Han Kang

Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2016. A beautiful, unsettling novel in three acts, about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul

A Novel

The Vegetarian

Winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S "BEST BOOKS OF 2016 SO FAR" ONE OF TIME'S "BEST BOOKS OF 2016 SO FAR" 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. From the Hardcover edition.

Nate

Now, the fact that she didn’t eat meat only vegetables and cereal grains, seemd to fit wih the image of that blue petal-like mark, so much so that the one could not be disentangled from the other, and the fact that the blood that had gushed out of her artery had soaked his white shirt, drying into the dark, matte burgundy of red bean soup, felt like a shocking, indecipherable premonition of his eventual fate.

Kang Han

Deciding to renounce eating meat in the wake of violent dreams, Yeong-hye, a woman from a culture of strict societal mores, is denounced as a subversive as she spirals into extreme rebelliousness that causes her to splinter from her true nature and risk her life.

hessensitive

How on earth could she be so self-centred? I stared at her lowered eyes, her expression of cool self-possession. The very idea that there should be this other side to her, one where she selfishly did as she pleased, was astonishing. Who would have thought she could be so unreasonable?

The passive personality of this woman in whom I could detect neither freshness nor charm, or anything especially refined, suited me down to the ground. There was no need to affect intellectual leanings in order to win her over, or to worry that she might be comparing me to the preening men who pose in fashion catalogues, an she didn't get worked up if I happened to be late for one of our meetings.

Lindy

She was no longer able to cope with all that her sister reminded her of. She'd been unable to forgive herself for soaring alone over a boundary she herself could never bring herself to cross, unable to forgive that magnificent irresponsibility that had enabled Yeong-hye to shuck off social constraints and leave her behind, still a prisoner. 

Mara D Alo Fonseca

The summer woods are dense and luxuriant beyond the windscreen of the ambulance. In the waning afternoon light, the rain on the leaves glitters intensely, kindling a green fire.

karina

“I have dreams too, you know. Dreams… and I could let myself dissolve into them, let them take me over… but surely the dream isn’t all there is? We have to wake up at some point, don’t we?”

fæ 

this was the body of a beautiful young woman, conventionally an object of desire, and yet it was a body from which all desire had been eliminated. but this was nothing so crass as carnal desire, not for her—rather, or so it seemed, what she had renounced was the very life that her body represented.

or perhaps it was simply that things were happening inside her, terrible things, which no one else could even guess at, and thus it was impossible for her to engage with everyday life at the same time. if so, she would naturally have no energy left, not just for curiosity or interest but indeed for any meaningful response to all the humdrum minutiae that went on on the surface

she'd been unable to forgive her for soaring alone over a boundary she herself could never bring herself to cross, unable to forgive that magnificent irresponsibility that had enabled yeong-hye to shuck off social constraints and leave her behind, still a prisoner. and before yeong-hye had broken those bars, she'd never even known they were there

time was a wave, almost cruel in its relentlessness.

nahis

The feeling that she had never really lived in this world caught her by surprise. It was a fact. She had never 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 had been unflagging, all her successes 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.

Brittany

This was the body of a beautiful young woman, conventionally an object of desire, and yet it was a body from which all desire had been eliminated. But this was nothing so crass as carnal desire, not for her—rather, or so it seemed, what she had renounced was the very lite that her body represented.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, In-hye could see that the role that she had adopted back then of the hard- working, self-sacrificing eldest daughter had been a sign not of maturity but of cowardice. It had been a survival tactic. 

oh to be a tree bathing in the sunlight, no?

In-hue couldn’t hold herself back any long. “You!” she yelled. "I’m acting like this because I'm afraid youre going to die!" 

Yeong-hye turned her head and stared blankly at In-hye, as though the latter were not her sister but a complete stranger. After a while, the question came. 

not unlike a dream in the way you almost never get to fully wrap your head around each occurance when the story progresses further _ Moving forward ? backward ? downward ? ... disorienting in an unfortunate, beautiful way

plantdad

I am still overwhelmed by the Tragic depths of this book, but I think this review of the Nobel Prize for Literature captures it beautifully: Kang’s “poetic prose exposes the fragility of human life”. So incredibly well deserved 

Lili

Yeong-hye's ultimate desire to shed her human form and become part of nature is a complete rejection of the patriarchal, violent society that suffocated her.

"He couldn't ask: why did you use to bare your breasts to the sunlight, like some kind of mutant animal that had evolved to be able to photosynthesize? Was that because of a dream too?"

Eva Cace

Yeong-hye's ultimate desire to shed her human form and become part of nature is a complete rejection of the patriarchal, violent society that suffocated her.

