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A review by emergencily
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
dark
mysterious
tense
4.5
I finished this so fast because I wanted to figure out what the hell was happening. Love a little mystery & obscurity.
Due to a recurring and disturbing dream, a seemingly ordinary Korean housewife suddenly develops an intense, obsessive, and self-destructive aversion to all meat and animal byproducts and becomes totally vegan. The seemingly mundane act of going vegan leads to the unfolding of an insane chain of events and the total transformation of her and her family's lives, and revelations about her family's dynamics and inner worlds.
The book is pretty surreal and has horror tones. Interesting to see the physical manifestation of gendered violence & ableism through body horror and the deterioration of her body. Definitely strong warning for SA, disordered eating, body horror, suicide and abuse.
Loved how the book's themes are so open to personal interpretation. It touches on allegories for feminism, capitalism, environmentalism, and buddhism. A lot of reflection on the constraints of misogyny and the way women's bodily agency is casually violated and and control is asserted over our minds and bodies. The main character's veganism, self-destructive as it may be, is a kind of total revolt and rejection of this control. It's also very interesting the MC barely speaks through the whole book. Her story is told through other characters' narratives and their perceptions of her and her behaviours. We rarely get to see what is going on in her mind, as told by herself.
Due to a recurring and disturbing dream, a seemingly ordinary Korean housewife suddenly develops an intense, obsessive, and self-destructive aversion to all meat and animal byproducts and becomes totally vegan. The seemingly mundane act of going vegan leads to the unfolding of an insane chain of events and the total transformation of her and her family's lives, and revelations about her family's dynamics and inner worlds.
The book is pretty surreal and has horror tones. Interesting to see the physical manifestation of gendered violence & ableism through body horror and the deterioration of her body. Definitely strong warning for SA, disordered eating, body horror, suicide and abuse.
Loved how the book's themes are so open to personal interpretation. It touches on allegories for feminism, capitalism, environmentalism, and buddhism. A lot of reflection on the constraints of misogyny and the way women's bodily agency is casually violated and and control is asserted over our minds and bodies. The main character's veganism, self-destructive as it may be, is a kind of total revolt and rejection of this control. It's also very interesting the MC barely speaks through the whole book. Her story is told through other characters' narratives and their perceptions of her and her behaviours. We rarely get to see what is going on in her mind, as told by herself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt