This book came so literally close to making me a Vegan, not going to lie. By it's original title Cadáver exquisito, Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Augustina Bazterrica, is a bold look at the savagery of NeoLiberal Capitalism as well as the ability of the human mind to placate and accept the horrors of a dystopian world.
A brief plot overview: Marcos is a manager at a processing plant that slaughters and disassembles humans, which are the new source of meat, yes, to eat, in a world where most animals have been eradicated due to disease. We see that Marcos is internally conflicted. He feels an obligation to his family to remain in such a vile, high-paying position. The subplot involves a female bred for meat that is gifted directly to Marcos, and he decides to rape and impregnate her to create a second child after his previous son died in his sleep. An additional sub-sub plot is that Marcos has issues with his sister, who is the ultimate sheeple, and his father, who is passing away in a home for the elderly. Long story short; we explore this world and the different facets of the capitalization on cannibalism.
What if Human Trafficking was how we all lived? That's what this book is about.
Part 1: "The Meat that Eats Meat."
So this first part of the book is less about a narrative and more about the world-building for sure. We walk through Marcos' day-to-day as the manager of a processing plant that butchers humans. This is only acceptable, due to the demand for meat in a dystopian future in which all animals have been infected with a virus that kills humans if consumed.
It is revealed that not many people in the higher-ups believe that this virus actually exists, but that instead, the government legalized cannibalism to manage overpopulation. Some people, do, though, believe everything the government says and are incredibly fearful of animals. On the other hand, we have scavengers - people who are too poor and too hungry to not eat another human that might be diseased or that has an identity.
We see the step-by-step process of how human "head," or chattel, are slaughtered and how people accept, react, or refuse it. We see the butchers, the hunters, the animal testers, and the creeps who are into it for the morbid curiosity.
Towards the middle of Part One, we learn that one of Marcos' partners in the industry gifts him a genetically pure, organically raised young female head. At first, he wants nothing to do with her or this fucked up new society unless it's for the money, but then he goes ahead and rapes her anyways.
I bring in the term rape because this young woman cannot provide consent. Not because she cannot talk, but because she cannot fully understand what sex is or what it will result in.
Part 2: "She had the human look of a domesticated animal."
Part 2 has much more to do with the plot that Marcos is experiencing, mainly with his father and sister. He visits a few more corporate contacts, and then his father finally passes away. Now that his father has passed away, Marcos no longer has a reason to continue the charade of respecting the disgusting people who have capitalized on mass cannibalism because he was primarily functioning in the role of manager for financial benefit.
So he brings the urn of his father's ashes to the abandoned zoo, where he spreads them in a place of good memories with him. Then he fills it with sand and trash, preparing to give the fake urn to his sister, who has proven time and time again that she doesn't care about their father in the slightest.
He shows up to the memorial reception, gives the urn to his sister, and then realizes that she has a young head in the back that she is flaying alive to have the freshest meat possible to serve to her guests. Marcos calls her out, and then heads home, only to find Jasmine in a risky labor, giving birth. He calls the only person he knows who can help and won't out him for his illegal impregnation of a chattel- his estranged wife, who is a nurse and knows what to do. She is disappointed, but in the end, they take the healthy baby, and then slaughter Jasmine, the woman whom he had supposedly loved, but instead went ahead and became just like the rest of the people who use other humans as a means to an end.
"After all, since the world began, we've been eating each other. If not symbolically, then we've been literally gorging on each other. The Transition has enabled us to be less hypocritical."
I think this novella takes a hard look at what it means to be human versus "head," and I guarantee you that the one that is killing the other humans is probably the least human of the two.
I am keeping this one in my library not because it's especially great, but because it did a great job exploring what it means to capitalize on anything and everything, and why that's not such a good thing; the main character is frankly unbearable and everyone in this novella is a shitty person, point blank.
3.5/5 Stars
Until next time
-B
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