Amanda's Reviews > Tender Is the Flesh

Many might say that a book dealing with the level of brutality and horrific subject matter that makes up this book could never be thoughtful or highbrow. I disagree with that. I definitely think literature depicting graphic violence doesn't automatically disqualify it from being anything more than an assault on the senses or torture porn. I think it can lay out valuable examinations of so many aspects of society that deserve to be scrutinized, all while remaining allegorical. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (as well as its film adaptation) is just one example of a successful novel of this nature.

Unfortunately, Tender Is The Flesh didn't live up to that expectation for me.

It truly is brimming with brutality. In fact, that's all it is, is brutal. A virus that turns animal meat poisonous to humans causes humans to slaughter every non-human animal and begin factory farming human beings for food instead. You would think that a concept such as: "imagine what the world would be like if humans were treated the way we treat animals in factory farms" would have a lot to say. Just think about the fact that in the western part of the world, most people don't think twice about eating certain animals as food, but will get disgusted, enraged and even downright racist when other cultures in other parts of the world eat animals westerners don't view as 'food animals'. Or the fact that most people eat fish, have no qualms with the concept of fishing, but will protest whale hunting as it applies to various Indigenous cultures, particularly Inuit. I could go on and on. The point is, a book with this concept could tackle some serious societal issues - environmental destruction, racism, health, food insecurity, speciesism, etc. As I entered this book and continued reading through it, I often wondered, "are we going to examine which humans are deemed 'food humans' in a meaningful way? Does it even matter? Does race, class, sexuality, or anything come into play in this near-future dystopian world that so closely could resemble our own?"

And the answer is no. Because this book unpacks nothing.

There were certainly minor suggestions toward some things, but they were quickly set aside in order to either continue describing the horrific acts inflicted upon these farmed humans, or to meander on about mundane things in the main character's personal life that ended up having little to no significance on the overall story. We didn't even really get anything in the way of showing how people came to accept this cannibalistic way of life, or how those who work in these factories are affected in their personal lives. The closest we get to a glimpse of this is the main character essentially being described as not caring one way or another, human or non-human slaughter, because he was only in the industry in order to pay for his father's nursing home. I'm sorry, but that is just not well-rounded enough for me as a reader. There was even the compelling hint at an ongoing conspiracy theory that the virus was faked by governments in order to deceive society into cannibalism as a means to alleviate overpopulation. However, this subplot peters out pretty quickly, but only after having a group of teenage boys briefly bring up the conspiracy's existence in conversation while graphically killing a litter of puppies they found in an abandoned zoo. Again, it's brutality for the sake of brutality and seemingly nothing else.

Of course, I don't need -and I know many other readers don't need- literature or any form of entertainment to have a big, glaring moral spoonfed to me/us. Despite all that I've said, I hope it doesn't seem like I'm implying I didn't like this book because it didn't hold my hand while leading me through a clear and precise commentary of my own biases. I don't need that. But if a book is to be this grotesque in its depictions, I do think it should either go completely nihilistic (and thus let that speak for itself) or have at least something compelling to show for it. I think, overall, this book felt incomplete to me and that's my biggest gripe. The author certainly had ideas, but because her world-building was weak and her writing offered little in the way of depth, those ideas never really broke the surface and ended up fizzling out before anything of interest or import could come of it.

Underneath all its gruesomeness, shock value and gore, it's actually a super boring book.