Reviewed by Elizabeth Grace
Tender is the Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
Scribner
August 2020, Paperback, 224 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1982150921
Tender is the Flesh, a written by Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica, is a brutal, thought provoking dystopian narrative. Tender is the Flesh depicts the world after a virus has made animal meat poisonous to human beings. Though animal produce is deadly, people still hunger for meat. To satiate their want, man turns on man. Slaughterhouses once used for livestock turn their knives toward human flesh and blood. No part of a human’s body goes to waste: blood is turned into fertilizer, meat is sold to markets, skin is used to make leather, and hair is made into wigs. Society has normalized the perversion, murder, and consumption of human beings.
The novel follows Marcus, a vegan who manages a slaughterhouse. One day, a friend gifts Marcos a female FGP (First Generation Pure: a human bred for consumption who is not genetically modified). Throughout the novel, Marcos wrestles with believing she is not a sub-human animal, as many people believe. Readers watch Marcos question his morals, dealing with the juxtaposition of viewing this female as both a powerless object and a fellow human being. As the story progresses, Marcos’ treatment of the female turns despicable, inhumane, and disgusting.
Bazterrica’s novel depicts a capitalist society where the value of a person comes from consuming and producing goods. Every person working in a slaughterhouse kills hundreds of humans daily not for pleasure, but to provide for his family. Workers are paid well because these jobs are so undesirable. The reader is introduced to many slaughterhouse workers throughout the novel, each with his own motive for participating in the systemic killing of humans. In a society where the killing and consumption of humans is mainstream, no one questions the validity of cannibalism. Until they are the ones doing the killing, not just consuming.
Though everyone in this novel knows they are eating human beings, the act of cannibalism is easier to justify when given another name. The people being killed are called “Head” and their product is referred to as “Special Meat.” Calling the Head “human” or referring to the act of eating one as “cannibalism” is illegal and punishable by death in the slaughterhouse. Besides these executions, those killed for consumption aren’t average people, they are raised as livestock, purposefully bred for slaughtering. Marcos’s government has spread the idea that the Head are intrinsically inferior to other humans. They are raised as animals. They are animals. This practice has been happening for several decades, making it easy for the government to create an “us versus them” mentality. Believing a lie becomes easy when two separate groups of people have been created, those who are human and those who are animals.
Tender is the Flesh shows the horrific effects of apathy. Bazterrica spares no detail. There is no breathing room, no one to hold your hand as you read the atrocities depicted in this novel. Though incredibly graphic and disturbing, Tender is the Flesh is one of the best novels I’ve read and has left a permanent impression in my mind. As a commentary on the dangers of capitalism, governmental propaganda and control, and human morality, this novel leaves the reader questioning who the real animal is: those killed or those killing.