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“It’s your body, you can treat it however you please. The only area where you’re free to do just as you like. And even that doesn’t turn out how you wanted.��

I don’t even know how to begin describing this novel. I’m guessing that in a year’s time or more, it will still hold true that this was one of the most haunting, unsettling and tragic novels I’ve read in a long time. For a slim book, there’s a great deal to mull over and discuss. There are many different ways of looking at this besides what meets the eye. Don’t let the title fool you. This isn’t simply a book about a woman that renounces meat and animal by-products. It’s a story about autonomy over one’s body and one’s life and the repercussions of a lack thereof. It probes the harmful ramifications of patriarchal societies, violence, and victimization. It explores mental illness. I’m not even touching on everything here. This is some heavy stuff!

“Everything starts to feel unfamiliar. As if I’ve come up to the back of something. Shut up behind a door without a handle. Perhaps I’m only now coming face-to-face with the thing that has always been here. It’s dark. Everything is being snuffed out in the pitch-black darkness.��

The subject of this novel is Yeong-hye. She’s not actually given a voice here except for a few very brief passages, as in the quote above, when she recounts the nightmares that led her to turn to vegetarianism. Instead, the book is split into three parts giving the perspectives of her husband, her brother-in-law, and eventually her sister. Not for one second did I ever feel any sympathy for the men. That’s not to say that I wasn’t wholly absorbed by the first two sections, because I surely was. What ultimately made the story for me, however, was the last section when we heard from In-hye, the sister. This was truly poignant and thought provoking. What makes one person suffer from mental illness while another does not? I’ve often considered that the boundary between a diagnosed illness versus a non-diagnosis can be a bit blurred at times. What about responsibility to another �� how does that affect us psychologically? How do we protect those we love?

“If it hadn’t been for Ji-woo—if it hadn’t been for the sense of responsibility she felt toward him—perhaps she too might have relinquished her grip on that thread.��

I ended up with more questions by the time I turned the last page. I’ve had experience with a close loved one with a mental illness. As a child it’s scary and disconcerting. For me personally it heavily influenced my development as an adolescent and young adult. It affected many of my choices. I often think about the effects of mental illness on the functioning of a family. Han Kang has made me think about it that much more. What a powerful, beautiful torment of a book this was.

“Life is such a strange thing�� Even after certain things have happened to them, no matter how awful the experience, people still go on eating and drinking, going to the toilet and washing themselves - living, in other words. And sometimes they even laugh out loud.��