Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Vegetarian

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

rowanelisa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lpython's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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queenofenglish's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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paninigoweenie's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Yeong-hye, the Vegetarian, remains a mystery to me. The reader never truly understands her, Han Kang veiling her behind the perspectives of the people in her life: first behind her domineering husband, then behind her repulsive brother-in-law, and finally behind the worrisome and tired eyes of her caring sister, In-hye.

In the first third, The Vegetarian, I disliked every character, especially Mr. Cheong, Yeong-hye’s husband. A natural patriarch, he feels emboldened by his control over his wife. Naturally, when she decides to cease her consumption of animal products, he calls her insane, inconsiderate, mentally-ill. What will his boss think of him? How will society perceive him? A man with a vegetarian wife, a man who lost control of the being who belonged to him. Yeong-hye defies society. By rejecting meat. By rejecting wearing a bra to ease the tension in her chest. By rejecting submission. And so begins Yeong-hye’s quiet revolt against the pain of being human.

In the second third, Mongolian Mark, we follow In-hye’s husband, Yeong-hye’s brother-in-law. When compared to Mr. Cheong, her brother-in-law is not outwardly tyrannical. A distant artist, he keeps to his art studio, often forgetting about his wife and child. Hearing about Yeong-hye’s mongolian mark, he finds inspiration for a new film project. He films her nude, painting flowers over her body. He sexualizes her. He defiles her. He is the embodiment of the cruelty and perverseness of humanity. All the while Yeong-hye embraces a new version of herself: she becomes more reticent, less anxious, almost like a plant. In fact, she begins to believe she is one.

After In-hye learns of her husband's infidelity, and him taping him and Yeong-hye having sex, she calls the police. We then transition to the final third of the novel which redeemed the book for me in many aspects: Flaming Trees. In this latter third, the fog that blurred my understanding dissipated, albeit, not completely. Reading from the perspective of In-hye was particularly enjoyable, solemn, and devastating. Suddenly the book became less about the savagery of men and more about the women, the two sisters, who must endure the agony of human consciousness. Yeong-hye’s suffering stemmed from the abuse of their father; In-hye learned to survive their father’s abuse. Suffering is inflicted upon them throughout their lives. And as a result, Yeong-hye revolted, becoming like the trees, a silent creature that does as she pleases, without serving others. In-hye suffers as well, realizing she’s never really lived:

“The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never really lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure. She had believed in her own inherent goodness, her humanity, and lived accordingly, never causing anyone harm. Her devotion to doing things the right way has been unflagging, all her success had depended on it, and she would have gone on like that indefinitely. She didn’t understand why, but faced with those decaying buildings and straggling grasses, she was nothing but a child who had never lived.”

While her sister is admitted in the mental hospital, In-hye thinks of her son and her love for him, she thinks of life and its plights, but she also thinks about a human oddity: we suffer yet we endure. We lace laughter in our suffering, we continue treading:

“Life is such a strange thing, she thinks, once she has stopped laughing. Even after certain things have happened to them, no matter how awful the experience, people still go on eating and drinking, going to the toilet and washing themselves—living, in other words. And sometimes they even laugh out loud.”

When I think of this novel, I do not think of meat, or a mental hospital, or even a certain character. I think of the imagery of the trees: the trees that Yeong-hye and In-hye escaped to as children, their leaves burning with the rising of the sun, the same trees they see in the last scene of the book. As children, they see the trees as an alternative life, a peaceful one, devoid of their father’s abuse. Why not become one? Why not escape the tumultuous expectations of life, and simply live as you care to? Why not simply forge your own path, no matter how peculiar it seems?

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elsieols's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

okay, so this review is a little difficult to fully articulate. i will try, though.

first of all, the husband and the brother in law both deserve to be buried alive and then to spend eternity in hell perpetually being castrated by hot-but-not-hot-enough-to-cauterize branding irons. that being said, i found myself rating this book highly despite their perspectives. there are a couple reasons, i think, why.

first off, it i didn’t know han kang was a woman, i would have dnf-ed less than 30% onto the book just by how mr. cheong was speaking of yeong-hye. however, knowing she was a woman and in an intellectual field, i think i opened up my mind more to what commentary could come from these depictions.

