Review 42: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

It’s hard not to respect trees. I try my best, but they always get me in the end, the cunning green-and-brown scamps. They don’t do anyone any harm. They just stand there, absorbing nutrients from above and below, pumping out oxygen with the quiet confidence of a wizard puffing his pipe.

It would be wrong to call that the central premise of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, because it’s not. But the idea of comparing human morality against the gentle harmlessness of vegetation rings through its core.

The central character, Yeong-hye, a housewife, decides to stop eating meat. While this seems like a fairly small choice and one hardly worth building a whole novel around, the novel explores the reactions of her family and her own gradual slip into extremism in a slow-but-steady deterioration.

The most intriguing, and in many ways frustrating, aspect to the novel is the impenetrability of Yeong-hye herself. You’re never quite allowed inside her head, and so have to observe her change from the same confused perspective as the rest of her family. The reasons behind her choices you have to piece together from snippets of passive dialogue and the occasional dream sequence. While this can make the novel slow at times, it’s also had the effect of making it one I’ve genuinely thought about long after I finished it, trying to figure out what I think of its meaning and protagonist.

I can’t say this was a joy to read – it is dark, and explores human violence against passivity in uncomfortable ways. But the prose itself is beautifully composed, and a strand of surreality (which Word tells me isn’t a real word. How ironic) pulls you through the story. It’s curiously engaging and engagingly curious. Yes, I felt like a right jerkgammon writing that, but it’s still true.

This is the first time I’ve read Korean fiction, I think, but the style itself feels reminiscent of Korean films. Actually, the whole book is quite filmic, with vivid imagery and that distance from internal dialogue.

Kang’s work isn’t for people who want to pick up a casual holiday read, but it made me think a lot, and I’ll definitely invest in her other books.

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