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Han kang's the vegetarian6/8/2023 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.įraught, 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. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. She unknowingly captivates her sister’s husband, a video artist. Kindle 11.99 Rate this book The Vegetarian Han Kang 3.59 143,297 ratings19,310 reviews Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. 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. 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. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people.
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