Tender Is the Flesh

TENDER IS THE FLESH [2020] By Augustina BazterricaMy Review 5.0 Out Of 5.0 StarsI knew that I wanted to read this book long before I purchased it on February 18th of this year, and then after buying it I waited a long time before I opened the book on my tablet to read it July 9th. Why? I asked myself after I had finally tapped it, read the first page, and then found myself so totally riveted I could not put it down until I finished the last sentence of the short novel. The answer to “Why?” was that I was fearful of wading into it because I had imagined all sorts of endings to the horrifying premise outlined in the teaser description of its storyline.What fascinated me most of all about this novel was the author’s ability to write such a compelling narrative that was “unputdownable” about a topic which was so hellishly unthinkable. What struck me as the second most remarkable element of this novel was the uncanny and insanely ingenious mind of its author. Good heavens, was there not a single uniquely sadistic and horrifying way to wield this new freedom that came with the “Transition” that mankind did not exploit? I was in some ways more disgusted by the sordid imagination of mankind to expand the mandate of the “Transition” from meeting the basic need for protein into an absolute smorgasbord of unpunishable atrocities.The suggestion that “The Transition” was not brought about by the very real presence of a virus attacking all mammals but for mankind was thought-provoking for about one second. I am not naïve enough that I could bring myself to believe anything other than a conniving construct by the power elite to address the population explosion and the inevitable diminishing of available resources. The book pulls you headlong into a world of madness that is as cold as an arctic blast. It is bone chilling in its intensity, and I felt cold in a warm room as I read the pages of this futuristic place called Earth but with no sun to warm its land and lakes.The reviews I have read about this novel are brilliant, and there is virtually nothing I could say to add to the positively glowing praise this work has garnered. This review is frankly for me, since I want to remember the emotional impact of the reading experience and describe its effect while the breathless impact is still fresh on my mind. I am simply blown away by the writing talent of this author to make me see through Tejo’s eyes and to feel his experiences as he related them as though he and I were somehow joined. I felt his sadness, his emptiness, his sheer horror of the naked, noiseless, utterly silent, and emptying landscape so acutely I was too depressed to cry. It was as a kindred spirit that I followed in his footsteps through the pages of the dismal ghost of yesterday which haunted his waking hours.I am an animal lover of the first order. It is therefore fathomless how the sadistic punks murdering the puppies at the deserted zoo did not shatter me. I was numb to it by that point in the narrative. In a world where there are no birds singing, no hummingbirds I can see from my deck, no groundhog running in the back field, no doe and her babies drinking or loitering within my view when the sun sets it would be a stark dead place. I am not certain I would have the will to live after “The Transition.” I must be honest and admit to not seeing the corollaries between the conditions where the “head” were maintained and the current status of farms which raise animals for slaughter. Fortuitously after living in a metropolitan area, I was able to relocate to a countryside and live comfortably with land, hills, and wildlife on all sides. We have seen deer, foxes, coyotes, even the occasional big cat, and a brilliantly colored copperhead now and again. I took our scenic homestead and verdant landscape for granted until I read this novel which depicts an all too possible outcome for mankind.This book was far worse than what I had contrived in my imagination. Speaking of the ending, I do not have an issue with it at all. Tejo was ultimately a survivor, a man who broke the law to find a reason to believe, to live and to still love, in a bleak future that I would never be able to withstand.

In the not too distant future, an infectious virus has infected all animal meat and made it poisonous to people. The Transition happens, and now it is Special Meat, which is actually human meat. Marcos is high in the local processing plant, having learned the trade when it was still animals. His life has gone sideways, and he is moving through life with only the barest of motions. One day, he is given a gift, a specimen of the absolute best quality. Marcos is angry at first, this is nothing but trouble. But slowly, something begins to change in him.Just…wow. I can’t remember what book list this was on of must reads, but good gravy did it deserve to be there. At just a little over 200 pages, the author grabs you immediately and holds you there, driving you into something that is somewhere between “this could never happen” and “this could definitely happen.” References to pop culture give you something of an idea of a timeline. The story is intriguing, horrifying, apocalyptic. Definitely worth the read.

This book broke me. At times I teared up, other times I felt physically ill, and when I finished this book, I needed a pause to stare at the wall to process what just happened. This wasn't a fun read, but I'm glad I was able to do so. Its themes of dehumanizing the vulnerable, complacency in the face of atrocities, how we as a species normalize exploiting each other in the worst ways for the sake of convenience... It's horror in the truest sense.

A little bit Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) and a little bit Animal Farm (George Orwell)— Tender Is the Flesh approaches the subject of human depravity with a sterile neutrality that elegantly undercuts the ugly horror of the society she has created: one in which humans otherize humans so that they can raise and slaughter them for literal consumption. Language and politics are the tools that transforms cannibalism into consumerism. The reader experiences a strange parallel process alongside Bazterrica’s imaginary society, as they learn to stomach descriptions of increasingly gruesome scenes in the same way that the different characters adapt to, accept, follow, and violate a deteriorating set of moral norms that unequally provide for and promote a group of privileged people at the top who maintain that all they do is for the greater good of the whole human race.The success of this literary experiment was proven to this reader when she realized that after reading scenes of graphic physical, emotional, mental, and sexual violence toward men, women, children, and infants, the most upsetting part of the book was a description of animal abuse committed by anonymous teenagers towards a litter of puppies.The book ended in a stunning conclusion that I will not give away here. I would have liked more after the last page because it felt like the author only skimmed the surface of the various industries built up around human consumption. There were a whole host of opportunities for social justice commentary that were not explored, that I wished I could read. But at the same time, it would have been difficult to top the final act and the author seems to have made the point she was trying to make.I was captivated by the premise of this book and the world created here, but felt let down somehow by the dry, emotionally subdued tone in which the story was written. I could see this one being assigned in an AP English class for high schoolers; its literary corpse ripe for intellectual autopsy, dissection, and final embalming through essays. This isn’t a book that one likes so much as it is a book that one thinks about long after it’s finished. I give it three stars because it effectively did what it appeared to set out to do, but in the end I felt left wanting another richer, more satisfying course.

Excellent read! only one person was more surprised by the ending… Jasmine! Very cleaver and engaging . I will pass it on