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I love when books have the ability to shock me, this one certainly did!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Brought up some interesting questions about the futility of life and how ”to live is an act of violence”. But overall this book felt half baked, hollow and translated with zero emotions.

Does this book deserve the Booker Prize? Honestly, I didn‘t feel so. But, to each their own.

I finally picked up a Han Kang book. She sure punches a lot into such a short novel. I think this is the first book I‘ve read about anorexia. Yeong-hye begins having dreams and becomes vegetarian. Mental health and trauma plays a big part. The story is told by multiple POV‘s, all infuriated with Yeong-hye‘s decision to go against the grain of society.

Starting my Han Kang journey…

4/5 ⭐️
Il racconto molto crudo di una persona in lotta con sé stessa, con gli altri e con l'ambiente che la circonda
Una storia molto forte e a tratti disturbante che lascia un senso di inquietudine e ti fa riflettere

The Vegetarian is very moving and intriguing. The narrative is told from 3 separate perspectives offering a complete exploration of trauma, emotional breakdown and mental strain. Is Yeong-hye mad or is her behaviour a logical conclusion of the society she‘s been subjected to? There are elements I didn‘t fully understand but it still left a powerful impression. 7/10

Working through Han‘s novels. They‘re short! And only 4 in English. I started with her International Booker Prize winner. Ok - you might know the theme, the wife who turns vegetarian driving everyone crazy. What you may not know is how fun this book is up front, and how opaque is becomes. We never get her view. Only those around her, and these narrators have serious issues. But also it always undermined what I expected. Thought provoking.

I requested Han‘s four English-translated book from my library the morning I found out she won the Nobel. I picked them up today and started The Vegetarian.

This is so incredibly exciting!!

I absolutely love Han Kangs work, a big congratulations to her for this award!

Just announced

Ham Kang is the winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 2024

I‘ve not read any of her books, so no is probably a good time to start.

The 2024 Nobel Prize winner is Han Kang. I wasn't expecting it: I'll have to read her now 😁

This was a very quick read as it was easy to get lost in the prose. So well written/translated! Originally published in three novelettes, it is interesting to experience the titular character only through the eyes of others.

Hmm. Really unusual. Such an unhappy story yet wonderfully written.
The individual perspectives are all bleak and the ending is uncertain... May be researching!

A very powerful novel about mental illness, childhood trauma and women's condition.
Further to repetitive nightmares, Yeong-hye turns vegetarian. This triggers immense pressure from her family, which determines her to stop eating completely. This original, unsettling and expressive story is organized in three chapters, each showing the drama of her deteriorating condition.

4/5⭐ Interestingly, I grew to appreciate this book more after finishing it by reading (and disagreeing with) many of the reviews written about it.

Full review: https://hissingpotatoes.com/2024/01/24/review-the-vegetarian-by-han-kang/

I liked it. I have no idea what it was trying to say, but I liked it. The story is told in three parts - I enjoyed the first two. The third dragged on a bit. Very strange, odd book, but worth the quick read! (4)
⭐️: 3.75/5

Finished my reading challenge 🎊

This is the weirdest book I have ever read and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I read some weird stuff in August 😅

3.5/5 🌟

Very weird, graphic and disturbing book. Not for everyone.

March Reread (I am rereading 12 books in 2023 to see if they hold up)
I absolutely love this complicated book. Han Kang's writing is immaculate. This is not a book for everyone, reviews are very divided, but I consider this a modern day Yellow Wallpaper. It is brilliant.
The main character has an unnamed mental illness, and symptoms begin with her going vegetarian. The symptoms progress and we get a view of how her family & society treats her.

Story in three parts told from three different perspective and all entwined. Evocative.

Onto the next.

This book is beautiful & evocative. The story is small in scale but says so much, powerfully. Especially about mental health. Kang writes men better than many male authors seem to write women. She even writes men better, more honestly, than men too.That‘s important because this novel is,in part, about how men impose themselves on women. Woman who can‘t be what they want to be.Men can stunt growth and brutalise. This is patriarchy vs Mother Nature.

