THE VEGETARIAN

I am not going to mince words when it comes to writing what I felt after reading 'The Vegetarian'.It is the winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.This slim,seemingly innocuous book is in reality so full of guile that nothing will ever prepare you for what it really is about.

So let me get straight to the plot :

Yeong-hye and her husband live an ordinary life.But a nightmare changes things for them and Yeong-hye decides to give up eating meat completely.In a country like Korea where the story is set, this decision to embrace a more plant like existence is a shocking act of subversion and people react to it in quite an extreme manner.

Yeong-hye ,however refuses to budge and slowly descends into a darkness from which there is no return.This is a story about choice, obsession and our faltering attempts to understand others.

My Views:

This isnt a very long book.Its narrated in three short parts but it is terribly impactful and disturbing.This is my first foray in transgressive literature.Yeong-hye gives no explanation when asked why she refuses to eat meat and just says that she had a dream (the details of which are vividly described only to the reader).Things begin to deteriorate rapidly when her father tries to force a piece of meat into her mouth and she stabs herself in revolt.Its a downward spiral from this point.Her relationships begin to fall apart and we realise that she is slowly but surely losing her mind.

Yeong-hye barely speaks in the book and the story is not told from her perspective.It is narrated from the point of view of her husband,her brother-in-law and her sister.Yeong-hyes husband states in the opening chapter that his wife is completely unremarkable in every way.I thought that this would set the tone for the book only to realise later how terribly wrong I had been.The Husband wants to just shrug off responsiblity.The Artist brother-in-law takes his obsession to a completely bizarre level and The sister realises that there is only so much she can do to help Yeong-hye.

This is one of the most bizarre books Ive ever read.It takes weirdness to an entirely different level but it does hit you and engulf you in a shroud of gloom.I just couldnt shake the feeling off for quite a while.It is a stark look at mental illness and how it affects not only the individual but everyone who cares about them.I wanted to keep reading because I was clueless as to where the story was headed.

The first part had me hooked and perplexed.
The second part was a bolt from the blue. 
The third part was where it all comes together but only to leave you feeling completely depressed.

I rate it a 3 out of 5.

Do not read it if you've been feeling particularly down.