The Vegetarian in Reading with Namjoon

Feb 27, 2019 Mariana added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019

“A Vegetariana” de Han Kang foi escolhido como livro do mês de fevereiro para o @leiamulheresjundiai . A primeira vez que ouvi falar nesse livro foi no instagram do @wolneyfernandes e entrou na minha lista de desejados, como quase todos os livros indicados por ele.
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A protagonista Yeonghuye decidiu se tornar vegetariana após um sonho, segundo a autora, essa foi uma forma da personagem rejeitar a brutalidade e violência humana. Outras atitudes da protagonista ao longo do livro confirmam esse posic “A Vegetariana” de Han Kang foi escolhido como livro do mês de fevereiro para o @leiamulheresjundiai . A primeira vez que ouvi falar nesse livro foi no instagram do @wolneyfernandes e entrou na minha lista de desejados, como quase todos os livros indicados por ele.
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A protagonista Yeonghuye decidiu se tornar vegetariana após um sonho, segundo a autora, essa foi uma forma da personagem rejeitar a brutalidade e violência humana. Outras atitudes da protagonista ao longo do livro confirmam esse posicionamento.
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É interessante a forma como a autora escolheu para contar sua história: pessoas de fora - marido, cunhado e irmã - julgam a atitude aparentemente incompreensível de uma mulher que decidiu sair do padrão considerado normal e desejável da sociedade em que vivia.
A reação inicial dos pais/irmã ao desculparem com Jeong sobre o comportamento da filha/irmã é algo que me deixou estupefata. Jeong também apresenta atitudes machistas do tipo “a maior vítima dessa história sou eu”. - Argh!
Yeonghuye finalmente tem coragem de dar voz aos seus pensamentos, saindo da inércia em que vivia. Sua desumanização é crescente junto com o distanciamento e a sensação de estranheza, que chega em uma via de mão dupla entre ela e seus familiares.
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Não há floreios na escrita, algumas cenas são impactantes para leitores mais sensíveis, o envolvimento com a leitura fez com que as páginas voassem sob meus dedos, eu estava sempre querendo saber o que viria a seguir, apesar da sensação de incômodo.
A cena pavorosa do pai de Yeonghuye a forçado fazer algo que ela não quer, nunca mais vai sair da minha cabeça.
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Gostei bastante da leitura, mas esperava mais da última parte. A forma como a autora chega ao final, não me agradou, esperava algo mais incisivo como nas duas partes anteriores. Talvez ela tenha escolhido esse caminho, principalmente, pela transformação de sua protagonista e seu posicionamento de não violência.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BuZcx5OA0bG/ ...more

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Feb 28, 2025 Yağmur rated it really liked it

Shelves: btsbc2025readingchallenge

btsbc2025readingchallenge
(February - a book under 200 pages)

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Jun 17, 2022 dinah chuuu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: must-reads, 2022-shelf, 5-star-reads

this book disturbed me (complimentary) i am pretty sure it was supposed to.

the complexity between characters and their feelings and morals astounded me.

lets start with nameless mr cheong in the first part of the story, the vegetarian.(view spoiler) this book disturbed me (complimentary) i am pretty sure it was supposed to.

the complexity between characters and their feelings and morals astounded me.

lets start with nameless mr cheong in the first part of the story, the vegetarian.(view spoiler)

next the mongolian mark, or the point of view of yeong-hye's nameless brother in law, the wife of in-hye(view spoiler)

flaming trees is another story altogether. in-hye cannot be ascribed the same characteristics as the previous two. (view spoiler)

but the book itself is about yeong-hye. her decisions are not about morality, neither are her actions. at first i thought she was chasing a moral dilemma, as many vegetarians do, including myself. but she isn't even vegetarian she's vegan. or maybe not even that by the end, becoming essentially a jain. but she isn't fighting for that cause. she is fighting against the society she lives, the capitalism she is forced to comply with, she husband she is bound to. it is not vegetarian propaganda, but rather a harsh, aggressive and confrontaional narrative about the society she, and up to a point we as a western society live in. kang and translator deborah do an excellent job of portraying that from the get go. korea is a conformist society, and vegetarianism is something often looked down on in a country who's national dishes contain beef, such as bulgogi. she begins breaking that barrier and breaks more and more until she doesn't relate to the human or korean side of herself at all.

overall the book was amazing, would read it again. but be prepared, it can be visceral and sometimes aggressive as a narrative ...more

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Jul 04, 2022 Paola Rivera rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Not a review just me keeping track
(But if you do read it keep in mind it has spoilers)

This book if very good!

