It’s a well-made point that comes early on, and one that doesn’t feel at all laboured. Marcos is very aware of the heavy lifting which language does in terms of excusing his everyday atrocities, and the message here is clear and very effective specifically, that we all use language to tiptoe around the realities of our carnivorous way of life, whether it’s referring to “livestock” or “game” instead of animals, “beef” instead of cows and so on. The prose is delivered with a bludgeoning bluntness in these scenes, chilling with its dispassionate portrayals of slaughter.
Do not expect to go into this and be gently persuaded by its message either Bazterrica focuses instead on clinical depictions of the brutal realities of the meat industry, transplanting human beings into the place of animals in a variety of horrific scenarios.
Tender is the Flesh is satirical then, but not in a comedic sense – you certainly won’t find anything to laugh at here, even with the darkest sense of humour. We’re celebrating because one of them became a father,” he explains. “It’s the most tender kind of meat, there’s only just a little, because a kid doesn’t weigh as much as a calf. El Gringo explains to Egmont that they’ve been preparing it since eight in the morning, “So it melts in your mouth,” and that the guys are actually about to eat a kid. They go to the rest area, where the farmhands are roasting a rack of meat on a cross. He’s filled with unease and distaste at their appetite, and there are a number of ghoulish meals which he’s forced to endure. When he receives a gift of a live female, his situation becomes even more problematic, with boundaries blurred and values questioned.Īs a main character, many will find some of Marcos’ feelings familiar – if you have ever considered going vegetarian or vegan, or indeed already have, you will no doubt find common ground with him when he finds himself in situations where he’s surrounded by people happily tucking into meat.
In his position at the local processing plant, he has seen men and women – or “heads” as they tend to refer to them – slaughtered quite literally by the truckload. Main character Marcos has his doubts about this new way of life, doubts which gnaw at him from the outset. In their place, human beings are bred as livestock instead, with the efficient systems of the old world repurposed with chilling ease. That’s the tagline for Tender is the Flesh, and serves as the jumping off point for an exploration of a nightmarish version of our world, one in which animals have been infected with a deadly virus, forcing a mass culling. If everyone was eating human meat, would you?
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