“The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, winner of both Booker and Nobel Prizes

Introduction: This very short novel didn’t hold my interest, so I’ll just highlight a few, possibly dissociative disorder-related, facts and symptoms. Her husband introduces the title character on the first page of text, thus:

“The passive personality of this woman in whom I could detect neither freshness nor charm, or anything especially refined, suited me down to the ground” (1, p.10)…“The paunch that started appearing in my mid-twenties, my skinny legs and forearms that steadfastly refused to bulk up in spite of my best efforts, the inferiority complex I used to have about the size of my penis—I could rest assured that I wouldn’t have to fret about such things on her account…And so it was only natural that I would marry the most run-of-the-mill woman in the world…(1, p. 10).

“She was a woman of few words. It was rare for her to demand anything of me…More than likely she would spend the time reading, which was practically her only hobby…reading books that looked so dull I couldn’t even bring myself to so much as look inside the covers…”

“Her face was turned away from me, and she was standing there so unnaturally still it was almost as if there was someone I couldn’t see—some kind of ghost standing near the fridge. What was going on? If she couldn’t hear me, then perhaps that meant she was sleepwalking. When I put my hand on her shoulder I was surprised by her complete lack of reaction…She’d simply ignored me. (1, p 13).

    “I had a dream.”

    Her voice was surprisingly clear.

   She kept putting parcels of meat into the rubbish bag, seemingly no more aware of my existence than she had been last night.

   “I had a dream.”

   Those words again.

“The very idea that there should be this side to her.

“So you’re saying that from now on, there’ll be no rest in the house?”

“Until when?”

“I suppose…forever.” (1, p. 19).

“When a person undergoes such a drastic transformation, there’s simply nothing anyone else can do but sit back and let them get on with it” (1, 21).

 “According to my wife, he (her Father-in-law) had whipped her over the calves until she was eighteen years old.” (1. p. 35).

“I become a different person, a different person rises up inside me, devours me, those hours…” (1, p.38).

Comment: Though I’ve noted some dissociative symptoms and a history of abuse at a younger age, I can’t be more definitive, because my attention was not even held to the end. Judging by the literary prizes, that is probably my fault.

1. Han Kang. The Vegetarian. Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith. New York, Hogarth, 2007/2015/2018., pp.185.