It's divided into three parts each kn a diferent point of view.
The first part on the POV of the husband was hard to read for the way he refered to things and narrates them. This husband doesnt really care for his wife. Mostly he is with her because its practical for him. She just takes care of everything and dies everything for him. When she becomes a burden to him and affect the way peop ...more

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Dec 05, 2024 Pauline rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult-fiction, translation, at-the-library, new-york-times, read-2024, korean-literature, nobel-prize-in-literature, booker-prize-international

Han Kang's The Vegetarian is a masterful and unsettling meditation on the human condition, autonomy, and the violence of societal expectations, placed upon women. It is a story that lingers long after the final page, leaving readers to grapple with its meaning.

At its core, The Vegetarian is a profound examination of rebellion and control. Yeong-hye’s decision to stop eating meat begins as a quiet act of defiance but soon spirals into a larger rejection of societal norms, familial expectations, a

Han Kang's The Vegetarian is a masterful and unsettling meditation on the human condition, autonomy, and the violence of societal expectations, placed upon women. It is a story that lingers long after the final page, leaving readers to grapple with its meaning.

At its core, The Vegetarian is a profound examination of rebellion and control. Yeong-hye’s decision to stop eating meat begins as a quiet act of defiance but soon spirals into a larger rejection of societal norms, familial expectations, and even her own human existence. Through her journey, Han Kang illustrates the crushing weight of patriarchy and the lengths to which one might go to reclaim control in an oppressive world. Yet, as Yeong-hye's rebellion becomes more extreme, even this fragile autonomy is stripped from her, leading to a devastating exploration of powerlessness.

The novel’s depiction of misogyny is both searing and nuanced, exposing the violence—both physical and psychological—inflicted on women who refuse to conform. Yeong-hye’s relationships with the men in her life highlight the insidious ways women are objectified and exploited, while her sister In-hye’s internalized struggle reveals the pervasive influence of societal expectations. In-hye’s growing awareness of her own entrapment offers a poignant counterpoint to Yeong-hye’s radical escape, making their parallel journeys all the more compelling.

Han Kang’s prose is spare yet evocative, perfectly capturing the surreal and visceral nature of Yeong-hye’s descent. The dreamlike quality of the narrative mirrors the characters’ psychological unraveling, pulling readers into a world where the boundaries between sanity and madness blur. The novel’s use of Yeong-hye’s eating disorder as a symbol of control and resistance is particularly powerful, reflecting the devastating toll of living in a world that denies women their agency.

The Vegetarian is not an easy read—it is raw, unsettling, and deeply tragic—but it is an essential one. It challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about power, identity, and the human desire for freedom. Han Kang has crafted a modern classic that is thought-provoking. This is a book that demands to be read, discussed, and revisited.

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Dec 31, 2020 Roisin rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror, contemporary-fiction, adult-fiction, statement-books, mental-illness, body-image, abuse, i-want-to-curl-up-and-die-now, dysfunctional-families, read-in-2020

I hope it's not a bad omen that this is probably the last book I read in 2020...
This book is such a visceral description of disassociation of self and body and I feel kind of stupid because I feel like there's a lot about it that I still don't understand. Maybe I'll have to reread it... ...more

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Sep 15, 2022 jhem ♡ rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

I only read this book because it was referenced in I Decided to Live as Me and I was always curious about Han Kang's works so I said why not and jumped into it. I was not ready for everything that happened in this book. All the abused, the anorexia, the graphic dreams made it so hard for me to read that I always find myself taking a break. This book is very raw, cold and disturbing but most of the times I was just angry especially with the men in this story. ...more

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