Well, this was a thing.
This book is told in three parts, from three different perspectives: Mr. Cheong, Brother-in-law, and In-hye. All three parts, told over the course of about three years, are centered around a woman named Yeong-hye. She is in what appears to be a fairly loveless marriage with Mr. Cheong, who seems to pride himself on doing as little as possible. He works a job that pays him the most without requiring him to work hard. He’s not attracted to Yeong-hye, and considers her unremarkable – but thinks that she will be dutiful and fit into the kind of life he wants to live. One morning, he finds her at the fridge, throwing away all the meat. He doesn’t handle it well, and is running late for work. She tells him that she had a dream, and is getting rid of all the meat. Things spiral from there.
Mr. Cheong is angered by this change in her, and befuddled. They go to a work dinner, and her refusal to eat meat is met with derision by Mr. Cheong’s boss. Their marriage becomes even more strained, and after several months, Yeong-hye starts losing weight, leading to Mr. Cheong organizing a family intervention. No one is supportive of Yeong-hye. They don’t try to get her help finding a healthy diet – they just shame her for not eating meat, and heap abuse on her. Her father ends up hitting her literally forcing a piece of pork into her mouth. She ends up grabbing a knife and slitting her wrists. Her brother-in-law, In-hye’s husband, puts Yeong-hye on his back and takes her to the hospital, saving her life.
The second part of the novel, “Mongolian Mark”, is from his perspective, but he’s only called Brother-in-law. He’s a video artist. In-hye owns a store, bringing in all the money, and also runs the house. Like Mr. Cheong, Brother-in-law is unlikable, shiftless, and selfish. He’s stuck in a creative rut. While having a conversation with his wife, she mentions that Yeong-hye was born with a Mongolian mark, which is a kind of birthmark prevalent among many groups around the world. They are typically temporary, irregularly shaped and bluish-grey in color. Brother-in-law becomes utterly sexually obsessed with Yeong-hye following this. This story is all about Brother-in-law trying to find a way to fulfill his fantasy. I thought it was more compelling than the first part, but also more unsettling. What Yeong-hye is going through seems more like a mental illness than in the first part, and Brother-in-law is a terrible person, but more sympathetic than Mr. Cheong.
The third part of the novel, “Flaming Trees”, is told from In-hye’s perspective, and Yeong-hye is fully enveloped by her mental illness. It’s not really explored in detail, and the reality of her illness is less important than the ideas Han Kang is exploring – but she’s described as schizophrenic here. I’m not sure how literally that should be taken. I found this story less interesting than the other two parts, and less happens. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, though I feel that this is the kind of book where plot isn’t really the driving element for most readers.
Reading this book, I thought the underlying theme dealt with masculine violence against women. Yeong-hye’s husband, Mr. Cheong, rapes her and refers to her previously giving in to his physical needs. Her father tries to “fix” her vegetarianism with violence. Her brother-in-law, In-hye’s husband, fetishizes her and takes advantage of her mental instability to fulfill his own fantasies. This is a dark book.
But Han Kang has said that isn’t what this book is about. This book is instead about the more general violence of a dog-eat-dog world. She grew up in South Korea in the 1980s, which was a time of political violence against a Democratic uprising on the part of citizens. I don’t pretend to know enough about South Korean history or politics to speak with authority on the subject – but there’s a lot here besides violent masculinity. Yeong-hye’s desire to be a plant speaks towards her desire to escape the violence in humanity itself.
I can’t say that I enjoyed this book, but the first two parts (especially) were engaging. And reading about the book was thought provoking. The book itself, I think, mostly went over my head. But I can see why it won a Man Booker and had a lot of buzz around it.
