This is a novel of three parts - the first is from the point of view of The Vegetarian's husband, the second her brother-in-law and and finally, her sister. In the beginning we see Yeong-hye, our titular character, has had an unsettling dream and decides to become a vegetarian from that day forward. It is the beginning of the end for her as everything crumbles - her marriage, her relationship with her parents and even who she is as a person, if we ever knew who that was to begin with.

We're supposed to be unnerved by her behavior as described by her spouse, Mr. Cheong - and I am, but it's not accompanied by the expected sympathy for the confused and frightened man. He's kind of a dick. Scratch that,

he's a garbage human and a marital rapist. He then gets upset that her expression across the breakfast table "made it seem as though she were a woman of bitter experience, who had suffered many hardships". No shit, fuckwad, you raped her multiple times.

DUN DUN, TWO YEARS LATER.

Yeong-hye's unnamed brother-in-law has an odd sexual fixation with Mongolian marks. He feels the same about his wife as Mr. Cheong does Yeong-hye, without any unusual behavior to "justify" it. What I am getting from this book is that men are never satisfied with what women give them, even if it is their very best. ("She's a good woman," he thought. "The kind of woman whose goodness is oppressive.")

Unnamed brother-in-law ALSO makes his wife cry when they have sex. This is a very uncomfortable theme. He fetishizes Yeong-hye's mental illness, enraptured by her lack of affect & participation in the waking world. He takes advantage of this in the most disgusting of ways. Basically the only male character in this story who isn't entirely repulsive is Ji-woo, who is five.

Lastly, we meet Yeong-hye's sister In-hye after she leaves her husband due to the events in his chapter. Her section is unfocused and confused, almost as if the mental disconnect her sister is experiencing is a contagion she also contracted. I am still unsure about whether or not In-hye's choice to "abandon" her son Ji-woo means that she is temporarily leaving him in someone else's care for the first time since her husband slunk off or if she means in a permanent sense, that she and Yeong-hye are off together, to dream or die or become trees. It is not the most concrete of endings, which is fitting to the somewhat otherworldly tone her chapter takes as she becomes more and more involved in Yeong-hye's care.

Favorite lines: "It seemed enough for [Yeong-hye] to just deal with whatever it was that came her way, calmly and without fuss. Or perhaps it was simply that things were happening inside her, terrible things, which no one else could even guess at, and thus it was impossible for her to engage with everyday life at the same time."

Notes on translation: I want to get this in the original Korean and try my hand at reading it. It sounds a lot more interesting than painstakingly translating newspaper articles or children's books.

- The descriptors and pronouns are more confusing in English than they presumably would be in Korean. Mr. Cheong references his brother-in-law several times, but it's not always clear if he means his wife's brother (Yeong-ho) or his wife's sister's husband (unnamed), who would both hold this title.

- In-hye's unnamed husband calling her "Ji-woo's mom" ... is this supposed to be a commentary on how he sees her or just a literal translation of the Korean? Unclear.