I loved Kang’s novel so much that I have also set out to read her latest novel translated in English, Human Acts. It is terrifying, intriguing, brutal, and beautiful. The lines of sane and insane are blurred and I was left wondering not only about the answers to this riddle, but also about the questions they provoked in me.Īt 183 pages, Han Kang’s novel packs a punch for its slim size.
In-hye often looks upon her sister with envy as Yeong-hye has shirked all fears of social conformity and normalcy for her own preferred truth and reality. However, she manages to escape the clutches of the psych-wards. In-hye, her sister, suffers from anxiety, depression, and she even strongly contemplates suicide. However, by the end of the novel I began to wonder if Yeong-hye was really the mentally ill one. Doctor’s later in the novel describe her as schizophrenic. From the outset of the novel, you think that Yeong-hye is the mad one. However, her vegetarianism does not stop the dreams she is tormented by, nor does it win her favour with her family, particularly her traditional village parents. Yeong-hye from the start of the novel is tormented by violent dreams and it is because of these dreams she decides to become a vegetarian. Whilst the two sisters are not twins, they are very similar in appearance. However, my Korean is limited to a few greetings that I learned from my 48 hours in Seoul, so I really can’t say what the better translation should be.įor me, Kang’s novel is about two sisters In-hye (the older sister) and Yeong-hye (the little sister) and their struggle to find meaning and more importantly their struggle for reason. The only thing that annoyed me was that the phrase “belly pork” was used for what I think should have been “pork belly”.
The novel has been translated by Deborah Smith and she has done an extremely good job. I myself wonder about the creative process and if something is written by hand or typed into a computer could change the flow or feel of the work. An interesting fact which I don’t know the veracity of (because I found it on the Interwebs), is that The Vegetarian was handwritten due to a wrist injury that Kang had sustained. She has had a successful career writing novels and short stories as well as teaching creative writing in Seoul. She is the daughter of novelist Han Seung-won, which must in some way, genetically or otherwise, must have influenced her writing skills. Han Kang has had a successful career in writing and academia.
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