On October 11th, 2024, Han Kang was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. Han Kang is not only the first Asian woman to win the literature prize, but she is also the first South Korean writer to win this specific award as well. Starting her career back in 1993, Kang has written short stories, essays, and novels. Many of her stories are about the complexity of the human experience and as well as the fragility of human life. And a majority of those stories are also told from the female perspective, with female leads. Some of her most popular books include: The Vegetarian (2006), Human Acts (2014), and Greek Lessons (2023).
I just recently started reading The Vegetarian (2006), and while I am only a little over halfway finished, this book has already left a very deep impression on me. Without giving too much away, the book tells the story of a woman named Yeon-hye, who, after having a horrifically graphic dream, decides to become a vegetarian. The book itself is split into three different parts, each part telling Yeon-hye’s story through three different perspectives of three people in her life. Not only are the three story-tellers against her decision of “going against the grain” and becoming a vegetarian, but so is everyone else in her life. One of the prominent goals of the book is to show that to be human is to be violent. So when Yeon-hye decides to go against the way in which humans most frequently exhibit this violence by killing animals and eating meat, the people around her take it as though she is ultimately rejecting them and the human experience in general.
Even though certain parts of the book were disturbing and scary, there were also parts that were sympathetic and heartbreaking. While the depiction of Yeon-hye’s transition into vegetarianism is very extreme, it also felt very real and familiar. Personally, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to actually sit down and really get into a book for quite some time. Whenever I did have time, I would find myself getting easily distracted with work and school, among other things. With Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, I had to really force myself to put the book down and finish my school work. Like I said earlier, this is my first time reading one of Han Kang’s works but I can say for certain that I am definitely a fan and I can not wait to go and read the rest of her work. Truly, I am so excited to see what she comes out with next.
Her writing is everything you would expect of a Nobel laureate and more. The reason that Han Kang winning this award is so important, is because it isn’t very often that we get to see women being the center of the story and written in such complex ways without also being dehumanized or demoralized, especially when compared to previous male Nobel laureates in literature. So with all that being said, I highly suggest you take some time to read one of her books, trust me when I say, it is so worth it!