내 여자의 열매

by Han Kang, 한강

여수의 사랑』『검은 사슴』등의 작품으로 젊은 작가군에 충격을 안겨 주었던 저자 한강이 96년 봄부터 올해 봄까지 쓴 8편의 작품을 모은 책. 첫소설집처럼 이번 소설집에서도 저자는 `삶의 고단함과 희망 없음에서 유래한 슬픈 아름다움`을 시적인 문체로 잘 그려내고 있으며, 단아하고 시심(詩心)어린 문체로 우리 삶을 심도깊게 탐구하여 인간의 근원적인 슬픔과 외로움을 보여준다.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

소설가 한강

Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. She is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, as well as Human Acts, The White Book, Greek Lessons, and We Do Not Part. In 2024, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Reviews

[Neli Krasimirova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granta'dan okuduğum öykü, sanırım matbu olarak da basıldı sonradan. Öykünün Vejetaryen’in öncüsü olduğu ve sonradan genişletilip romana dönüştüğü çok açık ancak ben büyülü gerçekçilik diyebileceğim bu halini bi’ tık daha fazla sevmiş olabilirim. Kendini ya da hayatını sevmekle ilgili problem yaşayan bir kadının giderek sosyal hayatından uzaklaşarak dilsizleşmesini anlatmak için çok güzel bir metafor. Sanırım Han Kang’ın dilinin çok sade ve şiirsel olduğunu da ayrıca belirtmeme gerek yok.

Loren Yeung’un kitaptan esinlenerek yaptığı resmi de tam burada paylaşmak istiyorum:


*

I’ve never been happy. Is there some tortured soul forever at my back, clutching at my throat, my limbs? I’ve only ever wanted to run away, an extremely basic impulse, the pain that provokes a cry, the pinch that produces a scream. Sitting with my knees up at the back of the bus, looking as though I wouldn’t hurt a fly, and all that time longing to shatter the window with my fist. Greedy for the blood that would stream down my palm, I would have lapped it up as a cat does milk. What was it that I was trying to run away from, what was it that tormented me so much I longed to flee to the other side of the world? And what held me back, hobbling me, crippling me? What were the fetters that weighed me down, preventing the leap that would transfuse this sickening blood?

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything that I was noting to write in my review as I was reading it was addressed in the translator's notes so I feel like I was robbed of a review basically. It very much does read as The Vegetarian (my love) in its early forms and I love The Vegetarian so <3 givemeeverythingaboutit. It was nice I liked it.

[❤️‍&#x1fa79; · Rating 4 out of 5]

BROER SHE TURNED INTO A PLANT

“I'm scared, Mother. My limbs have to fall out. This flowerpot is too cramped, its walls too hard.
Shooting pains at the tips of my roots. Mother, I will die before winter comes. And I doubt that I will bloom again in this world.”

beautifully written, amazing translation!!! i guess you could see this as some sort of kafka metamorphosis retelling, seeing as how she turns into a plant and her husband suddenly has to cater to all of her needs and she’s slowly losing all of her humanity.

the switch from the husbands pov to the wife’s pov was great, the husband is a bit meh cause why do you not care about your wife… the wife just being extremely depressed… the part where she just talks about her mother really got me i can’t lie

beautiful symbolism

“Can you understand? Soon, I know, even thought will be lost to me, but I'm alright. I've dreamed of this, of being able to live on nothing but wind, sunlight and water, for a long time now.”

4/5

[Neelam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea how to rate or review this. I'm in the middle of the vegetarian, and this is said to be a precursor to it, but the messages seem different. Here, the main character is sad, trapped, stagnant. Turning into a plant seems like the fulfillment of her desire to live without thinking of consequences. In the vegetarian, it seems to be more of an allegory for bodily autonomy.

What a strange little story. I'll be thinking about this for a while.

Also I read the translated version by deborah smith, no idea why this is the only version on goodreads.

[cath · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Shooting pains at the tips of my roots. Mother, I will die before winter comes. And I doubt that I will bloom again in this world.”

