By Katie Magee
So, back in July, Maggie Smith put this book on the counter with a note on it that said, “Katie, I think you would like this. Read it and let me know what you think.” Well, it got lost in the books that get shuffled along Lemuria’s counter daily, but I found it about two weeks later in another stack. But, she was right.
A story told through three different viewpoints, The Vegetarian by Han Kang is an eerie tale of a family member gone astray, starting when she spontaneously decides to become a vegetarian. In Yeong-hye’s South Korean family, meat is the staple in most meals, so when she decides to stop eating it, chaos breaks out. As she grows skinnier, her family grows worried. Part one of this book is told from the point-of-view of Yeong-hye’s husband, who is most directly affected by his wife’s vegetarianism, because she will not even allow meat in the house. Part two is narrated by Yeong-hye’s brother-in-law, a videographer, who wants Yeong-hye to be in his next piece starring two naked people painted in flowers, with an emphasis on Yeong-hye’s Mongolian mark. In part three, we hear of Yeong-hye’s downward spiral through the only remaining family member who will still talk to her, her sister.
This is a story of social isolation–simply because of one’s beliefs, of one’s eating habits. Not many books have touched me the way this one has, have made me question my own life and my surroundings. Throughout the story, one gets the idea that Yeong-hye wants to stray as far away from humanity as possible. She is fed up with the conventional ways of living one’s life, so she decides to pave her own way. Few people try to understand why she is doing this, leading to her isolation and loneliness, two things Yeong-hye does not seem too distraught by. As her brother-in-law says, “Or perhaps it was simply that things were happening insider 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.”
Intrigued by Yeong-hye’s mysterious yet simplistic and controversial ways of living, I could not stop wanting to learn more about her, and still wish I knew more. Thanks, Maggie, for helping inspire my wonder.
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