Afin de lire monavis de lecture en français, cliquez ici
Note: I read the
French translation of the novel
Publisher’s
write-up:
‘A beautiful, unsettling novel about rebellion and taboo, violence and
eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul Before the nightmares
began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the
dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to
purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of
independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an
increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law
and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends
the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate,
subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and
perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre
estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself. Celebrated by critics around the world, The
Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one
woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.’
The Vegetarian is a novel written by the South Korean author Han Kang,
who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024. In this novel, we meet Yeong-hye,
who lives with her husband and leads an ordinary life, until she decides to
become a vegan because of a dream she had. Her husband married her precisely
because he is an ‘average man’ and also, according to him, Yeong-hye is also a
traditional woman with whom he can have an ‘average’ life and this decision turned
out to be a change too significant for him to tolerate. It was not just her
husband who did not like her decision - even her parents did not support it and
in a particular moment, her father tried to force her to eat meat. She stops
eating altogether and leading to a further decline of her health. The novel
follows her life - and from this portrait of Yeong-hye, the author shows us the
patriarchy in South Korean society and the position of women in society.
I liked the beginning of the novel, which gave me a lot to look forward
to - in a marriage where every day is the same, Yeong-hye suddenly decides to
stop eating meat. We also see how her husband becomes more aggressive towards
her, as if he had the right to interfere in her personal choices. I liked the
bond between Yeong-hye and her sister, her only source of support in this
choice of hers. The choice to change the narration in each chapter is an
interesting one too, the first chapter from Yeong-hye's husband's point of view
and the following chapters following a third person narration.
I had to think long and hard about writing something positive about the
novel in the review and it's done now, with the preceding paragraph. Otherwise,
I did not like the novel at all. Firstly, I found the title of the novel
misleading, her family problems were not because she went vegan, but because
she stopped eating, at all. As a vegan myself, I get a lot of weird questions
in my day-to-day life from people around me - whether I'm feeling hungry,
whether I'm getting enough nutrients, whether I'm taking any vaccinations, etc.
A majority of the time, these are questions asked out of curiosity (though, sometimes
also in bad faith) - but as with any movement or ideology, there is an extreme
and here, Yeong-hye was an example of that extreme. I find that the misconception
around vegans is because of such characters in pop culture (like films, TV
shows, novels, etc.) that show this type of personality that all vegans are
judged by.
I was able to sympathise with Yeong-hye and her predicament, but
personally I could not identify with the act of deciding to stop eating
completely because of a dream. The ending of the novel did not give hope either
- I understand that in real life, not every situation has a definitive ending,
but here - I did not see any ups and downs in the plot either. Apart from her
sister Inghye, there was not much of character development, with subtlety or
complexity - they've all got villains - either Yeong-hye's husband or the rest
of her family.
To conclude, it often happens to me that with author who win the Nobel
Prize, either I love their works, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Albert Camus;
or I do not like them at all, like last year's winner Jon Fosse and unfortunately,
Han Kang will also fall into the same latter category. It was impossible for me
to identify with the characters, and even if I had not been a vegan, I would not
have liked the novel, but given that I am, this personal aspect added yet
another reason why I did not enjoy it. Considering all the points I have made
in this review, I give the novel a score of three out of ten.
Rating – 3/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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