Not good but not bad, me gusto que se siente como la precuela que hizo que naciera «the vegetarian», la cual leí hace 3 años y no me gustó pero después de esta lectura me encantaría darle otra oportunidad.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stores from 1996 to 2000, the collection was originally published in 2000.
My favorites were these stories- 내 여자의 열매 (1997), 해질녁에 개들은 어떤 기분일까 (1999) & 흰 꽃 (1996)
A few motifs which was explored in later stories are used here as well- sunlight, woman turning into plant, and color white.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

這類型的書不太適合我，我明白東亞女性的壓抑，社會的不公。但是我不能接受人的一生都在背負這種壓抑和痛苦，如果是遇到不好的父母，努力長大，長大以後遠離他們，離開他們的城市或者國家，自己一個人在異國他鄉堅強快樂的重新開始。如果遇到不好的伴侶，也想盡辦法分開，安靜的，吵鬧的分開都可以。假如人生已經有一個不幸的開端，一定要想盡辦法，救自己千千萬萬遍於水深火熱中。鄉愁是獨屬男人的奧德賽，逃離才是女人一生的史詩。

[Afifah Luqman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this after 'The vegetarian ' and I could see the similar themes. But this was a very gripping tale

[Nancy Dardarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I need to read The Vegetarian

[Polina Kim (polinaspages) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do yourself a favour: Read the short story translated in Granta.

[Sara Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously I read this in English but for some reason the translated version (The Fruits of my Woman) of this is no longer available to log on Goodreads? Like it only comes up as a book when you specifically search it on desktop and then glitches when you try to add it. But I never give up, so I will just log it in Korean instead! Very similar to The Vegetarian. Super weird but if you like that stuff, which I do, then you should enjoy.

[Sofi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful story about a woman longing for nature, her mother, the world, and herself. Being held down by a man whose biggest wish it is not to be lonely.

Unable to escape her life, she morphed into a plant. "I know, even thought will be lost on me, but I am alright. I dreamed of this, of being able to live on nothing but wind, sunlight and water, for a long time now."

This is the first time in years that her husband really cares for her. Buying her a bigger flower pot and bringing water from the mountains.

The closer she moves to herself, the lonlier the man becomes. Even though I have to say I have no sympathy for him, as he felt comfortable with holding her in a cage, assuming this must be happiness for her, too. In the end, she seems to decay before his eyes. "Mother, I will die before winter comes. And I doubt that I will bloom again in this world."

It's such a beautiful short story that really moved me. The way Han Kang plays with her descriptions of feelings and thoughts really made me think a lot. It is a wonderful piece about women in modern society, wishing to escape the mundane life they get pushed into. I can not recommend it enough.

[Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story collection of works from Han Kang between 1996 and 2000.
By now, I've read quite few works from Han Kang and I still love her writing style. It's clean, soft spoken but still powerful. It's about human interaction and communication including the unspoken atmosphere. She manages to capture bits of emotion which would normally get lost in all daily hectic routines.

I'm a fan of her. But I didn't like all of the short stories in this book. Some were too fragile, too weakly constructed. Some were too far away, not being able to grasp what's really important (or I'm stupid and just couldn't get it). But then there is this part 아홉개의 이야기 relatively at the end of the book which I enjoyed a lot. In order to tell a story, the author doesn't need to write thousands of pages. Sometimes it's enough to use few sentences to create a scene with enough life which continues to live in the reader's head.
Anyway, I had to keep in mind that these works are rather old and I applaud her for publishing them anyway in 2018 and keep having it published (my version is from 2024). And I also liked her words in the afterword and I'm looking forward for her next book.

[Chelle Unicorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gustaría amar o sentir una conexion con la escritura de la señorita Kang, pero no miento que me cuesta un poco. Por muy hermosas que sean sus historias o su concepto en si, su forma de escribir o la forma en la que esta contada hace que me cueste un poco empatizar o de que me encante en su totalidad todas sus historias.

Digo que me gusta, pero no es un me gusta completo o un me gusta al 100%

Aunque debo decir que esta historia me ha gustado mas que ''La Vegetariana'', tal vez porque habla de las plantas y es algo con lo que me identifico mas, y eso me gusta, y siento que esta ha sido una de escrituras que mas me han gustado. Capaz para mi, querer o empatizar con su pluma es seguir leyendo e irme acostumbrando a sus palabras.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language in this short story is so luxurious to the tongue yet Han Kang says everything she needs to say in such a short story. I particularly enjoyed the section from the wife’s perspective, the ode to her mother was strangely emotive and was reminiscent of my own feelings about mothers and Mother Nature.

