Fast forward several months later and there I am checking it out from the library. So what changed? Well, I figured that if animals have to endure horrible abuse due to factory farming and I eat meat, then it's only fair that I should read something about their experiences, no matter how unsettling it might be. I also felt like a book with this many rave reviews had to be truly life-changing. Maybe it would be the finally push for me to finally stop eating meat altogether. Maybe it would teach me to see the world in a different light.
The main focus of the novel is Yeong-hye, who lives in South Korea. One day she decides to stop eating meat because of these nightmares she's been having. She's hoping that by no longer eating meat, her demons will disappear. What she doesn't realize, however, is that changing her diet is going to drastically affect the lives of those closest to her and cause Yeong-hye herself to fall into a life-threatening mental illness.
The novel is written in three parts. Each part is told from a different narrator. Interestingly enough, none of these narrators are Yeong-hye. The reader watches through the eyes of her husband, brother-in-law, and then finally her sister. Yeong-hye is oppressed as a female in her culture. Her husband treats her poorly and shows no sympathy whatsoever to her ordeal. He rapes her whenever he feels like it and is verbally abusive. This is apparently the role of women in that culture and I can easily see how Yeong-hye could be pushed to madness from such horrible mistreatment. Yeong-hye is abused by her other family members, as well. There's a very disturbing scene where she is held down and force-fed meat. They refuse to respect her diet choices and while I've never endured anything so extreme, I was able to relate to Yeong-hye here. As someone who's an aspiring vegan, I often bring vegan food to work and my coworkers make off-hand comments that embarrass me or make me feel inferior because my dish doesn't contain meat. Certain areas are very unforgiving when it comes to going against the norm. The first part of this novel was the most interesting for me. It was unsettling, yes, but the pages kept turning as I rooted for Yeong-hye to stick to her beliefs and stand up for herself.
The other two sections were too slow and just...weird. The second section of the story drags on as we learn how Yeong-hye's brother-in-law uses his art as an excuse to sexually objectify and take advantage of her while she is clearly ill. Despite this being my least favorite section of the three, it is here where we find some of the beautifully-written passages at which Han Kang excels. Her descriptions of their bodies, painted to look like vibrant flowers, made me feel like I was physically in the same room, watching the chaos unfold with my own eyes. For the final section, the reader follows Yeong-hye's sister as she does little to help and is later haunted by the guilt she feels for her involvement in her little sister's illness. There's nothing too remarkable here.
While I understand that this novel is exceptional for its depth, social themes, and descriptive prose, I just did not enjoy it. My enthusiasm for the book paralleled Yeong-hye's dwindling sanity. I loved it at first and was completely sucked in. It was horrifying and unsettling in a way that kept me reading, but by the second part, I was simply just reading to get through the abuses endured by this broken woman. I wanted her to rise up and empower herself. I wanted some resolution at the end, but there was none. I'm not a reader that always needs stories to end perfectly, but when you get involved with a story so twisted, you need something to restore your faith in humanity, if even just the littlest bit. I can clearly see why others would appreciate the creativity and writing skills of the author, but for me the overall story did not satisfy.
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆
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