A Review Of “The Vegetarian”—Man Booker International Prize Winner 2016
The title summarizes my take on the book. On a superficial level, it might seem to describe the life of the protagonist through the eyes of the people around her. But a closer introspection reveals that it is a portrayal of how the familial support system can go wrong due to a lack of empathy at the right time.
Complete lack of empathy: The Husband.
The book starts with the protagonist’s—Yeong-hye—husband not understanding why his wife acts the way she does. For him, to turn vegetarian because of a dream is both abnormal and incomprehensible. Even then, he doesn’t try to take her to a therapist. Rather he is busy with his regular life of, office and meetings and dinner parties. But in this process, he lets her slip deeper into her eccentricities. He makes it worse when he gangs up with her parents and siblings to force feed her meat. With this incident, she completely lets go of the threads of normality in her mind.
Confused empathy: The Brother-in-law
The second chapter of the book is about how Yeong-Hye’s brother-in-law influences her life. He has a soft corner for her, and implicitly fancies her more than his wife. It is when Yeong-Hye partially recovers, that her brother-in-law proposes her to act in his video project. For this, he paints flowers of different colors on her naked body. The relapse of her mind is evident when she asks if he could repaint the flowers when they fade. His art unintentionally tips the balance of her mind again for the worse.
Total empathy: The Sister
In the last chapter, In-hye, Yeong-hye’s elder sister narrates the story. She knows her sister from childhood and thus understands her the best. She retraces past events which could have pushed her sister into her current state of mind. And in this search, she discovers how easily she could have ended up like her sister. Her son being the only reason keeping her sane. This convinces her that she is also responsible for her sister’s current situation and tries desperately to bring her back to life.
In-Hye’s total empathy for her sister is evident in the words that she whispers into her ears at the end of the book;
“I have dreams too, you know. Dreams…and I could let myself dissolve into them, let them take me over…but surely the dream isn’t all there is? We have to wake up at some point, don’t we? Because…because then…”
My empathy: The Reader
I have seen mixed reviews for the book, I personally loved it. Han Kang has managed to create a story that I found very profound. It left me pondering for quite a while empathizing with Yeong-Hye and In-Hye, for the many times I have felt like dissolving into the dreams I have had.
rawDuality 
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