Review: The Vegetarian

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would not recommend this book to anyone who knows or who has an eating disorder. It’s a sombre read. The story is divided into three parts told from the main character Yeong Hye’s husband’s eyes, then her brother in law and finally her sister’s. In the process, we see what kind of repressed, objectified existence Yeong Hye is trying to shed from through her refusal of meat, progressing to what seems to be her refusal of all things of the flesh. Probably more poignant to Japanese and Korean women or Indian women because women’s rights hasn’t progressed to the same degree, nonetheless the book alerts us to the way men see the women as maids, sex objects as opposed to persons with the same need for freedom and expression.

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