"He couldn't ask: why did you use to bare your breasts to the sunlight, like some kind of mutant animal that had evolved to be able to photosynthesize? Was that because of a dream too?"



Reminds me of Sayaka Murata’s theme and intensity, except this one uses the perspective of people surrounding women. it’s intensity propelled readers to keep reading while flinching on its claustrophobic but beautiful writing.

bro idc what anyone says like this book ATE!!! and the sociology major in me will never stop talking about it

alice

still trying to grapple everything that has happened in this book

insanely written, i’d like to think that the whole intention of yeong-hye’s transformation of becoming a tree symbolises her desire to return to something pure, non-human, and untouched by violence. her journey isn’t a tragedy of mental illness, but a radical escape from a dehumanising world. and the ending showed how yeong-hye’s madness had somehow been passed on to in-hye’s as she starts to understand the world yeong-hye has built for herself. this book is so powerful in its correlating context not only between man and nature but also man transforming into nature wow just wow

there was this quote in this book that talked about the Mongolian Mark on yeong-hye where it said “.. or else perhaps a mark of photosynthesis, and he realised to his surprise that there was nothing at all sexual about it; it was more vegetal than sexual” — this is where it all came to me that this book was about the most beautiful and compelling story about man slowly transitioning into nature and its symbolic significance in declining humanity to embrace a fully vegetal life signifying how much she’s willing to sacrifice to push away all the violence and destruction of what humanity has to offer.

soooo good so incredible this is my first han kang book and im so excited to read more of her stuff

still trying to grapple everything that has happened in this book

insanely written, i’d like to think that the whole intention of yeong-hye’s transformation of becoming a tree symbolises her desire to return to something pure, non-human, and untouched by violence. her journey isn’t a tragedy of mental illness, but a radical escape from a dehumanising world. and the ending showed how yeong-hye’s madness had somehow been passed on to in-hye’s as she starts to understand the world yeong-hye has built for herself. this book is so powerful in its correlating context not only between man and nature but also man transforming into nature wow just wow

there was this quote in this book that talked about the Mongolian Mark on yeong-hye where it said “.. or else perhaps a mark of photosynthesis, and he realised to his surprise that there was nothing at all sexual about it; it was more vegetal than sexual” — this is where it all came to me that this book was about the most beautiful and compelling story about man slowly transitioning into nature and its symbolic significance in declining humanity to embrace a fully vegetal life signifying how much she’s willing to sacrifice to push away all the violence and destruction of what humanity has to offer.

soooo good so incredible this is my first han kang book and im so excited to read more of her stuff

explores themes of what it means to be a woman through body horror. loved how it was through the eyes of other people; it truly robs yeong hye of her voice. 

jade shen

“She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure.”

I don’t think I have the brain capacity to write a comprehensive review about this book. But okay. 

The Vegetarian is definitely one of my most emotionally challenging, yet thought-provoking reads. It made me sad and angry. It reminded me how disgusting patriarchy is and why abused women should be allowed to shoot at least one man every day.

“She had never lived. Even as a child, as far back as she could remember, she had done nothing but endure.”

I don’t think I have the brain capacity to write a comprehensive review about this book. But okay. 

The Vegetarian is definitely one of my most emotionally challenging, yet thought-provoking reads. It made me sad and angry. It reminded me how disgusting patriarchy is and why abused women should be allowed to shoot at least one man every day.

han kang has an incredible ability to describe violence -- from the societal down to the personal. in one particular description of an instance of retribution i had to put the book down to take a breath. to me, this book is not just about patriarchy but also about rebellion, from the social to the personal. following dreams of intense violence, she decides to become vegan. 

faced against society, people guffaw and take in-hye for a laughing stock. against the family, a disgrace, an invalid, even ending with her father assaulting her, forcing her to eat meat, proving her point precisely that violence begets violence. on the personal level, she struggles as well. her body, the last refuge, seems to refuse to do what she wants it to do. "idiot", she calls it.

on this, i think of asceticism, its sheer negativity as a paradoxical force. it recurs eternally, eventually collapsing on itself and rendering itself pointless. the beginning and end of asceticism is its end.

Ghee

han kang has an incredible ability to describe violence -- from the societal down to the personal. in one particular description of an instance of retribution i had to put the book down to take a breath. to me, this book is not just about patriarchy but also about rebellion, from the social to the personal. following dreams of intense violence, she decides to become vegan. 

faced against society, people guffaw and take in-hye for a laughing stock. against the family, a disgrace, an invalid, even ending with her father assaulting her, forcing her to eat meat, proving her point precisely that violence begets violence. on the personal level, she struggles as well. her body, the last refuge, seems to refuse to do what she wants it to do. "idiot", she calls it.

on this, i think of asceticism, its sheer negativity as a paradoxical force. it recurs eternally, eventually collapsing on itself and rendering itself pointless. the beginning and end of asceticism is its end.

