The Vegetarian - Han Kang
Han Kang is a South Korean writer renowned for her poetic, experimental fiction that explores the depths of human suffering, violence, and the possibility of healing. Born in Gwangju in 1970, she moved to Seoul shortly before the 1980 Gwangju Uprising-a traumatic event that has profoundly influenced her work and sense of “survivor’s guilt” Han’s writing is marked by a delicate yet intense prose style, often blurring the boundaries between reality and dream, and is deeply invested in questions of memory, trauma, and the fragility of human life.
Internationally celebrated, Han Kang rose to prominence with The Vegetarian, which won the International Booker Prize in 2016 and introduced global readers to her unique voice. Her subsequent novels - Human Acts, The White Book, Greek Lessons, and We Do Not Part-further established her as a leading figure in world literature. Her works frequently address Korea’s turbulent history, such as the Jeju 4.3 massacre, and examine how personal and collective wounds persist across generations.
To be honest I literally don’t know what i was thinking when i picked up this contemporary piece of Korean fiction, but i wanted to read it as a gateway introduction to Korean fiction and since Han Kang has won the Nobel price.
So i went to the good reads page for Han Kang and saw it at the top of the list and highest rated, which i thought was published in 2024 turns out its from 2007 and gotta say it was worth the while reading it. Also saw it on one of my favorite substack writers reading list so was a catch.
Han Kang was sure when writing this one that is going to be interpreted in any way one shall perceive it so i will hold myself from going wild on interpretations and symbolism here cause while there are some i caught i do believe there are others that went over my head as well.
The novel is told in 3 different separate parts or a Triptych1 - the protagonist of our story (Yeong-hye) has this intense dream and she decides she is going to become a vegetarian and throws out all the meat out of her house - we know this as it is told from the perspective of her husband in part one - in part two we follow Yeong-hye brother in law obsession with creating art and the path that leads him down to Yeong-hye where they do trespass some boundaries(sleeping with her - his sister in law), which is fully told from his perspective - in part 3 we follow up the story but in the perspective of her sister In-hye and their past, her past and the present moment at the psychiatric ward. This is the story in a nutshell but oh boy.
In the book Han Kang goes over the themes of human innate violent nature and social norms alongside nature and madness (that people are accused of is they defy what is accepted socially). And throughout all this book we see Yeong-hye trying to exclude herself in all this and that the society (people) are not willing to accept it.
I did love the writing style, i have never thought i would find myself enjoying a contemporary work of fiction as much as i did, the triptych way of telling the stories and all the time the story is not told from our protagonist perspective (Yeong-hye) but the people around her, and the only part when we hear Yeong-hye speak are in the dream sequences which even added this layer to the story - showing the sense of detachment our protagonist has and also add to the experience and enjoyment of reading the book.
I think this book has changed some part of me and added something or cut away something that which i am not sure of but i would not recommend it to everyone but i do know a select few who might, and if the blurb above interested you and you will enjoy it for sure.
“I always move on with the strength of my writing.”
Han Kang, Nobel Prize in Literature 2024: Official interview