TENDER IS THE FLESH (2017) / Agustina Bazterrica

 

There are novels that just stick with you after you read them. Linger in the back of your mind for weeks, sometimes terribly disturbing you. And that's what this book is. It was the inaugural selection for our library's High Strangeness book club.

So I would argue that it is essentially a book about how easily we dehumanize people and lose empathy with others through our use of language. The society that we are confronted with in this book is one in which human society has institutionalized cannibalism as a practice. There are proper humans and those who are raised as cattle solely to be eaten.

The narrator is meant to be a sympathetic character for us. He is part of the system, but is mostly ambivalent about it and often entirely disgusted by it. The novel is presented in two long narrative sections. The first section has the narrator travel throughout this whole system, describing its established practices, the justifications and beliefs about it . . . and so on. In the meantime, there are hints about the many complications in his own life -- his separation from his wife who is a nurse, his father in the retirement home, the materialism and hypocrisy of his sister . . . and so on.

Now, I don't want to spoil the novel for those who haven't read it. Because I think its impact in many ways depends on the shocks and surprises that proceed from the intricate setup. I know there are readers who felt the ending was too sudden and shocking. (Me, I see it coming and found the ending thoroughly logical. And I think its brevity is what gives it its power.) My brother thought it difficult to believe that such a society could spring into life so quickly after the catastrophe that caused it. I will grant the premise, though it didn't bother me.

As I said, I actually anticipated the ending. From the very beginning. Read very carefully the language the narrator uses from the very start to describe his fellow humans destined for the slaughter. It foreshadows all. Enough said.

Rating: 💥💥 💥 💥 💥 I love it!

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