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English(English) Article

The Vegetarian by Han Kang review – an extraordinary story of family fallout

About the Article

Article
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/24/the-vegetarian-by-han-kang-review-family-fallout
Journal
The Guardian
Issued Date
January 24, 2015
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
-
Book
The Vegetarian
Writer
Han Kang
Translator
Deborah Smith

About the Author

  • Han Kang
  • Birth : 1970 ~ -
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Kang
  • Family Name : Han
  • Korean Name : 한강
  • ISNI : 0000000054537103
  • Works : 161
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

Yeong-hye is, in her husband’s opening words, “completely unremarkable in every way”. She is a reasonably diligent homemaker, a reasonably attentive spouse, not deeply unhappy and driven by no great passions. Her husband, Mr Cheong, is a mediocre employee, not greatly ambitious, mildly unenthused by his life but not dramatically so. Time ticks by, and the two of them get on with living their ordinary lives; but their ordinariness, it turns out, is more fragile than they realise. Things begin to fracture the day Yeong-hye throws away all the meat from the freezer and announces that henceforth she is going to be a vegetarian. The only explanation she gives her husband is not hugely satisfactory: “I had a dream.” We know, though her husband doesn’t, something of the nature of the dream: it is dark, bloody and aggressive. Violence soon breaks out in Yeong-hye’s waking world, too, when her father tries to force a piece of sweet-and-sour pork into her mouth, and in revolt she stabs herself.  

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