Record Number |
740231 |
ISBN |
9781846276033 (paperback) |
1846276039 (paperback) |
Author |
Han, Kang, 1970- author |
Title |
The vegetarian : a novel / Han Kang ; translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith. |
Publisher/Date |
London : Portobello Books, 2015. |
©2015 |
Pagination etc. |
183 pages ; 20 cm. |
Contents note |
"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. |
Summary Note |
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. |
Language note |
Translated from the Korean. |
Subject |
Married people -- Fiction |
Vegetarianism -- Fiction |
Korea (South) -- Fiction |
Domestic fiction. |
Added Author |
Han, Kang, 1970- translator. |
Shelf Location |
F HAN |