#manicmonday #letterV @CBee @The_Penniless_Author

📖 Can I have Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer? No? That's cheating? OK, then. The Vegetarian it is.
✒ Brian K. Vaughan & Jeff Vandermeer
🎬 Vicky Christina Barcelona
🎤 The Vengaboys
🎶 Va va voom (Nicky Minaj) & Video games (Lana Del Rey)

Stop pretending that you all don't love The Vengaboys too! 😉

Measuring Up - ?⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ super cute YA graphic novel about a young Tiwainese immagrant who loves to cook when she discovers Julia Child
The Vegetarian - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I honestly don't know if this is a pick for me or not. It left me with a "What did I just read" feeling. But I did keep reading. Mostly to find out what happened.

Very intense and with a trigger warning for eating disorders, but I thought this book was amazing.

#alphabetgame #letterV @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Up next

Taking inspiration from another #AsianReadathon pick, I made some Korean recipes from Cheap Lazy Vegan this morning. Unfortunately, the protagonist of this book doesn't have access to Rose's quick and filling recipes.

I read this based upon recs & the International Booker prize.It is a compelling book with an interesting look into psychosis, PTSD & anorexia. It is a deep look into a dysfunctional family & obvious social inequalities. But there are issues. First there are no decent male characters. The concept of veganism appears to be born out of self trauma and unrealistic. The misogyny is over the top excessive. Not being mean, but it‘s a little over rated.

Strange but good

143

85

76

I despise this book. I‘m not sure if I‘m too dense for whatever message this was supposed to convey but I cannot see any reason for reading this. It was incredibly disturbing and vulgar for no reason. I planned on finishing this book in a day because it is so short but it took me a few weeks to get though it because I could not get myself to pick it up most days. Just gross and seemingly pointless

This book is surprisingly good short read, disturbing and sad.

--4⭐️

“Before my wife turned vegetarian, I‘d always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.” Isn‘t that just… *chef‘s kiss*? It promises a fascinating story to come. The Vegetarian is “a beautiful, unsettling novel in three acts about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul”, and it‘s off to a strong start. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-vegetarian-han-kang/

Yeong-hye decides to stop eating meat after experiencing a vivid and violent dream. The story follows her decent into madness, culminating in her desire to leave her physical body in its entirety, in 3 parts, through the eyes of her husband, her brother-in-law and her sister.

✨existences briefly aligned✨ I love this little passage from The Vegetarian. It feels like one of those concepts only German has a word for, no? At the start of the pandemic, I began a quote book to house all the little moments that left a mark on me while reading. Trying to pick the habit back up. #thevegetarian #quotebook

#24

Tw sexual violence.This book blew me away although I feel it would have been better to read rather than listen to. A sexual, violent story about a woman making odd life choices based on haunting dreams, a tipping point for an unstable family, and the family members whose lives fall into disarray. And perhaps it all symbolizes the silent rage and contempt women hold inside- people, the world, give us violence and sometimes madness is our response

A disturbing story of a woman who, haunted by dreams and dark images, refuses to eat meat and becomes insane in the eyes of her society, particularly men. But her "madness" is a result of a domineering, violent, patriarchal culture. This short compelling novel is sometimes difficult to read, but beautifully written and realized.

Book club's in two days, so I should start the book, but I'm gonna do that poolside.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Yeong-hye aggressively embraces vegetarianism following a bloody nightmare. Told in three distinct parts, her previously mundane world slowly collapses. The men in her life are either patriarchal dicks or sexually exploitative. It‘s now her duty to defy. Sinking into illness, Yeong-hye becomes nearly plantlike herself, craving sun and water, barely moving. Very poetic at times; bizarre and brilliant.

What did I just read?

This book was dark. It is less than 200 pages, but the content meant I couldn't breeze through it in one sitting. It definitely makes you think. At times it was very jarring, I think because you never truly see anything from the main character's point of view, all you see are her dreams. It dealt with physical and sexual abuse, mental health, eating disorders, women's roles in society, and bodily autonomy. All in only 188 pages. It's quite a ride!

"She was no longer able to cope with all that her sister reminded her of. She'd been unable to forgive her for soaring alone over a boundary she herself could never bring herself to cross, unable to forgive that magnificent irresponsibility that had enabled Yeong-hye to shuck off social constraints and leave her behind, still a prisoner."

"It wasn't long before she realized something: perhaps the one she'd so earnestly wanted to help was not him, but herself. Was it not perhaps her own image - she who had left home at nineteen and gone on to make a life for herself in Seoul, always entirely under her own steam - that she had seen mirrored in this man's exhaustion?"