The Vegetarian

This is one of those books which left me thinking (a) either I have not understood what the author was looking to portray OR (b) the book is just not good. I am inclined to think it’s option (a) since the book has been translated to English and was widely acclaimed locally (and perhaps globally?!) but I still feel compelled to give my two cents. The book tracks the path a woman’s life takes as she turns vegetarian and how her family reacts to it. I won’t say much further so as not to give too much away but just this that the books almost felt like a car wreck you can’t look away from. I am not averse to leaving books unread if I don’t like them but I kept reading this one just hoping almost that I will figure out what it all means. Read it if you will with an open mind and if you have a taste for the absurd.

This is literature as a powerful art form. Both the author and the translator, Deborah Smith, deserve recognition. Wish I could read the book in Korean; Smith manages a translation with delicious, stimulating English. No comment on the story. All I can say is that it will stay with you forever, with very graphic images.

A very good story....the title first caught my attention, as I am a vegetarian, but story really wasn't about that, about a woman wanting to be her own person, in a society that doesn't encourage that.

Hard to wrap my brain around, images were stark, the two sisters were darkly drawn, much suffering in the service of ?living a constricted prescribed life? Of living with PTSD? Bloody love, death and potential renewal......not particularly hopeful.

She possesses you like a demon and casts you into the souls of others. The husband to Yeong he,then Yeong he herself, you go on possessing the souls of everyone that comes into contact with you. Finally the sister who puts up a fight for her son. I couldn't stop reading on a Saturday I wanted to go out but I was possessed.

She possesses you like a demon and casts you into the souls of others. The husband to Yeong he,then Yeong he herself, you go on possessing the souls of everyone that comes into contact with you. Finally the sister who puts up a fight for her son. I couldn't stop reading on a Saturday I wanted to go out but I was possessed.

The novel was about control. People trying to control the protagonist and the woman trying to gain control of her own life. I thought the theme of vegetarianism took away from the novel. A more powerful book using the same theme could be written using a different vehicle. An important book.

The Vegetarian is a page turner. It is filled with dramatic characters and scenes. The book is very well written even being translated from its original language. There is a part where a photographer is making an artsy film that is specifically not a porno. It was one of the strangest things I have ever read. The scene is offensive and even more so given the fate of the main actress. That being said, not very often have I been weirded out by a book and I don't think I enjoyed it.

She is a great writer with such an originality. Characters are believable and yet totally non- stereotype for the Korean people. I love the structure of the book, from second person POV about this one young woman who became a vegetarian. It is wonderfully translated.

This book is eerie and unsettling, but has a strangely peaceful and calm ending. I couldn't put it down. I loved how each character has unique strengths and flaws, and the reader can really empathize with all of them. There is no hero and no villain, just regular, extraordinary people.

This story is thought-provoking, dark, mysterious, and allegorical. The simplicity of the English language is powerful: images come to life, seeming to rise up off the page. I very much enjoyed the read, and will order another work by Ms. Kang.

Some reviewers complained that the main character, Yeong-hye, is unknown to the reader because the story is not told from her POV. I disagree. Readers gain insight into Yeong-hye from the perspective of Yeong-hye's husband, her brother-in-law, and her elder sister. It is through these familial eyes that the stories deconstruct Yeong-hye, which leads readers to understand the cause of her transition to vegetarianism and eventually anorexia, and deep depression. It is through the eyes of others that readers cannot help but question normalcy, what is means to be "normal."