Following my post here

https://c.im/@jemmesedi/115483897308266747

I got hold of a copy of "The Vegetarian" and finished it this afternoon.

On one level, this novel - or is it a trilogy of linked novellas? - is a critique in fiction of the repression of women in socially conservative South Korea.

Yet "The Vegetarian" is much more than that, questioning as it does our distinctions between sanity and madness, care and cruelty, and humanity and nature.

More disturbing for me than all the body horror aspects of the book was the suggestion that a supreme moment of creative expression might be inextricably bound up with cruelty, exploitation, and betrayal.

At just under two hundred pages, this is not a long read. Thanks to @isa for your recommendation!

#Books #TheVegetarian #HanKang #Fiction #Literature #KoreanLiterature #SouthKorea

@SaraR

Haven't you mentioned reading "The Vegetarian" recently, or am I thinking of somebody else's post?

#TheVegetarian #HanKang

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202511/1347167.shtml

Now I want to read "The Vegetarian" and some of the other works that Dong Xi mentions, especially Zhuangzi -- On Seeing Things as Equal.

#Literature #Books #KoreanLiterature #HanKang #TheVegetarian #ChineseLiterature #OnSeeingThingsAsEqual #DongXi #Transformations

𝟯 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻” 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗻𝗴 -

A surreal/but-real tale of a woman who dares to make her own choices and of the struggles of family (most male) who cannot contend with it.

#bookreviews #books #bookworm #readreadread #3words #hankang #thevegetarian #nobelprize #koreanliterature #asianliterature

𝐓𝐁𝐑 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐞: 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 -

A few of the books I'm most looking forward to this month!

#books #literature #bookreviews #bookworm #tbrpile #tbrlist #hankang #thevegetarian #ntozakeshange #forcoloredgirls #forcoloredgirlswhohaveconsideredsuicidewhentherainbowisenuf #claricelispector #breathandlife #ronaldwimberly #princeofcats #nervousconditions #TsitsiDangarembga #imbolombue #HowBeautifulWeWere #BlackHistoryMonth

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜'𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗻𝗴 --

Where to start with this Nobel Prize winner? Here seems good, her Man Booker Prize winner for 2016! A woman is Seoul decides to stop eating meat: simple enough, but the consequences . . . .

#hankang #thevegetarian #koreanliterature

TBR Pile: 2025 Fiction Preview -

What are the novels I'm most looking forward to reading this next year? Here are some!

https://youtube.com/shorts/u6DexbBW-Mc

#books #literature #bookreviews #bookworm #tbrpile #tbrlist #2025preview #tbr2025 #fiction #umbertoeco #baudolino #milankundera #paulauster #timbuktu #harukimurakami #thesympathizer #vietthanhnguyen #hankang #thevegetarian #howbeautifulwewere #mohsinhamid #simonjimenez #marlonjames #harlanellison #zadiesmith #whiteteeth #dondelillo

I'm late to the party, but count me in as a Han Kang stan. THE VEGETARIAN is a masterpiece: a brilliant metaphor for woman's autonomy and the gender divide, an astutely observed portrait of a troubled marriage, and so much more. All contained in one taut little novel! Indeed, much like THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, you can read it in so many ways AND YET it is clear as a bell. She definitely deserved the Nobel.

#books #hankang #thevegetarian #nobel

> ... the Yi Sang Literary Award, named after one of the strangest writers of any place or time, a hero of mine whose fugitive work and tortured life still baffle and fascinate today. He died in 1937, without a book to his name. But decades later, Han came across a line from his journals—“I believe that humans should be plants”—that inspired The Vegetarian.

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/10/han-kang-nobel-prize-literature-winner-2024/680245/

#HanKang #TheVegetarian #YiSang in this article made me think of Fernando Pessoa, never publish while alive?