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree. Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.

disturbing but like. often not in a good way. didn’t like my audiobook narrators maybe it reads better on page. I get what it was trying to do but.  ew. 

Jules 

Tanishq Khandelwal

Words cannot describe the visceral feelings of shame, disgust, surprise, and all the synonyms thereof, this book managed to create. Masterful prose as always - some of the most beautiful and somber i have read.

Alison Hinklom

It was alright. Lots of metaphor and finding parallels between dreams and reality, and the desire or fear that make it come to fruition. I haven't read a raw book like this in a while, and I enjoyed it.

Roseanne

the line between female empowerment and an eating disorder is thin in this one

Stas

Ayesha

Maybe it's just the title; but i swear i could smell the dirt, leaves, blood, and something raw in every page.

Magnolia 

Very well written but incoherent when it came to describe a lot of the transition from beginning to end. It wasn’t my favorite but I think it was more on personal taste

Abby

I had to Google explanations & reader interpretations to properly appreciate this book. I just didn't really connect to it as much as I would have liked/thought I would have. 

- But a good kind of weird, where it makes you think, and you notice things. 

- Once you start doing that, this is incredibly  rich. 

- Here are some themes I noticed and liked:

- Parallels between vegetarianism and sexual assault

- Relatedly, misogyny and the treatment of women, tied to nature and animals

- The perception of what is ordinary versus what is extraordinary 

Edna Aviles

Here’s what I’ve got:
- this is very weird.
- But a good kind of weird, where it makes you think, and you notice things. 
- Once you start doing that, this is incredibly  rich. 
- Here are some themes I noticed and liked:
- Parallels between vegetarianism and sexual assault
- Relatedly, misogyny and the treatment of women, tied to nature and animals
- The perception of what is ordinary versus what is extraordinary 
- Wife swap!!!

english translation leaves much to be desired. however, smith keeps the general essence of the story alive, transforming it into something new

hyun

I expected chaos—something loud, violent, maybe even grotesque. But what I got was quiet. Disturbingly quiet. I kept waiting for the moment it would get “crazy,” like people said, but the madness here creeps in softly. Yeong-hye stops eating meat, and from there, everything unravels—not with screams, but with silence. The horror isn’t in what she does, but in how people around her react. It’s not really about food. It’s about control, resistance, and disappearing in a world that never really saw you. (Blind read)

Isaiah

i am not intellectual enough at this moment to understand this ㅠㅠ it was just mainly gruesome and uncomfortable but i guess that is the life of women….

✧༺♥༻✧

I have read "Human Acts" by Han Kang and maybe it has been quite a while now because this feels like her most visceral novel. It is almost as if in order to make the reader understand the violence done unto the main character, Yeong-hye, she has chosen to impact violence unto them herself. I found mysel physically recoiling during the sections where various people (key - men) were trying to forcefeed Yeong-hey, as wells during the second part where the objectification and de-humanisation of her body seems to reach a crescendo.

The horror of the actions of the different characters is further highlighted by Han Kang's prose which flows calmly and beautifully - in stark contrast with what it describes. The juxtaposition of beauty and violence - purposefully sought by the author - is made even more jarring so.

What an impactful little book that prompts many questions on misogyny, violence, bodily autonomy. I can understand why so many readers may have found it incomprehensible and repulsive. It is not a moralising tale but a novel meant to be read on thematic level and encourage discussion and exploration.

I have read "Human Acts" by Han Kang and maybe it has been quite a while now because this feels like her most visceral novel. It is almost as if in order to make the reader understand the violence done unto the main character, Yeong-hye, she has chosen to impact violence unto them herself. I found mysel physically recoiling during the sections where various people (key - men) were trying to forcefeed Yeong-hey, as wells during the second part where the objectification and de-humanisation of her body seems to reach a crescendo.

The horror of the actions of the different characters is further highlighted by Han Kang's prose which flows calmly and beautifully - in stark contrast with what it describes. The juxtaposition of beauty and violence - purposefully sought by the author - is made even more jarring so.

What an impactful little book that prompts many questions on misogyny, violence, bodily autonomy. I can understand why so many readers may have found it incomprehensible and repulsive. It is not a moralising tale but a novel meant to be read on thematic level and encourage discussion and exploration.

The Vegetarian A Novel

Reviews

Highlights