Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...
[ Laughs ] That is an interesting way of looking at it!
ReplyDeleteThe post was an interior monologue, Renard. I put it up here on an impulse.
Delete:) Cool.....still laughing...
ReplyDeleteGlad I could make you laugh, Prasad. But our pollsters must be making you laugh more.
Delete:D
ReplyDeleteGlad for you, Anil.
DeleteMake it look like promising the paradise.....amazing way of looking at it. Statistics,media and politics go hand in hand. What is revealed to us is the adulterated version of the actual statistics and then we have to put up with debates about those statistics and then also how great a leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi is.
ReplyDeleteMost statistics are manipulated in one way or another, it seems, Athena. Each pollster must be supporting one party or another, and make convenient predictions.
Delete:-D :-D..
ReplyDeleteHappy to have entertained you, Maniparna. In fact, much of Indian politics is a good entertainer.
DeleteNow that's an interesting way to look at it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I second your perception. :)
We can console ourselves when we learn to see the funny side, isn't it, Nikhil?
DeleteTrue that Sir!
DeleteThat's the best we can do at times.
Good to know you have a raunchy side as well! :)
ReplyDelete... kept under control, Sid. :)
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ReplyDeleteThat's interesting and funny...And yes as you mentioned...Indian Politics is quite an entertainer...
ReplyDeleteAren't we lucky to have such free entertainment? :)
Deleteha ha :-))
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing my joy.
DeleteI love the Naya Chanakya's take - promising paradise :D
ReplyDelete... false paradises, Sangeeta.
DeleteWell the way we use statistics is like a drunken man using a lamp post, for support rather than illumination. With so many opinion polls sprouting up, with unknown backers, I guess it is a case of politicians using these statistics for support. Hence the wild variation.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Sabyasachi
Loved your comparison to the lamp post and drunkard.
DeleteBrilliant Naya Chanakya..hehe
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bushra
Delete