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readalert 's review for:
The Thick and the Lean
by Chana Porter
I really enjoyed this book. It tackles a lot of big ideas like diet culture, religious influences on society and the law, the way we moralize bodies and pleasure, economic disparity, colonialism, identity politics in art, and much more. It's juggling a lot of balls, but showcases the way these things influence one another and are all interconnected. As such, it manages to feel like it dives deeply into each subject despite how many topics it handles. I'd say the main theme though is how access and inequality impacts your ability to moralize something. Flesh Martyrs are able to subsist on so little because their level of influence on society means they are able to control and access the most nutrient dense food and the medical support they need to eat so little, and they earn this wealth and influence directly through exploitation. Meanwhile, Reiko grew up too poor to ever consider Flesh Martyrdom and considers the entire matter trivial even once she does manage to steal the money to set herself up for life. Then when Beatrice runs away to become a chef, the people who take her in struggle enough to buy food that they can never throw away anything as small as potato peelings. The ability to have moral stances like the ones surrounding food here are only possible when one has enough access to food that it can be easily thrown away, and that access comes from stepping on the throats of those who can't make that choice.
It also uses sexuality in an interesting way. Their society is overtly sexual, in part to show an extreme contrast between how they treat sexual pleasure versus the pleasure of food, which makes the reader question our own mores around both. Having such overt sexuality in all parts of society makes the reader question both our own attitudes about sexuality and other unrelated institutions. Why does reading church leaders encouraging the teens at a church sleepover to have sex immediately make the reader- or at least me- name that as religious abuse? What is or isn't materially different about it than other religious practices that teens are encouraged to participate in, and if it isn't different, are those practices abuse? Inserting such a taboo topic into everyday life inherently makes the reader reconsider how they conceptualize each element of everyday life.
I will say I don't think it stuck the landing. Beatrice's section wraps up way too fast, and although we spend a lot of time on Reiko's conclusion, it meanders and doesn't feel cohesively tied together. Also while the themes of both women's stories do integrate well and feel in conversation with one another, on a character level, it feels like there's very little reason to follow both women. Though they do eventually meet, neither feels integral to the other's story, which is even more of a letdown because it took so long for them to meet that I had assumed it wouldn't happen. So when it did, it felt much more egregious that I didn't see any reason for it.
This is a really fascinating novel that kept my mind occupied whenever I was away from it. I read Porter's novella The Seep in 2021 and, with my terrible memory, have forgotten nearly everything that happened in it, but I remembered I loved it and it was one of my favorites of the year. Reading The Thick and the Lean has made me remember exactly why I love Porter's weird stories and writing, and I can't wait to see more from her in the future. 4.5⭐️
It also uses sexuality in an interesting way. Their society is overtly sexual, in part to show an extreme contrast between how they treat sexual pleasure versus the pleasure of food, which makes the reader question our own mores around both. Having such overt sexuality in all parts of society makes the reader question both our own attitudes about sexuality and other unrelated institutions. Why does reading church leaders encouraging the teens at a church sleepover to have sex immediately make the reader- or at least me- name that as religious abuse? What is or isn't materially different about it than other religious practices that teens are encouraged to participate in, and if it isn't different, are those practices abuse? Inserting such a taboo topic into everyday life inherently makes the reader reconsider how they conceptualize each element of everyday life.
I will say I don't think it stuck the landing. Beatrice's section wraps up way too fast, and although we spend a lot of time on Reiko's conclusion, it meanders and doesn't feel cohesively tied together. Also while the themes of both women's stories do integrate well and feel in conversation with one another, on a character level, it feels like there's very little reason to follow both women. Though they do eventually meet, neither feels integral to the other's story, which is even more of a letdown because it took so long for them to meet that I had assumed it wouldn't happen. So when it did, it felt much more egregious that I didn't see any reason for it.
This is a really fascinating novel that kept my mind occupied whenever I was away from it. I read Porter's novella The Seep in 2021 and, with my terrible memory, have forgotten nearly everything that happened in it, but I remembered I loved it and it was one of my favorites of the year. Reading The Thick and the Lean has made me remember exactly why I love Porter's weird stories and writing, and I can't wait to see more from her in the future. 4.5⭐️