Paperback, 192 páginas
Idioma English
Publicado el 10 de septiembre de 2017 por imusti, Granta Books.
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 …
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.
Corea es para las nuevas generaciones lo que Japón supuso para la nuestra, una cultura lejana y exótica que provoca fascinación. Y, al igual que sucede con Japón, la trastienda de esa sociedad oculta muchas miserias. Kang retrata sin ambages una sociedad machista y ultracapitalista donde los individuos no son más que meros engranajes desechables cuya única finalidad es mantener en marcha una enfermiza maquinaria.
One of my favorite short stories which I read in college was Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivner." But Bartleby's got nothing on Yeong-hye. Her decision to become a vegetarian sends her family into a tailspin, as Han explores how an effort to renounce violence and reject the world's demands provokes a more and more violent reaction from those around her. Aspects of the story are absurd, but are told in a straight, just-the-facts-ma'am style that heightens the sense of how stark (yet simple) Yeong-hye's actions are. She determines, for her own reasons, to live as she wants, and the novel illustrates how challenging it is to take such a stance.
One of my favorite short stories which I read in college was Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivner." But Bartleby's got nothing on Yeong-hye. Her decision to become a vegetarian sends her family into a tailspin, as Han explores how an effort to renounce violence and reject the world's demands provokes a more and more violent reaction from those around her. Aspects of the story are absurd, but are told in a straight, just-the-facts-ma'am style that heightens the sense of how stark (yet simple) Yeong-hye's actions are. She determines, for her own reasons, to live as she wants, and the novel illustrates how challenging it is to take such a stance.
Posiblemente de los libros que más me gustaron últimamente. Su lectura engancha, aunque resulta en ocasiones bastante duro. Leyéndolo pensaba que, aparte de los relatos que cuenta en cada una de las partes, tiene mucho de filosófico; y me recordaba a los existencialistas. En el prólogo, que recomiendo no leer antes de leer la novela, comparan a su autora y premio Nobel de literatura de 2024, con Kafka. La primera parte nos habla de Yeong-hye, la vegetariana, a través de la mirada y el relato de su marido. El marido cuenta con toda naturalidad la opresión a la que está sometida su mujer a la que cosifica totalmente. Poco a poco vamos percibiendo esa cosificación y ese machismo que al final resulta insoportable. Al parecer, los críticos literarios coreanos, hombres de cierta edad y reconocimiento, hicieron durísimas críticas de la novela. Tal vez esta novela supuso para ellos un bofetón …
Posiblemente de los libros que más me gustaron últimamente. Su lectura engancha, aunque resulta en ocasiones bastante duro. Leyéndolo pensaba que, aparte de los relatos que cuenta en cada una de las partes, tiene mucho de filosófico; y me recordaba a los existencialistas. En el prólogo, que recomiendo no leer antes de leer la novela, comparan a su autora y premio Nobel de literatura de 2024, con Kafka. La primera parte nos habla de Yeong-hye, la vegetariana, a través de la mirada y el relato de su marido. El marido cuenta con toda naturalidad la opresión a la que está sometida su mujer a la que cosifica totalmente. Poco a poco vamos percibiendo esa cosificación y ese machismo que al final resulta insoportable. Al parecer, los críticos literarios coreanos, hombres de cierta edad y reconocimiento, hicieron durísimas críticas de la novela. Tal vez esta novela supuso para ellos un bofetón como el que el padre de Yeong-hye le da a su hija por negarse a comer carne. La segunda parte es un bello relato en el que se mezclan el arte y la sensualidad, y que supone un pequeño respiro en medio de la asfixia de los otros dos apartados. El último capítulo habla de la locura y la cordura, y es para mí el más existencialista. Contrapone la locura de Yeong-hye con la cordura de su hermana.
Yes, this plot is going places. But it finds very natural ways to take the reader along and experience this wild series of events in a believable way. Full review here.
Yes, this plot is going places. But it finds very natural ways to take the reader along and experience this wild series of events in a believable way. Full review here.
This was a difficult book to finish. I wanted to finish it, for about a week, but the last 50 or so pages are emotionally harrowing. Hard work.
Stylistically beautiful. Terse and without any extraneous detail, it reads a bit like a ascetic philosophical exploration of decisions in society.
A lot of other reviews (and the blurb above) focus on the book's setting in Korea -- traditionally meat-heavy diet, traditionally rigid patriachal family structure etc. I didn't find this -- apart from the names of people (which are few) and the descriptions of food, there is very little to locate this book in space or time beyond being somewhat modern.
This was a difficult book to finish. I wanted to finish it, for about a week, but the last 50 or so pages are emotionally harrowing. Hard work.
Stylistically beautiful. Terse and without any extraneous detail, it reads a bit like a ascetic philosophical exploration of decisions in society.
A lot of other reviews (and the blurb above) focus on the book's setting in Korea -- traditionally meat-heavy diet, traditionally rigid patriachal family structure etc. I didn't find this -- apart from the names of people (which are few) and the descriptions of food, there is very little to locate this book in space or time beyond being somewhat modern.
