding Yeong-hye's profound psychological distress from the moment she declares that she no longer wants to eat meat due to a disturbing and destabilized nightmare she had the night before.

The situation degenerates to the point of self-harm during a family lunch, when the girl's father, overbearing and authoritarian, forcibly tries to make her eat a piece of meat. This will lead to Yeong-hye's hospitalization and the slow but inexorable separation of her family from her because she's now seen as a troubled young woman and eventually of her husband as well, so self-centered that he calls himself 'the real victim' of the situation.

After a short period in the psychiatry ward, Yeong-hye seems to be doing better and, within a few months, she even manages to move into a small apartment on her own. Always taciturn and with a look that does not reveal any emotion, her brother-in-law will develop an unhealthy obsession for her, claiming it's for some sort of artistic project, to the point of pushing them to a very dangerous end.

In the last story, we find Yeong-hye hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital, but the progress is so poor that her attending physician confides to her sister that there is very little left that they can do for her: suffering from nervous anorexia, linked to a severe form of schizophrenia, Yeong-hye has become skeleton-like skinny because of her categorical refusal of food, leaving no option if not feeding her by tube, and almost always under sedation. In-hye, the elder sister, is the only one visiting her, driven partly by the sense of duty she feels towards her younger sister, and partially because she needs to understand in-depth the darker reasons that led Yeong- hye to reduce herself to that state.

The novel is particular, very dark, and gruesome and I wouldn't certainly recommend reading it to those who are easily impressionable. Personally, I found myself uncomfortable during most of the reading due to the very crude and violent descriptions and equally harsh, almost animalistic, and excessively exasperated feelings. 

It is always difficult to identify with and understand the uses and customs of cultures other than one's own, but despite this I think the writer described very well the most extreme and less noble traits of the human soul, pushing them to the limit.

My vote: 6/10

Ph: goodreads.com