The vegetarian : a novel
Han, Kang, 1970-2015
Book
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree. Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
Main title:
The vegetarian : a novel / Han Kang ; translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith.
Author:
Han, Kang, 1970-, authorSmith, Deborah, translator
Work:
Imprint:
London : Portobello Books, 2015.©2015
Collation:
183 pages ; 20 cm.
Notes:
"This book was originally published in Korean as three separate novelettes and then compiled into a novel, 'Chaesikjuuija', published in 2007 by Changbi Publishers, Inc."--Title page verso.Translated from the Korean.
ISBN:
9781846276033 (paperback)1846276039 (paperback)
Dewey class:
895.735
Language:
EnglishKorean
BRN:
290258