Tender Is the Flesh

This book was unrelenting. I found myself reading it during my meal breaks at work which is, decidedly, a mistake.

I'm well aware of, and at this point of nearly a decade as a vegan, sadly unphased by the horrors of factory farming and meat consumption. The fact that this book was focused on human agriculture had me wondering- will people who read this and are unaware of what really happens at a factory farm think twice about consuming animals? Is human pain insufferable to picture and difficult to read, but animal pain permissible? The fictional workers at these processing plants, and tanneries still exist in the real world, and will they still be deserving of empathy as well once the reader finishes this book? The trophy hunters, butchers, and laboratory techs still hunt, maim, and vivisect animals, are they not deserving of the same disgust?

These are all things I thought about while reading this book. I think it's an incredible work that's incredibly critical of where our empathy lies, capitalism, class differences, and mass factory farming & consumption. This book is hard to recommend because it's so graphic and grotesque but I really enjoyed the questions that Bazterrica left me with.

Tender is the Flesh was released at the perfect time, with the current global pandemic, a novel about a virus that changes the way we look at the world. Agustina Bazterrica’s novel primarily follows Marcos, who works in a slaughterhouse producing ‘special meat’. When the virus hit, all animals were infected andtheir meat became poisonous. The government had to make some changes to the law, now it was legal to buy ‘special meat’ – human meat.

This is a weird dystopian novel that has one very basic message that really sticks in your brain. The concept of giving up meat is so ridiculous that the country starts producing humans that will be used as meat. These are not people; they are cattle and are treated in that way. The concept of giving up meat and turning vegan is too preposterous for the country. Cannibalism becomes the norm.

The idea behind the novel seems to be focusing on just how cruel humans are, going to great detail to explain the process used to prepare meat at a slaughterhouse and the treatment of animals (in this case humans). Tender is the Flesh takes it a step further, with the retirement homes advertising the security they offer for your elderly relatives to protect them from being slaughtered and eaten. The world population drastically declines, and people have lost the ability to be caring or loving to others around them.

That is the entire premise, Tender is the Flesh takes a simple idea and plays out the situation. The way people turn on each other, the way people change their views on society and the ridiculous notion of becoming vegan. This is a dark comedy set in a dystopian world and executed with perfection. I cannot say that this converted me to becoming a vegan, but I think I honestly need to make more of an effort. An ugly look at our consumeristic culture and here I am, still wrestling with the idea of protecting the animals…I hate myself, but I think this novel achieved its goals.

This review originally appeared on my blog: www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/dystopia/tender-is-the-flesh-by-agustina-bazterrica/