Books: The Vegetarian By Han Kang

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Franz Kafka belongs to the most important writers of all times. His dark & surreal style influenced hundreds of authors. There is a whole strand of literature called kafkaesque with surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger (thefreedictionary).

The novel "The Vegetarian" by Han Kang follows this tradition (amazon). The Korean author (the family name is Han) tells the story of a woman who is drifting into madness (this is a spoiler free blog. You can find synopsis here wikipedia). The plot is reported in 3 parts: By her husband, her brother in law & by her sister.

Following the kafkaesque tradition the author wrote a horror novel and confronts her readers with a lot of bizarre incidents including abusive behavior, obsession, kinky sex, self-destruction and much more. This worked well for Han Kang, her book won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize and got included in many best of the year lists (wikipedia). I think the book is interesting but also overrated.

PS: For illustration I chose a picture of the author.