The Vegetarian - Han Kang

The Vegetarian by Han Kang is an intriguing yet somewhat disturbing story told in three acts and from three perspectives centred around one woman's choice to become a vegetarian.

In the first act through her husband's eyes, we get to know Yeong-hye, a married unassuming woman who has largely gone unnoticed due to her mild nature; or as her husband puts it "completely unremarkable in every way". For a man who spent most of his life "inclined toward the middle course of life", an unremarkable woman was exactly what he needed. That is until she has a dream and decides to be a vegetarian starting a sequence of events.

I’ve always inclined toward the middle course in life...And so it was only natural that I would marry the most run-of-the-mill woman in the world. As for women who were pretty, intelligent, strikingly sensual, the daughters of rich families—they would only have served to disrupt my carefully ordered existence.

The second act is told from the perspective of Yeong-hye's brother-in-law; an artist who is obsessed with her Mongolian mark. A Mongolian mark is a birthmark that typically disappears before adolescence. In his twisted obsessive way, the brother-in-law is convinced that his greatest work yet is centred around Yeong-hye's birthmark and tries to convince her to become his model.

The third and final act is centred around Yeong-hye's sister who paints a picture of the aftermath of it all and the consequences of Yeong-hye's choice to become a vegetarian and further progressing into the belief that she is a tree and thus becomes admitted into a psychiatric hospital. As the sister tries to understand it herself we see the family history and explore themes of freedom, marriage, madness and death.

The book leaves more questions than answers but is still worth the read.