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What Members Thought
I read this book two years ago and HATED it. But since then, I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot, so I decided to revisit it. This book is not an especially pleasant or enjoyable read, but I felt differently about it this time around. The thing that made me anxious and full of loathing the first time around is the frustrating distance placed around the central character, the vegetarian. Other than some dream sequences in the first part, there is no account of the events through her perspec
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I don't think I can actually distill this into words. That was a vivid, intense one-sitting read. Excellent translation. Three linked novella-like chapters that constantly re-frame why Yeong-hye has stopped eating meat and also comment on societal expectations (I think I missed a few deeper points because I'm not familiar with Korean cultural norms as Korean readers certainly would, but it definitely didn't detract).
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This was weird and engrossing. The main character, Yeong-hye, stops eating meat after having a dream, a fact that her family cannot understand or reconcile themselves to. This is in part because she withdraws from them, and in part because she slowly stops eating entirely (and, in part, because they just don't get it). Many passages in this novel are hard to read, and the characters are sometimes brutal. Told from three perspectives - her husband, brother in law, and older sister - we see all th
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Thriller focusing on the mental breakdown of a young woman (Yeong-hye). After a dream, she decides she will no longer eat meat. Told in three parts we see her perspective, her husbands, her brother in-laws, and her sister. It starts out seemingly harmless. She decides to not eat meat. However, this does not sit well with her husband and family. One could speculate it is an outcropping of her controlling husband and domineering father. Things quickly spiral out of control.
The imagery invoked is v ...more
The imagery invoked is v ...more
Dec 01, 2016
Booktart
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
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contemporary-fiction
