The Vegetarian is a tree-part novella, each narrated by a different character. The main character is Yeon-hye, a young married woman who suffers a mental crisis and becomes a vegan in a country and family where veganism is not well-seen. Her crisis will affect all members of her family in unexpected ways, opening a box of Pandora that will varnish with emotional crisis everyone it touches. The other two major characters are her sister In-hye, and the unnamed artist In-hye's husband.
The three parts are:
1/The Vegetarian = We are told the story of Yeon-hye'd through the eyes of her husband Mr Cheong,
2/Mongolian Marks = We are told the story of Yeon-hye's artist brother-in-law.
3/Flaming Trees = We are told the story of Yeon-hye through the eyes of her sister In-hye.
The Vegetarian is Yeon-hye's vanishing act in three chapters as each shows a progressive deterioration of Yeon-hye's body and state of mind. The Vegetarian is also an three-way immolation: self-destruction, self-obliteration, and self-denial (Yeon, In, and the artist respectively).
****************
The Vegetarian is not an easy book to read, sad, tragic and depressing but also artistic, erotic, lyric an poetic. The book has layer upon layer of meaning, and touches many different subjects that are organically intertwined, and that the reader will discover as they read along.
# Some of these subjects and themes are immediately obvious: ~ The social and family structure in South Korea. ~ The objectification of women. ~ The nature of desire. ~ The nature of artistic creation. ~ The effect of trauma and the suppression of emotions on the psyche. ~ The many facets of violence in our daily dealings. From feeding somebody against their will, to emotionally using somebody disregarding their emotional needs, having intercourse with a person who is not in his right mind, or enduring life without living it fully. ~ Social and personal boundaries.
# However, I see four major themes in the novel:
~ One is the seek for the real self, because that true self is what we really are, the voice in our inner speech. The closer you are to your true self and your true inner voice the healthier your state of mind. This novel shows this masterfully. .
~ The second is that reality is perception, which is tarnished by our psychological projections.What is more, reality is part o our dreams and dreams are always real no matter how fantastic and mysterious they look like. All the characters say, at certain point in the novel, that the other person is a stranger to them, or that they don't really know them, even though they are family. We can only know other people to a certain extent, even when we think we know them well. We are projecting all the time.
~ The third is mental illness. Which are the repercussions on the social network of the sick person? Where and what is the line that separates sanity from insanity? Who is most insane, the insane person whose mind exteriorises the trauma, or the sane person who cannot deal with the trauma within their own sanity?
~ The fourth is Human Nature vs. Nature. In the book, the former is equalled to violence, suffering, lack of peace, and being stuck, while the latter is equalled to peace, fluidity, happiness, movement, truthfulness, to life as in zen. In fact, the three characters develop a special relationship with Nature, Yeon-hye wants to be a tree, the artist wants to self-obliterate himself into nature through flowers, while In-hye sees trees and forest as holders of the mysteries and answers she is still to get. This links well with Korean culture and Korean connection with the forest, trees and mountains and with some ancestral animist believes that still permeate Korean culture.
****************
There is a heavy presence of strong oneiric elements and moments in the novel that affect all the main characters in the book, Yeon-hye, In-hye, her husband and her son. The oneiric element works perfectly in the novel because dreams are the messengers of the psyche, they are the bed where the soul rests, the mirror of the true self, that part of the human being that is honest and says to you how you feel. Dreams are also a space where reality and non-reality mix in organic but mysterious ways. The dream is the seed of our hidden truths, of our moments of elation and those of despair and anguish. The dream is always emotional. And this is the case in the novel. We see our characters' frigid emotionality in their awaken life, but very emotional in their oneiric life. We see their dreams speaking their inner truth. However, the dream is not only an literary element here. There is a strong dream culture in South Korea, still alive nowadays.
