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Sacred Hunger (Sacred Hunger #1)

Barry Unsworth

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Why we're reading this: brilliantly conceived and executed, compelling and enlightening
well written, huge perspective on slavery
[close] brilliantly conceived and executed, compelling and enlightening
well written, huge perspective on slavery

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What Members Thought

Mar 13, 2011 Natalie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, england, north-america, historical-fiction, fiction-that-takes-itself-seriously

Such an unsettling book. One that demanded more from my senses, emotions, thoughts than I ever expected it would. It preoccupied me, it made me feel sick, it taught me, it even entertained me at times, but rarely. It was not that kind of book, not the kind you can read for entertainment or enlightment alone. Rather it is a book that demands, that contorts, that expands and contracts your heart til it cracks. A book where the author demands the reader pay the price of turning the page.

In Ethan C ...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Jul 06, 2017 Kamakana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-five-star, aa-englandlit, crime, xlong-over-400, aa-africalit, masculinismlit, aa-europelit, historicity, aa-otherlit, booker-prize

060717: took a few days to think of this. the two cousins followed in alternating plots are perhaps representatives of the English society of their times: one cousin rather blinkered, focused on wealth and power and convinced of his correctness despite the reality of any other, such as his fianc茅e, later wife. the other cousin is close to admirable and modern in his role as doctor but also, despite his ideals, enables the 'sacred hunger' of the slave trade...

this is a historical novel such as i 060717: took a few days to think of this. the two cousins followed in alternating plots are perhaps representatives of the English society of their times: one cousin rather blinkered, focused on wealth and power and convinced of his correctness despite the reality of any other, such as his fianc茅e, later wife. the other cousin is close to admirable and modern in his role as doctor but also, despite his ideals, enables the 'sacred hunger' of the slave trade...

this is a historical novel such as i wish i could write. this is on the ground, gifted with detailed, convincing images, with credible thinking of this character and that character, with no very anachronistic morality, no awareness of the difference between slave and conscience, no conflicts against the usual way of business/life, love and fate, power and dreams, which we can only look at from our oh so enlightened century...

at first i find the book annoying, as it is about the empowered imperialists, the men for whom other men are 'natural' slaves, rather than about these slaves- but in time, in the structure of the narrative, it becomes clear that the intent is not celebration but condemnation. the cousin who is a handsome, admired, intense man, is only too revealed as childish and in the end unable to even recognize his faults. he is as close the book gets to a villain, though there is compassion for him as well. he is a prig. he is self-righteous. he is conservative. but he is only part of the world of his time...

the doctor cousin is perhaps more initially sympathetic but in the end he too is bound by his times. he wants in some way to step out of his times and enact an egalitarian society but these are the dreams of a sort of Rousseau character, and shows that history of individual and people cannot be easily overcome. when once enslaved the world even when freed, will never be that of the enslaver. but this long paradise section reveals the honest attempt at ideal society is not so simple. violence, power, myths, are all needed to give coherence to exiled group...

and the times. this is a story of people rather than kings, queens, generals- the official history that remembers these heroes of imperialism, the various individuals, politics, capitalists, that enable the proud and the confessing exploiters. there is an awareness or enlightenment that comes to the reader through the doctor cousin. this remains beyond the other and only pity can be given... ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Petra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Heartbreaking and so well told. The time of the slave trade, its inhumanity and degradation to other human beings comes through in this book. It's also a story of humanity working together and having, at least for a short time, the ability to live together.
This story will break your heart for so many reasons beyond the words contained in its pages. ...more

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