Yes, this is a strange little book! I enjoyed it, though I did not like or exactly understand the reason for the weird sexual parts, unless it was just to reiterate how so often a woman's body is turned into something sexual? In which case, this just added to that unfortunate truth. And I had forgotten the protagonist never has a voice! She seemed so "voicefull" in the final, sad part, but, hmmm, that was her sister . . .
One of my favorite Korean movies is Okja--have you seen it yet?
Yes, that third and final section has lots of dialogue from her -- it's sort of a trick by Kang, I think, to give you the illusion that the vegetarian's got some agency but of course she has none. I think you may be right about the second section -- that was just the wackiest part of the novel, and the one completely unexpected. I don't know why I was thinking a Nobel Prize author would be writing Downton-Abbey-like gentle/classy books, but The Vegetarian has broken that notion of mine many times over. :)
It's funny - I haven't seen all of Bong Joon Ho's movies but of the ones I have seen (The Host, Snowpiercer, Parasite, in that order), I have only liked Parasite. But I've meant to watch Okja for a while, so I'll give it a go!
Yes, this is a strange little book! I enjoyed it, though I did not like or exactly understand the reason for the weird sexual parts, unless it was just to reiterate how so often a woman's body is turned into something sexual? In which case, this just added to that unfortunate truth. And I had forgotten the protagonist never has a voice! She seemed so "voicefull" in the final, sad part, but, hmmm, that was her sister . . .
One of my favorite Korean movies is Okja--have you seen it yet?
Yes, that third and final section has lots of dialogue from her -- it's sort of a trick by Kang, I think, to give you the illusion that the vegetarian's got some agency but of course she has none. I think you may be right about the second section -- that was just the wackiest part of the novel, and the one completely unexpected. I don't know why I was thinking a Nobel Prize author would be writing Downton-Abbey-like gentle/classy books, but The Vegetarian has broken that notion of mine many times over. :)
It's funny - I haven't seen all of Bong Joon Ho's movies but of the ones I have seen (The Host, Snowpiercer, Parasite, in that order), I have only liked Parasite. But I've meant to watch Okja for a while, so I'll give it a go!