S Korean Author Han Kang's THE VEGETARIAN Wins Man Booker

This year's Man Booker Prize went to Han Kang (b. S Korean 1970) for her disturbing, thought provoking novel about a young wife who suddenly refuses to stop eating meat.  This would not seem enough of a banquet from which to draw but, surprisingly, the piquant characterization and family dynamics branch out into a turbulent brew that is philosophical, pornographic and dreamlike. Yeong-hi, is the woman who refuses to eat meat after her arousing dreams of carnivore imagery.   Her life is soon to becomes a living nightmare.   Prior to Yeong-hi's vegetarian stance, her husband "…thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way."  Kang's writing may not appeal to the masses.  The plot is gnarly like massive roots & as mystifying & ephemeral as the dream you can't recall.  Dreams & their interpretations are eminent throughout this beguiling book.  Yeong-hi's unorthodox switch to vegetarianism leads to a permanent rift in her marriage to a mostly absent husband.  The extended family dynamics are peeled off revealing anger, agony, terror & abuse.  Yeong-hi's sole support comes from her older, responsible sister, In-hye.  In-hye's husband lures his sister-in-law Yeong-hi into an exploitive & lurid sexual scandal.  Nonetheless, In-hye could not abandon her sister.  In-hye's culpability gnaw at her, "Could I have prevented those unimaginable things from sinking so deep inside of Yeong-hye."  In-hye assumes full financial & emotional support for sister as her descent into insanity  escalate.  Dreams & reality are blurred in a melancholy assessment of life.  "Life was no more than a ghostly pageant of exhausted endurance."  "Life is such a strange thing, she thinks, once she has stopped laughing."  THE VEGETARIAN is a rare work of literary excellence that is an acquired taste that should be required reading.