It was very interesting to read this following The Vegetarian and I’m very happy that I did so. This story seems to capture the visual image of the wife becoming the tree without the gross perversion in The Vegetarian. This story is tender yet visually captivating.

[Nanabookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 童佛/紅花叢中/植物妻子/傍晚時狗的心情這4篇比較值得細讀，尤其是拿獎的童佛，因為憐憫男人受傷的疤痕和殘缺而生的愛和忍耐，卻演變成如地獄之火般萬般折磨的修行。很多人都在寫韓國女性在長期厭女的高壓父權權力結構下無法言說的痛苦，但反覆出現的蓮花、火和光的意象，韓江對佛學的深厚理解把這種深入骨髓的痛苦延伸在哲學層面上的存在意義命題：人無論選擇入世還是出世，都逃不過凡塵的貪瞋癡，人生的痛苦無法消解，我們該如何活下去？紅花中遁入佛門的女主角自弟弟的早夭得悉生死的無常而試圖借念經來擺脫塵世的牽絆，童佛的母親以冷暴力把女兒養大，卻終究演變成和背負著傷疤以傲慢掩飾懦弱的丈夫組成令人絕望的婚姻；植物妻子很明顯是素食者的原型，但我更喜歡這個短篇所展露出的留白和魔幻現實，向陽而生的妻子會在春天復活嗎？

[劉凍青 · Rating 5 out of 5]

韩江的故事里若是有爱情，常常始于男人的伤口。《在某一天》中，敏华因为男人脸上的血和伤口而心动；《童佛》中，善姬因为男人鼓起勇气向她展示伤疤而感激他、接受他，后来也因为这伤疤厌恶这个男人，并饱受这种厌恶带来的折磨；《傍晚时狗会是一种什么样的新心情》中，泰莲妈妈因为爸爸哭得很伤心而为他心痛、爱了上他，最后又因承受不了这心痛而出走。想到这，我才注意到，这些故事里的男人都没有名字。
这部小说集文学性极强，比喻精妙，美丽无比。八个故事里，同名作《植物妻子》读来最震撼，不过我顶顶喜欢最后一篇《跟铁道赛跑的河》。

[Wenjing Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

能重新出版这本书应该是国内市场对《素食者》的认可吧，作为韩江早期的作品，我个人是不太喜欢的。可以说如果不是因为是韩江写的，我可能看三五页就直接关掉了。不管是以男性作为主角、写男性受到的社会压力、写男性“变好”等等，都让我读着非常不适。同时也有一些技法上的缺点，比如用第三人称写第一人称视角的论述时，又出现了第三人称的描述，也让我有种抽离感，同时在这些“出戏”片段里体现出对男性的友好、理解，我实在也接受不了。

[Lula]

短篇小说集，读起来没有素食者那种畅快淋漓的感觉，像是灵感合集一样

[Barry Welsh]

Watch an interview with the Nobel prize-winning Han Kang on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkkLm...

[Tilly Alsop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the translated English version

[Irene Salo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books when suffering is showcased as a beautiful tragedy

[Wyn W · Rating 3 out of 5]

2月15日

讀完素食者再讀這本有點小失望，有點散，有些篇還挺喜歡另外一些只能草草翻完。

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy this was the best thing I've read for this specific class it was so good wow.

[Indy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find short fictional stories of Han more enjoyable.

[Leniwa Wenus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poetic story of an unhappy relationship, depression, and a way to escape.

[lily-chan (李里長） · Rating 2 out of 5]

雖然是細緻刻劃，但過多無關的描寫，有點每個公仔都要畫出腸之感。
而且人物刻劃都是用單一方式內心對白，做成每個故事本應獨立但都好像是作者自己般同一個人。

[Isabella Bergman (litteraturochyoga) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5.

[Olí Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Hasta donde llega uno sin sus sueños, sin sus anhelos?

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Just beautiful.