****************
Regarding influences, we Westerners have a western-centric view of the world that we project all the time, especially with successful Asian artists. We tend to see the influence of any major Western artist on any successful Asian artist who becomes popular in the West, and also a tendency to put in the same bag all those Asian artists who become popular in the West. In a way is understandable. Those are the cultural anchors we have because, when it comes to South Korea, we don't have enough knowledge of the language and culture of the country to do differently. Besides, we are reading a translation and, no matter how good the translator is, this is never the same as reading a work in its original language. What can we say about the use of language, play of words, choice of words, sentence structure and on any other linguistic characteristic that is intrinsically linked to the literary value of any literary work? Some critics with too much space to talk nonsense have made connections between Han Kang's writing and Murakami, and found all sort of Western literary influences on this book. Well, I don't see the connection with Murakami at all, mind you. The connection with
The Metamorphosis
could be made, albeit quite vaguely.
I also have my own projections, of course. Here my mental association. The second chapter and the erotic flower theme resonated with me and brought to mind a video who I saw many-many years ago, the scene of the copulating flowers in Pink Floyd's The Wall (you can still find the clip on YouTube) because, somewhat, I found there was a similar energy, the madness, and darkness even.
Han Kang has personally said in some interviews, that her work is indebted to Korean literature, that some of darkness and themes in her works are directly linked and indebted to her experience of the massacre in Gwanjiu in 1980, and that she writes from an Universal standpoint even though she is Korean. She is the daughter of a writer, grew up surrounded by books and artists, she says, but she doesn't really mention any major Western author as her major literary impromptu even when asked about this. So that should suffice to stop speculating about Western influences.
****************
There are images powerfully lyric and visually artistic and cinematic in this book. One of my favourites is in the fist part, when Yeong-hye in the courtyard in the hospital with a bird in his hand.Almost like a modern painting. Or the image of In-hye reflected in the mirror with a bleeding eye. Others, on the contrary are very dramatic, shocking and horrific, like the dream with the dog. Those images will stay with you for a long time, printed in your retina long after you close the book.
****************
The translation by Deborah Smith is good. Most of the book flows and that is the sort of experience we want as translators and readers to have when translating literary works. Having said that, I thought that the first part needed of a few more commas, cutting on some unnecessary wordiness and another choice of words (this being a very personal thing, of course).
TWO NOTES
|| The Vegetarian was originally published in 2007, compiling three novelettes previously published separately. However, the story, according to Hang herself, developed organically, but turned dark, from a short story of hers "Fruits of my Woman" written in the year 2000.
|| The book was taken to the screen in 2009 under the direction of Woo-Seong Lim. The movie was also called The Vegetarian.
TYPOS
> I couldn’t get my head round it. (Locations 48-49).
> natural it was to not wear clothes. (Location 1220).
A WARNING
This word contains explicit violence, human and animal, and explicit sex scenes.
A QUERY
Why was the book called Vegetarian in English is the character becomes a vegan? Was the title in Korean the same?
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Reviews with images
Blood Dreams
The Vegetarian is told from three points of view: Yeong-hye's husband, her lover, and her sister. The book spans a number of years, showing Yeong-hye's first declaration of vegetarianism to an eventual, but inevitable, ending. This story isn't for the light of heart. There is some sexuality and violence sprinkled throughout the book- but everything that happens is for a reason. Every line, or action taken by a narrator, is used to explain Yeong-hye's eventual spiral into her obsession. This is literature at its finest. Once I started I couldn't stop.The first section of the book, doesn't mention the protagonist's name almost until the end of the segment, alluding to the fact that each character involved in her life doesn't view her as her own person. To her husband she is a willing servant, complaint in everything until she won't cook or serve meat. To her lover she is something to be desired and lusted for, but never fully realized. To her sister, she's guilt personified, as Yeong-hye's actions have had, in one way or another, always impacted her own well being.I don't want to spoil anything, but this story is so layered with thoughts on patriarchal society, individual rights, and familial bonds that it takes more than one look to get to the bottom of it. I loved this book, but I can also see how someone who is not into literary works may be turned off by it. There is a lot of vague dream dialogue, and art is used to describe some of the character's inner turmoil. The work is short at 160 pages so I was able to read it in one sitting at night. It left me feeling void and angry. It left me wondering why. Isn't that what all good books do?I received a copy of this title from Blogging for Books for an honest review. Although published in Korea in 2007, this book is now available in the US in paperback and hardback. It has received numerous awards including the Man Booker International Prize.You can see more of my reviews at AmandaDanadotcom
