Sacred hunger

Slow to entice, a tale fragmentarily told takes shape and then fascinates. A light read on heavy matter.

I loved this book though it is epic in length. It is completely immersed in the 18th century, with shocking descriptions of ship life and the barbaric cruelty of the slave trade, lower middle class life at its most sordid... As brilliant as the 18th century descriptions are, however, I had to stop and breathe sometimes for the more universal theme of "sacred hunger." The awful connections to greed in are own time period are so easily evoked. All of the characters in this book are barely to be pitied, with the exception perhaps of the protagonist and a couple of sailors. This is a fortifying book for cynics.