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The Vegetarian Paperback – August 23, 2016

by Han Kang (Author), Deborah Smith (Translator)

3.8 12,275 ratings

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FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

“Ferocious.”—The New York Times Book Review (Ten Best Books of the Year)
“Both terrifying and terrific.”—Lauren Groff
“Provocative [and] shocking.”—The Washington Post

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.

A Best Book of the Year: BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Time, Elle, The Economist, HuffPost, Slate, Bustle, The St. Louis Dispatch, Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Covers of The Vegetarian, Human Acts, We Do Not Part, The White Book, and Greek Lessons

WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Surreal . . . [A] mesmerizing mix of sex and violence .”—Alexandra Alter, The New York Times

“[Han Kang] has been rightfully celebrated as a visionary in South Korea . . . Han’s glorious treatments of agency, personal choice, submission and subversion find form in the parable. . . . Ultimately, though, how could we not go back to Kafka? More than The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s journals and ‘A Hunger Artist’ haunt this text.”—Porochista Khakpour, The New York Times Book Review

“Indebted to Kafka, this story of a South Korean woman’s radical transformation, which begins after she forsakes meat, will have you reading with your hand over your mouth in shock.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“The Vegetarian has an eerie universality that gets under your skin and stays put irrespective of nation or gender.”—Laura Miller, Slate

“Slim and spiky and extremely disturbing . . . I find myself thinking about it weeks after I finished.”—Jennifer Weiner, PopSugar

“It takes a gifted storyteller to get you feeling ill at ease in your own body. Yet Han Kang often set me squirming with her first novel in English, at once claustrophobic and transcendent.”—Chicago Tribune

"Compelling . . . [A] seamless union of the visceral and the surreal.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“A complex, terrifying look at how seemingly simple decisions can affect multiple lives . . . In a world where women’s bodies are constantly under scrutiny, the protagonist’s desire to disappear inside of herself feels scarily familiar.”—Vanity Fair

“Elegant . . . a stripped-down, thoughtful narrative . . . about human psychology and physiology.”—HuffPost

“This elegant-yet-twisted horror story is all about power and its relationship with identity. It's chilling in the best ways, so buckle in and turn down the lights.”—Elle

“This haunting, original tale explores the eros, isolation and outer limits of a gripping metamorphosis that happens in plain sight. . . . Han Kang has written a remarkable novel with universal themes about isolation, obsession, duty and desire.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Complex and strange . . . Han’s prose moves swiftly, riveted on the scene unfolding in a way that makes this story compulsively readable. . . . [The Vegetarian] demands you to ask important questions, and its vivid images will be hard to shake. This is a book that will stay with you.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Dark dreams, simmering tensions, chilling violence . . . This South Korean novel is a feast. . . . It is sensual, provocative and violent, ripe with potent images, startling colors and disturbing questions. . . . Sentence by sentence, The Vegetarian is an extraordinary experience.”—The Guardian

About the Author

Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. She is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, as well as Human Acts, The White Book, Greek Lessons, and We Do Not Part. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

The Vegetarian

Before my wife turned vegetarian, I’d always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way. To be frank, the ﬁrst time I met her I wasn’t even attracted to her. Middling height; bobbed hair neither long nor short; jaundiced, sickly-looking skin; somewhat prominent cheekbones; her timid, sallow aspect told me all I needed to know. As she came up to the table where I was waiting, I couldn’t help but notice her shoes—the plainest black shoes imaginable. And that walk of hers—neither fast nor slow, striding nor mincing.

However, if there wasn’t any special attraction, nor did any particular drawbacks present themselves, and therefore there was no reason for the two of us not to get married. 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, and she didn’t get worked up if I happened to be late for one of our meetings. The paunch that started appearing in my mid-twenties, my skinny legs and forearms that steadfastly refused to bulk up in spite of my best efforts, the inferiority complex I used to have about the size of my penis—I could rest assured that I wouldn’t have to fret about such things on her account.

I’ve always inclined towards the middle course in life. At school I chose to boss around those who were two or three years my junior, and with whom I could act the ringleader, rather than take my chances with those my own age, and later I chose which college to apply to based on my chances of obtaining a scholarship large enough for my needs. Ultimately, I settled for a job where I would be provided with a decent monthly salary in return for diligently carrying out my allotted tasks, at a company whose small size meant they would value my unremarkable skills. And so it was only natural that I would marry the most run-of-the-mill woman in the world. As for women who were pretty, intelligent, strikingly sensual, the daughters of rich families—they would only ever have served to disrupt my carefully ordered existence.

In keeping with my expectations, she made for a completely ordinary wife who went about things without any distasteful frivolousness. Every morning she got up at six a.m. to prepare rice and soup, and usually a bit of ﬁsh. From adolescence she’d contributed to her family’s income through the odd bit of part-time work. She ended up with a job as an assistant instructor at the computer graphics college she’d attended for a year, and was subcontracted by a manhwa publisher to work on the words for their speech bubbles, which she could do from home.

She was a woman of few words. It was rare for her to demand anything of me, and however late I was in getting home she never took it upon herself to kick up a fuss. Even when our days off happened to coincide, it wouldn’t occur to her to suggest we go out somewhere together. While I idled the afternoon away, TV remote in hand, she would shut herself up in her room. More than likely she would spend the time reading, which was practically her only hobby. For some unfathomable reason, reading was something she was able to really immerse herself in—reading books that looked so dull I couldn’t even bring myself to so much as take a look inside the covers. Only at mealtimes would she open the door and silently emerge to prepare the food. To be sure, that kind of wife, and that kind of lifestyle, did mean that I was unlikely to find my days particularly stimulating. On the other hand, if I’d had one of those wives whose phones ring on and off all day long with calls from friends or co-workers, or whose nagging periodically leads to screaming rows with their husbands, I would have been grateful when she ﬁnally wore herself out.

The only respect in which my wife was at all unusual was that she didn’t like wearing a bra. When I was a young man barely out of adolescence, and my wife and I were dating, I happened to put my hand on her back only to ﬁnd that I couldn’t feel a bra strap under her sweater, and when I realized what this meant I became quite aroused. In order to judge whether she might possibly have been trying to tell me something, I spent a minute or two looking at her through new eyes, studying her attitude. The outcome of my studies was that she wasn’t, in fact, trying to send any kind of signal. So if not, was it laziness, or just a sheer lack of concern? I couldn’t get my head round it. It wasn’t even as though she had shapely breasts which might suit the ‘no-bra look’. I would have preferred her to go around wearing one that was thickly padded, so that I could save face in front of my acquaintances.

Even in the summer, when I managed to persuade her to wear one for a while, she’d have it unhooked barely a minute after leaving the house. The undone hook would be clearly visible under her thin, light-coloured tops, but she wasn’t remotely concerned. I tried reproaching her, lecturing her to layer up with a vest instead of a bra in that sultry heat. She tried to justify herself by saying that she couldn’t stand wearing a bra because of the way it squeezed her breasts, and that I’d never worn one myself so I couldn’t understand how constricting it felt. Nevertheless, considering I knew for a fact that there were plenty of other women who, unlike her, didn’t have anything particularly against bras, I began to have doubts about this hypersensitivity of hers.

In all other respects, the course of our our married life ran smoothly. We were approaching the ﬁve-year mark, and since we were never madly in love to begin with we were able to avoid falling into that stage of weariness and boredom that can otherwise turn married life into a trial. The only thing was, because we’d decided to put off trying for children until we’d managed to secure a place of our own, which had only happened last autumn, I sometimes wondered whether I would ever get to hear the reassuring sound of a child gurgling ‘dada’, and meaning me. Until a certain day last February, when I came across my wife standing in the kitchen at day-break in just her nightclothes, I had never considered the possibility that our life together might undergo such an appalling change.

*

‘What are you doing standing there?’

I’d been about to switch on the bathroom light when I was brought up short. It was around four in the morning, and I’d woken up with a raging thirst from the bottle and a half of soju I’d had with dinner, which also meant I was taking longer to come to my senses than usual.

‘Hello? I asked what you’re doing?’

It was cold enough as it was, but the sight of my wife was even more chilling. Any lingering alcohol-induced drowsiness swiftly passed. She was standing, motionless, in front of the fridge. Her face was submerged in the darkness so I couldn’t make out her expression, but the potential options all ﬁlled me with fear. Her thick, naturally black hair was ﬂuffed up, dishevelled, and she was wearing her usual white ankle-length nightdress.

On such a night, my wife would ordinarily have hurriedly slipped on a cardigan and searched for her towelling slippers. How long might she have been standing there like that—barefoot, in thin summer nightwear, ramrod straight as though perfectly oblivious to my repeated interrogation? Her face was turned away from me, and she was standing there so unnaturally still it was almost as if she were some kind of ghost, silently standing its ground.

