It took me a while to stew over the plot of the book to finally start writing a review. In a stream of consciousness narrative that is related through the perspectives of Yeong-hye’s husband, brother in-law and sister, the story of the life of the protagonist is painted.

While most of the reviews online had it down as a creepy little book with too much graphic violence and sexual content, it is really a story of oppression and what it does to people who are subjected to it. I won’t go into the argument over the representation of vegetarianism or veganism and the accuracy of it, because it is simply part of the life choice that the protagonist makes and which stands against the social norms of the very conservative Asian culture.

There have been several arguments over the legitimacy of such portrayal and even the mental illness induced following the lifestyle change, but no one has really talked about how this simple change, going vegan after having a brutal dream about slaughtered cattle, changed her life. Admittedly, the protagonist had led a quiet and somewhat subdued life and the sudden changes in her behavior were alarming. It is astonishing that the family were not concerned about the state of mind of the woman but simply wanted to impose their will upon something that seemed foreign to them, the idea of talking to her and getting to the bottom of the issue was unfathomable for both her husband and father. The former abandons her after repeatedly abusing and raping her, and the latter, in a show of his strength pushes his daughter to the limits where she further loses her footing in the reality.

As the story keeps swirling around the protagonist, we hear not one word from her perspective. She is curiously silent and enduring. Only in presumed madness, we start to hear and see her clearly. She practically wastes away in front of her family and all of them approach her from a sense of selfish motives. Her brother in-law, in an artistic madness crosses boundaries that define the social constructs and her sister visits her from a sense of duty. The husband that leaves her at the first signs of mental illness, shows what he really cared about, the demure bride who complied to all his wishes and whims. As Yeong-hye recoils further into her shell, the husk that is left in the physical world relates to the nature increasingly. It is an aversion to human society that turns Yeong-hye to the respite of nature and even in that she is misunderstood and finally abandoned by all.

The writing style is entrancing. The graphic scenes evoke repulsion and the reactions of the protagonist portray a sense of calm that further disrupts the understanding of reality. Starved of affection and understanding, it is cruelty that Yeong-hye turns away from. Unfortunately, as a novella, this book’s brevity works against it. The subtlety of the plot escapes the reader through discontinued narrative. It becomes difficult to keep track of the timeline or understand the motives of the characters. It is impertinent to the plot that the reactions of Yeong-hye are not products of the gruesome dream, she had been subjected to years of abuse and oppression at the hands of her father and husband. While surviving in the man’s world where the torch bearers of patriarchy, her mother and sister, coaxed her on to live according to the commands of the male members of her family, the repression led to an explosion that tore apart the world around her and annihilated all that stood in the way.

This brutal and shocking story is not everyone’s cup of tea. The metaphorical existence and actions of the characters are heavy with meaning and significance. While it deals with issues that are taboo in the closed society of Korea, Han Kang, draws parallels that are difficult to escape no matter which society you belong to. It is a story of how society suppresses deviation and how deviation from social norms or what people consider as “normal” is only an effect of the society’s projected cruelty and criticism. This disturbing story makes you halt and ponder over life, it provides scope of introspection and depicts the physical death of a spiritually long dead woman.