“Yells and howls, threaded together layer upon layer, are enmeshed to form that lump. Because of meat. I ate too much meat. The lives of the animals I ate have all lodged there. Blood and flesh, all those butchered bodies are scattered in every nook and cranny, and though the physical remnants were excreted, their lives still stubbornly stick to my insides.”

The Vegetarian is a book I’ve struggled to gather my thoughts on. It’s the story of a young woman named Yeong-hye, whose life is told from every perspective but her own. While she says her transition to vegetarianism (well, veganism really) followed a dream she had, the audience can deduce it is so much more than that. Yeong-hyes life is rife with abuse, abuse she clearly refuses to inflict herself. She’s weak, struggling under patriarchy and strict social norms, and her only defiance seems to be shrinking herself, shedding all that makes her human and returning to a pure, natural state. We learn through the men that use and abuse her, being her husband, her sisters husband, and briefly her father, that no matter what perception others have of her, the result of her vulnerability will be the same: abuse. Through her sister, In-hye, we see a more direct reckoning with the past they shared, and by the end both she and the audience may wonder what absurdity keeps them going. It’s bittersweet. 

My small interpretation is all I can glean from this book. There’s likely a lot that I missed, though I may argue the metaphors were a bit too vague to fully grasp. Granted, I get the impression a lot was lost in translation, because there were many parts that felt clunky and strangely written. Still, there were beautiful passages, especially in the last part, though I thought the sentiments were repetitive after a point. I found the end disappointing and abrupt. I appreciated the authors capacity to write despicable characters, though it felt hard to attach oneself to any character at all. I found some of the choices the characters made confusing. At the very least, the pacing was good, the writing was generally good too, and I don’t feel I wasted my time. I just didn’t connect to it much. 

In summary, it’s an odd little book. Worth a read, though it will likely be a let down to many. I still mostly enjoyed it though.