What was going on? If she couldn’t hear me then perhaps that meant she was sleepwalking.
I went towards her, craning my neck to try and get a look at her face.

‘Why are you standing there like that? What’s going on . . .’

When I put my hand on her shoulder I was surprised by her complete lack of reaction. I had no doubt that I was in my right mind and all this was really happening; I had been fully conscious of everything I had done since emerging from the living room, asking her what she was doing, and moving towards her. She was the one standing there completely unresponsive, as though lost in her own world. It was like those rare occasions when, absorbed in a late-night TV drama, she’d failed to notice me arriving home. But what could there be to absorb her attention in the pale gleam of the fridge’s white door, in the pitch-black kitchen at four in the morning?

‘Hey!’

Her proﬁle swam towards me out of the darkness. I took in her eyes, bright but not feverish, as her lips slowly parted.

‘. . . I had a dream.’

Her voice was surprisingly clear.

‘A dream? What the hell are you talking about? Do you know what time it is?’

She turned so that her body was facing me, then slowly walked off through the open door into the living room. As she entered the room she stretched out her foot and calmly pushed the door to. I was left alone in the dark kitchen, looking helplessly on as her retreating ﬁgure was swallowed up through the door.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1101906111
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hogarth; Reprint edition (August 23, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781101906118
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1101906118
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.18 x 0.55 x 7.96 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
- #139 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #512 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Customers find the book interesting and well-written. They describe the writing as sublime, lyrical, and tastefully done. The book touches on many different subjects and provides alternate insights into how our minds control us. Readers appreciate the pacing and draw you in quickly. Opinions are mixed on the suspense, with some finding it intense and haunting while others consider it disturbing. There are also mixed views on the mystery, with some finding it bizarre and exciting, while others describe it as weird and unsatisfying.

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Readability Writing quality Thought provoking Pacing Suspenseful Mystery Character development Beauty

250 customers mention "Readability"210 positive40 negative

Customers find the book compelling and engaging. They praise the storytelling as impressive, powerful, and relatable. The three-chapter structure keeps readers hooked with its carefully paced storytelling.

"...It was a mixture of horror, thriller, and something almost poetic and abstract. It definitely made me think...." Read more

"...I found it to be a very compelling and interesting read. I agree with other readers that it is difficult to pin down the author's point...." Read more

"...a lot and I felt that this was the most empathetic and most interesting part of the book — Womanhood, motherhood, wifehood, sisterhood, personhood —..." Read more

"With a lovely style, this story takes you into a deep confusing drama...." Read more

164 customers mention "Writing quality"131 positive33 negative

Customers find the writing style poetic and lyrical. They appreciate the vivid imagination and how the author describes emotions, surroundings, and events. The book is described as a work of genius and written from the perspective of three people.

"...It was a mixture of horror, thriller, and something almost poetic and abstract. It definitely made me think...." Read more

"...It was a quick and easy if somewhat disquieting read but not sure I'd recommend it as a novel...." Read more

"...This links well with Korean culture and Korean connection with the forest, trees and mountains and with some ancestral animist believes that still..." Read more

"...The author has a very vivid imagination. I gave this four stars because I do have questions about what this novel was really about...." Read more

99 customers mention "Thought provoking"83 positive16 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and well-written. They say it explores various topics, providing alternative insights into how our minds control us. The book has a lot of nature symbolism and tackles broader societal questions in a personal and intimate way. Readers describe the story as creative, poetic, and transcendent.

"...I can imagine it made a big splash in Korea with its wide ranging social commentary on everything from the role of women in society to mental..." Read more

"...The book has layer upon layer of meaning, and touches many different subjects that are organically intertwined, and that the reader will discover as..." Read more

"...The book does have a lot of nature symbolism and the tree plays a prominent role toward the end. I think it is a bit of a stretch...." Read more

"...I identified with her a lot and I felt that this was the most empathetic and most interesting part of the book — Womanhood, motherhood, wifehood,..." Read more

41 customers mention "Pacing"33 positive8 negative

Customers find the book's pacing engaging. They say it draws them in quickly with its tale of a South Korean housewife who one. The plot moves swiftly, and they finish it quickly. Readers mention the book grips from the first paragraph and leaves a lasting impression.

"...It definitely made me think. And while it was a fast read, it was a hard read." Read more

"...It was a quick and easy if somewhat disquieting read but not sure I'd recommend it as a novel...." Read more

"This novel is composed of three interrelated novellas. Yeong-hye and her husband are living a normal life...." Read more

"...except its style and presentation -- which a haunting, gripping, very uncomfortable; i.e. very well done and very strong...." Read more

157 customers mention "Suspenseful"48 positive109 negative

Customers have different views on the book. Some find it intense, haunting, and gripping. Others find the subject disturbing and jarring at times.

"...It’s a deeply painful lens into the oppression of women in South Korea (and in general)...." Read more

"...In the book, the former is equalled to violence, suffering, lack of peace, and being stuck, while the latter is equalled to peace, fluidity,..." Read more

"...under a patriarchal family structure, this story resonated with me on a deeply personal level...." Read more

"...Firstly, it is very hard to have any sympathy or empathy for the vegetarian as she is given no inner life in this book aside from short..." Read more

71 customers mention "Mystery"42 positive29 negative

Customers have different views on the mystery. Some find it bizarre, exciting, and haunting with an unusual plotline. Others find it weird, unsatisfying, and too bizarre to keep their interest. The story is described as dark, mysterious, and allegorical.

"...It was a mixture of horror, thriller, and something almost poetic and abstract. It definitely made me think...." Read more

"...Others, on the contrary are very dramatic, shocking and horrific, like the dream with the dog...." Read more

"This book shows our mind has no limits when comes to creation, it can be scary and beautiful at the same time, providing alternate insights on how..." Read more

"...the psychiatric center was at once intimate, empathetic, but also unrealistic. A lot of old “psychiatric wing” tropes there...." Read more

44 customers mention "Character development"22 positive22 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book. Some find the characters fascinating and empathic, with a tight narrative that shifts points of view around the protagonist. Others dislike the characters, especially Yeong-hye, for their inscrutability and descent into solipsism.

"The Vegetarian is a tree-part novella, each narrated by a different character...." Read more

"...But as a novel I felt most of the characters didn't hold my interest or let me get to know them better as the book went on...." Read more

"...writing, interesting insights on artistic expression, deep feelings for her characters...." Read more

"This is a work of lucid genius. The main character, Yeong-hye, is a non-person, an empty set; more than vegetative, she is as silent but persistent..." Read more

41 customers mention "Beauty"26 positive15 negative

Customers have different views on the book's beauty. Some find it beautiful and strange, reminiscent of Murakami's style yet unique. They describe it as a captivating read that makes the ordinary seem extraordinary. However, others feel the imagery gets graphic at times, clumsy, and overdone. Some readers felt the images made them physically sick. Overall, opinions are mixed on the book's overall beauty and its depiction of life and pain people inflict on others.

"...is not an easy book to read, sad, tragic and depressing but also artistic, erotic, lyric an poetic...." Read more

"...It gets very graphic at times - so be prepared for that...." Read more

"With a lovely style, this story takes you into a deep confusing drama...." Read more

"...our mind has no limits when comes to creation, it can be scary and beautiful at the same time, providing alternate insights on how our minds control..." Read more

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Israel Drazin
An excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2025
Verified Purchase

Han Kang was the 2024 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her "The Vegetarian" won many prizes after it was first published. It was copyrighted in 2007.
The story is about a woman who decides to stop eating meat. Her decision angers her husband, who seeks help from her family to force her to eat meat. This sets off a chain of events that leads to her estrangement from her family and her struggle for control over her life.
The book can be read as a simple tale about a woman who decides to become a vegetarian and the difficulties this causes her and her family.
However, thousands have seen much more than this in the story.
It is similar to the Bible in this respect. Thousands have seen that the Bible contains many ideas that can be drawn from the text by questioning it.
This raises the question we can pose to both the novel and the Bible. Who is right?
People will always disagree about the answer.
Rational thinkers realize that many interpretations are possible, but none are clearly correct. The best solution is the one that makes the most sense, an answer that complies with science, common sense, reasoning, and our five senses.

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lindsayvonf
grotesque and poignant
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2025
Verified Purchase
I went into this book mostly blind, and honestly I don’t know if I liked it - but rather I respect it. It’s a deeply painful lens into the oppression of women in South Korea (and in general).

It was a mixture of horror, thriller, and something almost poetic and abstract.

It definitely made me think. And while it was a fast read, it was a hard read.

