What would happen if any ordinary, mediocre person will have a sudden, random change in his/her personality resulting in a 180 degree change in the behaviour. How should the people surrounding him/her be reacting? How can they fathom the reasons and face the repercussions because of such sudden changes? And most importantly, what’s happening in the minds of people who are going through this life altering, mind bending experience ?
The Vegetarian novel written by Han Kang; originally in Korean and brilliantly translated by Deborah Smith, attempts to answer these questions in three parts. This story of Yeong-hye set in modern day Seoul and presented from three people’s perspectives, tries to unravel the mysterious workings of mind.
Why people do what they do and is it necessary for any action to be based on reasons or facts? More questions than answer and bizarre events occurring in the seemingly normal commonplace scenarios is the main theme in this storyline. Three parts opening like three acts of a well-executed drama keep us guessing about the decision taken by Yeong-hye to become vegetarian.
The first part titled as the namesake of the novel, is narrated by Yeong-hye’s husband Mr. Cheong. He is an ordinary man living a mundane, dull life of an average salaryman with no great ambitions or focused efforts to improve his insignificant life. He is happy as it is and doesn’t like to disturb the humdrum rhythm of his routine. So, he likes his wife because she is equally a common woman with no great personality traits or ambitions of careers. As long as, her thoughts and behaviours suits his lifestyle and expectations, everything is all right. But then, suddenly once in the middle of a seemingly ordinary night; he gets jolt of the unexpected, unheard bizarre behaviour of his wife and that upends his common man’s life. What starts from confronting his wife about her shunning all kinds of meats, rather banishing meat based food items from their home; turns into a tragedy when it ends in the hospital compound with her being found naked. Yeong-hye’s dreams or rather visions of bloods, animal killings lead her towards the path of vegetables and insomnia; but this is all too much to comprehend for her family, especially her father. For the readers, it looks like his force-feeding pushes her to the brink-of-no-return rather like a last draw on camel’s back resulting in her total breakdown.
The second part is narrated by and from the perspective of husband of Yeong-hye’s sister In-hye; who is an artist working in the mixed medium, focusing mostly on videography. At first, he is not attracted to his strange acting sister-in-law. His attraction arises after hearing about the Mongolian Mark, her birthmark which is somewhat similar to his visions for a new project. This leads him to ask her to model for his new installation as a flower painted (flower embodied?) muse. From then on; it’s a slippery slope of his mind altering visions, pushing all kinds of boundaries for his artwork and finally becoming entranced by Yeong-hye’s birth mark. From her point of view, this is nothing but just an escape from her miserable dreams.
The third part, however is more intensely portrayed and has more depths. Perhaps it’s because it plays out more or less between these two sisters – Yeong-hye & In-hye. After all the dramatic events perpetrated by her husband, stemming from his artistic vision of the Mongolian Mark; In-hye is trying to keep it all together- her child’s future, her shop, her sister’s psychiatric treatment and more so, her own sanity. As she calls of their act as crossing of societal boundaries to splinter their lives and tearing each one of it apart. We never get to hear what her husband thinks of all this sordid saga and what his act has resulted in. In-hye; the elder, dutiful daughter, care giving mother and responsible sister blaming herself for leading her husband down this troubled path and pushing her sister over the cliff-of-no-return is quite painful to read and grasp. As in all families, if there are more than one children; one has to be the responsible lot, other one can be called black sheep facing the brunt of all frustrated expectations of their parents. Readers need to keep in mind that it’s a story based out of east, where daughters bear more responsibility and blames for everything more than sons. Is this family equation that has come to haunt Yeong-hye in her adult years after years of strained parental relationships and bearing it all with grunted teeth; wonders In-hye. And as the elder sister points out that the only thing, not letting her leave behind the thread of real world is her son; but seeing her battling all the demons on her own is quite heart wrenching.
Well the final words here are; a must read book for fans of good stories and anyone who is interested in understanding family lives from an eastern perspective. Highly recommended!!