The Vegetarian is divided into three parts, told from the perspective of three different characters. The main character, Yeong-hye, does not have a voice, although she is the one around which everything revolves. The first section is from her husband’s POV, the second from her brother-in-law and eventually lover’s POV, and the last is from her sister’s POV.
The book dives right in with Yeong-hye deciding to become a vegetarian after a graphic and disturbing dream. Her vegetarianism becomes extreme and causes her to become anorexic, as well as very flat and disconnected from the world and the people in her life. She is an immoveable force: nothing anyone says or does, including her father violently trying to force meat in her mouth, sways her from her path. She is frequently portrayed as a blank slate for others to set themselves against, particularly her obsessed brother-in-law, who literally paints plants and flowers on her body and objectifies her, eventually filming himself having sex with her.
The Vegetarian is a cold and disturbing book. Sexual assaults are repeatedly committed by the men in the book. It’s hard to connect to any of the characters, as they are already so disconnected from themselves and the others in their family, despite attempts to cross the divide. Yeong-hye is an enigma to everyone in her life, as well as to the reader. There isn’t any more explanation about her extreme vegetarianism than her disturbing dream. However, she is depersonalized by her own family on top of her own disconnection, so her attempt to take control over her body makes some kind of sense (even as this control harms her and brings her to the brink of death).
This is a well-written book with lots of complex images, but a decidedly grim march in many ways.