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A review by engage
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was so insane, I think if I hadn’t been so busy the last week I’d have knocked it out in one day. It’s steeped in this very eerie world with this like sense of foreboding that seems to just permeate off the page. I totally understand why the book was likened to Kafka—it raises that same sense of unease and depicts a sort of similar unraveling of the main character that he was very famous for.
What I really enjoyed with this book is that even though Yeonghye is the main character the story is (purposefully) not told through her own eyes at all. It’s through observations by the people around her and through their own biases about her you understand her as a woman in bits and pieces and never truly as a whole. This fracturing of her “self” starts the alienation process and it continues to unravel right to the very end. All of her choices she makes are tainted by these perceptions of and the narrative continues to both validate and vilify Yeonghye’s existence and choices. There is so much in this book to pull apart and chew on. The passive way she acts in the beginning with the vegetarianism to the aggressive way she becomes at the end to prevent herself from being fed, even through a tube.
“It’s your body, you can treat it as you please. The only area where you’re free to do just as you like.”
I have so much more to say about this book but I really did enjoy myself. I mean this in a 100% positive way but I could definitely have seen this book being on my World Literature or Feminist Literature reading lists for my college courses back in the day. Amazing read.
What I really enjoyed with this book is that even though Yeonghye is the main character the story is (purposefully) not told through her own eyes at all. It’s through observations by the people around her and through their own biases about her you understand her as a woman in bits and pieces and never truly as a whole. This fracturing of her “self” starts the alienation process and it continues to unravel right to the very end. All of her choices she makes are tainted by these perceptions of and the narrative continues to both validate and vilify Yeonghye’s existence and choices. There is so much in this book to pull apart and chew on. The passive way she acts in the beginning with the vegetarianism to the aggressive way she becomes at the end to prevent herself from being fed, even through a tube.
“It’s your body, you can treat it as you please. The only area where you’re free to do just as you like.”
I have so much more to say about this book but I really did enjoy myself. I mean this in a 100% positive way but I could definitely have seen this book being on my World Literature or Feminist Literature reading lists for my college courses back in the day. Amazing read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence