DNF Review: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

I’ve heard a lot about this book and everyone who has read it has seemed to love it. It is about a woman who decides to become a vegetarian, which her entire family seems to have a massive problem with. We hear the story from the perspectives of her relatives instead of herself, so I found it pretty hard to connect with her. 

First we hear from her husband. This is the period when she decides to become vegetarian. It not just the fact that she becomes vegetarian, she seems to have some sort of mental health issue in relation to this, but instead of being concerned about her mental health her husband is obsessed with the fact that she leaves the house without wearing a bra. 

Next we hear from her brother-in-law. Now the woman seems to be in a mentally healthier state and she helps out with her brother-in-laws art project. This art project consists of him painting flowers on her naked body and filming it. This man is sexually obsessed with the woman and wants nothing more than to have sex with her. So much so that he gets someone else to paint flowers on him, when the woman tells him that she is turned on by these flowers on her body. And this is where I stopped. I just wasn’t feeling this book. At. All. None of these people seemed to care one inch about the woman aside from how her actions would influence them, be it shaming them by not eating meat (what?) or getting her into bed. I found the two male characters to be revolting and even though we supposedly hear from the sister’s perspective next I just couldn’t stomach continuing this book.