And rediscovering something else in the process……
I programmed myself to like The Vegetarian after reading praise after praise for it. From professional critiques to garden variety critiques like yours truly, everyone gushing over it, and so, how could I walk the road without a map?
But to love something, you also ought to understand it, or at the very least be intrigued by it. Neither of the two was the case as I sat beneath a resilient Sun on a winter afternoon. The condition of the Sun is important as it bears a direct relation to my mood. With only an orange for company( had left my phone in my apartment), I was eager for it to dominate my mind. The initial chapters were good, kept you hooked, even though the characters and the story couldn’t have been more peculiar. I kept waiting for the big reveal, the why prompting the drastic change in someone’s being, but very soon could relate more to the bird in Young-hye’s palm than anyone else.
But what I lacked in my assessment or understanding, the experience of reading on the rooftop on a sunny winter day more than made up for it. It felt like rediscovering a lost treasure. As a child I would often run to the roof with a thick book and whatever fruit was at home. I would make myself a reading nook at a corner and stay there under the full glare of the Sun till the late afternoon.
Fingers in symphony 