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Han Kang’s shocking, provocative, astonishing novel “Vegetarian”, which received a great response around the world, was awarded the prestigious “The Man Booker International” prize last year, pushing writers such as Elena Ferrante, Orhan Pamuk into the background. The novel of the South Korean writer was published in our country by the publishing house “Vaga”, translated from Korean by Martynas Šiaučiūnas-Kačinskas.

The title of the book “Vegetarian” already gives away the main idea of ​​the work – yes, it is a novel about a woman who one day decided to completely give up meat and how the surrounding world makes such a decision, starting with the closest people – her husband, parents, continuing with friends, doctors, etc. But don’t be fooled, vegetarianism here is just a provocative symbol, a tool that the author uses to open Pandora’s box and draw from it a much wider range of relevant topics, such as violence in society, human rights, separation of the individual and society, relationships between family members, respect for societal norms, the limits of art, sexual taboos, connection with nature – and this is far from all that you will find in this novel.

Here, vegetarianism is just a provocative symbol, a tool that the author uses to open Pandora’s box and draw a much wider range of relevant topics from it.

Violence – in the family and in society – is a topic that is famously exploited not only in Lithuania, but all over the world. In “Vegetarian”, one can find the writer’s indirect references to one of the most massive manifestations of violence in South Korea – the Kwangju uprising in the 1980s, during which mass demonstrations by residents and students were suppressed in particularly brutal ways, costing the lives of several hundred people.

Han Kang was 14 years old when he discovered an album of photos taken by foreign journalists of the Kwangji “slaughter” in his parents’ closet. The shocking, shocking bodies of injured people were captured in the photos and shocked the teenager. After this painful historical discovery, after a long search for answers about the cruelty of humanity, the origins of violence, she herself paid particular attention to the solution of human rights and social problems in the country when she grew up. Han Kang wrote: “They couldn’t testify because they were dead, so I wanted to lend my own body and voice to them.” At the age of 30, Han Kang began to feel severe pain in the joints of her hands, and for a long time she could only write by touching the keys with a pen.

It is easy to see the experience of the writer herself in the novel “Vegetarian”, in which a young woman named Jonghė increasingly distances herself from her body in various ways, as if trying to erase the violence she experienced in society, her father’s tyranny, her husband’s indifference, her brother-in-law’s artist use of her body for personal art and erotic purposes. passions. Han Kang presents the story from the positions of three family members, as if allowing you to feel three truths, three different views of the same person, to the same situation, and to help you understand even the most extreme, strange choices of your heroes.

The first part, named like the novel, “Vegetarian”, tells the story from a man’s perspective: he introduces his wife Jonghae, whom he carefully chose as his life partner, he wanted her to be simple and not cause him unnecessary worries, and she surprises him one day as if on purpose declaring that she had become a vegetarian. It must be admitted that this part of the book is the most ironic, with no shortage of absurd scenes (for example, with Jonghe’s father forcibly trying to stuff a piece of meat into his daughter’s mouth), comical and Jonghe’s own husband’s primitive and pragmatic attitude towards his wife.

“I married her because she seemed to have neither particular charms nor particular flaws. I was comfortable with such an average personality, without an iota of novelty, wit or sophistication. In order to win her heart, it was not necessary to pretend to be erudite, to run around as if your eyes were on fire, afraid of being late for dates, there was no reason to cringe, comparing yourself to men from fashion magazines. So it’s only natural that I decided to marry her, who looks like the most average woman in the world. Charming, wise, enchanting women, daughters of rich families, have always caused me nothing but inconvenience.”

The narrator of the second part of the novel, “Mongolian Spot”, is chosen by the writer to be Jong-hee’s sister’s husband, a filmmaker, who is obsessed with thoughts of his sister-in-law when he learns that she still has a Mongolian spot on her body. The blue spot becomes the object of his imagination, his great obsession and desire to turn his wife’s sister’s body into a flower-painted work of art and film it. In this part full of passion, erotic excitement and colors, the author raises the question – is there a line between art, passion and madness?

In this part full of passion, erotic excitement and colors, the author raises the question – is there a line between art, passion and madness?

In an interview, the author of the book admits that she is quite familiar with the world of visual arts thanks to her artist aunt. While studying art, she lived with their family, their house also had her aunt’s workshop, where the writer spent a lot of time when she was still very young and often posed herself. Therefore, the writers are well-acquainted with the artist’s position and point of view and have naturally integrated into “Vegetarė”. It is easy for the reader to understand as well – the process of creating art, the creator’s own inner reflections are described visually and realistically.

The last part of the novel “Tree Fireworks” (by the way, the translation of the title of this part would be more accurate or better for me as “Flaming Trees”) is the most artistic, the most mystical, containing the most allegories and symbols. Here we see Jonghe’s inner transformation from a human to a tree, like a liberation from a world where someone is constantly encroaching on your life, where you have no right even to your own body. We see all of this from Jonghae’s sister’s point of view. And this is the person who knows the most details about Jonghae’s personality, past and possible reasons for his behavior. The open and painful confession of the sister herself is also interesting, her thoughts about herself, her relationship with her family, about her life, which has long since ceased to belong to her, in which she has long felt dead among the living and only family duties and responsibilities still hold her back in this world.

“Life is a strange thing, she thinks with a smile. Even after everything is over, even after experiencing the worst experiences, a person continues to eat and drink, go to the toilet, wash and live. Sometimes they even laugh out loud.”

Han Kang began her creative career as a poet, so it is not surprising that the prose texts have a strong poetic charge, allegories, and symbols. Many people compare “Vegetarian” with Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, but it is possible that Han Kang’s idea to turn the heroine into a tree is more inspired by the features of South Korean culture, religion, which is closely related to the natural world, which is little known to Europeans.

“Vegetarian” is a psychological and philosophical novel at the same time. In italics, the heroine’s dreams are distinguished in the novel, with grotesque, creepy memories from childhood – Freudian references to the beginning of the path, where mental illness (in the eyes of those around them) is born and personality rebellion manifests itself in final destruction.

The atmosphere of the book, imbued with melancholy, mysticism, eroticism, and feelings of anxiety, inevitably leads to something very crazy and extreme, something that knocks the reader out of their comfortable seats and makes them rethink their own value system. Do we have the right to interfere with another person’s choices? Does the crazy and at the same time the most joyful, the greatest bliss of the soul, the thrill-giving passion have the right to be fulfilled at the expense of family responsibility? Can an act of love performed with bodies painted with flowers be called art? After all, does a person have the right to choose his own death? These are just some of the many questions that arise when reading this book, and unfortunately, the writer does not provide one correct answer to them in the book.

To tell the truth, it has been a long time since I read a book that would contain so many layers, a book that would describe so many conflicting descriptions in my head, a book that would cover so many pains of the country and all of humanity through the history and relationships of one family. Although, we have to admit that different cultural contexts do not allow us to fully understand all the meanings and symbols of the work, but this certainly does not prevent us from enjoying this work or creating the most acceptable interpretations for ourselves.

A wonderful, enchanting, and at the same time cruel book, which allows you to enjoy and make you angry at the same time, therefore it is recommended to everyone who misses exceptionally interesting, shocking and artistic literature.

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