Han Kang

 

Let me say at the start: I was not ready for that. I'd read, of course, about Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024. But The Vegetarian, which is perhaps her most acclaimed novel, moved in directions I was not expecting. On the surface, this is a book about a woman who decides, seemingly out of the blue, to become a vegetarian. But that decision, over time, masks a related set of challenges involving physical and mental health. It wouldn't be saying too much if I revealed that the first part of the novel culminates with brutal attempts by main character's father -- the woman's father -- to force feed his daughter meat. The book progresses from there, but not always as I'd have imagined. The middle section of the novel includes a disturbing meditation on art, sexuality, and power; it's in that portion of the book that ideas of nature are introduced: these become more pronounced toward the end of novel, when the main character, Yeong-hye, imagines herself as a sort of tree, needing only water to survive. The Vegetarian is a disturbing novel about individual agency, social pressure, and the complex layering underpinning humanity sexuality. There's a lot happening here, and not all of it is pretty or pleasant. Under the polite veneer of Kang's novel -- of apartment living in contemporary Seoul -- is a very dark and unsettling set of circumstances.