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A review by quimolhado
The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The world built in The Thick and the Lean is interesting - by switching the roles of food and sexuality, we are lead to reflect on the meaning and value of both in a more significant way than if the populace was simply sexually liberated. Chana Porter avoids writing about strictly a sex cult - instead the suggestion is this: hunger and a desire for satiation is earthly, shared with other animals; that which separates humanity from everything else is the desire for love and care that accompanies sex. Therefore, in order to reach out toward godliness, we should embrace love-giving through sex while limiting our baser needs. The setup is quick and jarring, with a very early scene of a priest and nun setting up a night for their teen congregation to experiment with... outer relations.
While the concept of food-shame and sexual liberation continues throughout the book, the story seems to tread back to focusing on the class divide and the problems behind climate change and the power of mega corporations when the government is unwilling or unable to step in.
The characters are likable, as we hear their inner struggles to come to terms with their upbringing and their own personal desires. There are many times of self-doubt, where an individual is uncertain what it is they even want, which I found to be very relatable (though, perhaps, in a far lesser scale).
The issue comes that the book seems to lose its focus partway through. Is it meant to be the disassembling of this religious corpo-cult? If so, it fails to really dig into anything significant until the end when we discoverthat the religion's beliefs are founded upon a lie. Even so, at the end of the book, a character releases this information out into the world. I don't believe for a second that this is going to change anything.
In all, it is certainly an interesting read that, for someone interested in considering, raises a number of interesting questions. However, perhaps due to the length, the author runs out of steam to answer them herself, leaving the reader to create some meaning out of an unfocused (or, perhaps more charitably, ambiguous) ending.
While the concept of food-shame and sexual liberation continues throughout the book, the story seems to tread back to focusing on the class divide and the problems behind climate change and the power of mega corporations when the government is unwilling or unable to step in.
The characters are likable, as we hear their inner struggles to come to terms with their upbringing and their own personal desires. There are many times of self-doubt, where an individual is uncertain what it is they even want, which I found to be very relatable (though, perhaps, in a far lesser scale).
The issue comes that the book seems to lose its focus partway through. Is it meant to be the disassembling of this religious corpo-cult? If so, it fails to really dig into anything significant until the end when we discover
In all, it is certainly an interesting read that, for someone interested in considering, raises a number of interesting questions. However, perhaps due to the length, the author runs out of steam to answer them herself, leaving the reader to create some meaning out of an unfocused (or, perhaps more charitably, ambiguous) ending.