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7 people found this helpful

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Richard Fogarty
It's not a novel!
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2017
Verified Purchase
Well for starters it's not really a novel, it's three distinct (though linked) stories. I can imagine it made a big splash in Korea with its wide ranging social commentary on everything from the role of women in society to mental health not to mention its deeply sensual second chapter. But as a novel I felt most of the characters didn't hold my interest or let me get to know them better as the book went on. That lack of depth might not have shown much in a short story but was eventually a distracting annoyance that, for me, eventually overwhelmed the plot line itself. It was a quick and easy if somewhat disquieting read but not sure I'd recommend it as a novel. Sprinkle these 3 stories throughout a larger anthology and I might have a different opinion though

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M. T. D. C. M.
It gets under your skin
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2016
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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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Mariana
A arte de narrar
Reviewed in Brazil on January 28, 2025
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Han Kang é uma maestra na construção das narrativas dentro de narrativas nesta obra prima. Vale cada linha. Impressionante e original.

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Katy Shaybani
It’s all about freedom
Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2024
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This book was hard to read but it was one of the best I read recently. Highly recommended

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Ludivine
De l'animal au VÉGÉTAL
Reviewed in France on February 6, 2025
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Il y a des livres qui restent avec vous après les avoir lus, celui-ci en fait partie.

Écrit avec pudeur et la prose inimitable de Han Kang, le lyrisme, l'érotisme se mélange à la folie, à la lutte contre la société patriarcale et aux combats personnels de chacun de protagonistes, qui tour à tour narrent l'histoire.

Un récit, parfois poétique, parfois angoissant et dérangeant où se mêlent douceur et violence. Un roman où l'héroïne, qui ne dit mot sur son histoire, n'est peut-être pas celle avec la plus grande souffrance psychologique.

Ce livre se savoure, se déguste afin d'y comprendre tous les thèmes abordés et surtout cet acte, qui dans une société patriarcale, régie par les normes, n'est autre qu'une forme de rebellion et de libération.

Une petite note pour les futurs lecteurs : le mot "végétarien" n'existe pas en coréen, la traduction exacte du coréen se rapprocherait de "personne qui mange des légumes". Et des plats, qui contiennent moins ou peu de viande par rapport à d'autres sont souvent considérés comme "végétariens". En général les coréens ne comprennent ce terme que dans des contextes "religieux" tel le bouddhisme. Les raisons éthiques sont souvent incompréhensibles à leurs yeux (différences culturelles). Avec ces informations, la décision de Yeong-hye, n'a que plus d'importance, que ce soit dans son cheminement ou dans les réactions des autres à son égard.

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Victoria
Excellennt!
Reviewed in Germany on January 4, 2025
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One of my favourites!

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Rohit Goel
Brutal yet beautiful
Reviewed in India on January 4, 2025
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The Vegetarian" by Han Kang is a
thought-provoking novel that tells the story of
Yeong-hye,a womàn who decides to stop eating meat after experiencing disturbing dreams which results in remarkable changes in her life.

The novel is divided into three parts, each narrated from different perspectives: Yeong-hye's husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister. The impact of Yeong-hye's transformation has multiple angles, highlighting the complexities of human relationships and societal expectation.

Han Kang's intense and poetic prose, which vividly conveys the emotional and psychological turmoil of the characters,making it a powerful and haunting read.

Overall, "The Vegetarian" has ability to provoke deep reflection on the nature of identity and freedom. It's a novel that stays with you long after you've finishedreading.

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Rohit Goel

Brutal yet beautiful

Reviewed in India on January 4, 2025
The Vegetarian" by Han Kang is a
thought-provoking novel that tells the story of
Yeong-hye,a womàn who decides to stop eating meat after experiencing disturbing dreams which results in remarkable changes in her life.

The novel is divided into three parts, each narrated from different perspectives: Yeong-hye's husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister. The impact of Yeong-hye's transformation has multiple angles, highlighting the complexities of human relationships and societal expectation.

Han Kang's intense and poetic prose, which vividly conveys the emotional and psychological turmoil of the characters,making it a powerful and haunting read.

Overall, "The Vegetarian" has ability to provoke deep reflection on the nature of identity and freedom. It's a novel that stays with you long after you've finishedreading.

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5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book

4.0 out of 5 stars grotesque and poignant

3.0 out of 5 stars It's not a novel!

5.0 out of 5 stars It gets under your skin

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5.0 out of 5 stars A arte de narrar

5.0 out of 5 stars It’s all about freedom

5.0 out of 5 stars De l'animal au VÉGÉTAL

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellennt!

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutal yet beautiful

Brutal yet beautiful

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An excellent book

grotesque and poignant

It's not a novel!

It gets under your skin

A arte de narrar

It’s all about freedom

De l'animal au VÉGÉTAL

Excellennt!

Brutal yet beautiful