i can only see this book as a depiction of the abuse and mental fragmentation women face under the thumbs of domineering men in a patriarchal society, specifically from the forced repression that one does when raised as a girl and woman in a society like this. women in this depiction are like the dog yeong-hye remembers her father killing—forced to run in circles and coughing up blood and organs, being dragged on the ground for nothing but amusement after doing something as simple as biting, a basic, defensive instinct. and men are the people surrounding the dog, killing it and eating its meat. yeong-hye’s vegetarianism is her trying to pull away from the system and create a gentler system. she clings to her breasts as things that sustain life, as soft parts of her. in the end, though, in her attempt at escape from this system, she is the mess of hard lines and sharp edges that she had grown to fear in herself. it’s terribly tragic and very violent, but i do think that kang depicts these moments and emotions well. even the perspective choice speaks to yeong-hye’s forced suppression. we only ever see her perspective in tiny glimpses in her husband’s pov, and 2/3 of her story is told by men.

another reason i rated this book highly is because of the questions it brings of the self and the fracturing of the mind, especially in the last part. even if we look at these NOT primarily through the lens of repressed women, the questions in this part about the self and the way abuse changes a person are fascinating. i especially find it fascinating to examine the parallels between

yeong-hye’s descent into instability and her sister’s.

i think this was done incredibly well.

all in all, i appreciate this book even if it made me angry and uncomfortable. i can certainly see why one may rate it low based on the horrific narrators and an inability to separate them from the author due to HOW terrible and inexcusable they are. however, this feminist commentary i kinda stuck to from the beginning made me come to really appreciate kang for how she depicted yeong-hye’s story.

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missn11's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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alexofsuburbia's review against another edition

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2.0

Voy a confesar que cuando lo terminé me sentí confundida, incluso en el transcurso de la segunda parte consideré abandonarlo pero me ganó la curiosidad y por eso decidí terminarlo. Por suerte encontré un análisis buenísimo y muy completo en youtube que me ayudó a procesar las ideas que no llegué a interpretar de manera completa. Sin ese análisis siento que me habría quedado con la idea equivocada sobre la novela.

Diría que como tal no me gustó porque esperaba algo completamente distinto y realmente creo que toda la segunda parte pudo ser omitida, en ratos pensaba que estaba leyendo a un autor masculino cualquiera y no a una autora ganadora de un nobel por haber realizado una crítica necesaria, pero ya después reconocí el talento de la autora porque al tener la narración de la hermana se nota completamente el cambio. Aunque honestamente sigo sin entender el punto del cuñado, habría sido una historia mucho mejor sin esa parte.

Lo que más me gustó fueron los sueños de la protagonista, creí y me habría gustado que hubiéramos leído más de ellos pero no fue el caso, eran lo único que me tenía enganchada a la historia porque la narración del esposo también me molestó mucho. En cuanto a la tercera parte me costó un poco porque no era algo con lo que esperaba identificarme.

En general creo que es una historia bastante dolorosa, sí refleja como se ve de manera externa el no encajar en ciertos estereotipos de la sociedad y como eso va perjudicando a un nivel exagerado cuando todo se podría evitar “fácil” pero por desgracia nunca va a ser así. En cuanto a lo que le toma a la autora para llegar o contar esto… no creo que haya sido muy eficiente porque pudo contar lo mismo de una forma bastante diferente. Yo nunca, nunca, nunca voy a estar de acuerdo en narrar/exponer/usar cierto tipo de abusos para que la moraleja sea “es que así es la vida y eso está mal” porque se puede llegar a esa misma conclusión evitando repetir esos mismos actos que tanto se quieren criticar.

Tal vez luego le vuelva a dar una oportunidad a la autora, pero aunque no lo haya querido admitir sí fue una decepción.

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taywin's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

3.5

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thewitchsreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Ik was zo benieuwd naar dit boek, maar ik denk dat ik een heleboel symboliek of plotpoints heb gemist of zo, want het was niet wat ik ervan verwachtte. Ik vond het tof dat het boek vanuit drie verschillende perspectieven over de hoofdpersoon spreekt, maar ook daar was het niet wat ik verwachtte. Ik had het boek Kim Jiyoung, geboren in 1982 meer in m'n hoofd, dat het die kant op ging, maar da was nie.
Verder bleef ik wel geïntrigeerd en was de schrijfstijl prachtig, maar soms ook echt veel te grafisch voor mijn liking. Op sommige momenten was het echt te eerie.

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