Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Note: The book's title is not Bird and the author is not Bird by Anne Lamott. (Pause for sweet nerd laughter.) But I digress.

E.L. Doctorow once said that 'writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard.

Lamott has published both fiction and nonfiction, with the nonfiction being her thoughts on spirituality from her relatively liberal Christian standpoint. (In this book, she refers to God as a she.) Her Christian books are supposed to be pretty good and Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, raves about her.

As is stated on the cover, this book gives "instructions on writing and life." The latter is not really directly addressed but is kinda sneaked, if you will, with writing metaphors. And her instructions are pretty good. She devotes sections to plot, character, writer's block, and such. She also delves into practical stuff involved with writing such as publication and small literary circles wherein writers edit and encourage each other. She repeated stresses the joy of writing for writing and not for the sole pursuit of publication.

I picked this book up because I figured if I decided to start writing more then I might as well be equipped. I picked up some good stuff from this book. For example, I liked learning that most authors don't know where their story is headed. Another good point Lamott offers is to invest heavily in your characters--let them "become themselves" and thus drive the plot.

However, there is a caveat to naive readers of this book. I don't think you can really teach someone to be a good writer. This book won't instantly make John Smith the next Hemingway. Not to say that this is what Lamott set out to do with this book but readers shouldn't expect this kind of transformation. On the other hand, I think this book can make someone more effective with the way they write and let them "find their voice" (whatever that means).

Another advantage to the book is that it is so far from a textbook. It's much more personal and sprinkled with Lamott's self-deprecating, usually dry, sometimes weird, humor. She doesn't claim to know the whole caboodle on writing so the text becomes more of her thoughts on writing and what has helped her. It's definitely worth checking out if you are at all interested in trying your hand at writing. Like I said, it won't transform anybody but it does have passages that will definitely resonate with you (e.g. the quote I included up top) as you sit down at your desk to write.

The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis

“I’m really thinking seriously about staying out here a little longer. I’ve sort of forgotten what New York and Camden look like and I’ve forgotten a lot of faces from there and I don’t know if I can face going back. I probably won’t stay here but I’ve been thinking about it. I’m dreading seeing those people who I called my friends. I’d rather stay out here and not, as you so often put it, ‘deal with it,’ y’know?”

The Los Angeles of Bret Easton Ellis is bronzed, hazy and smoke-filled. His New York is a cold, neon-lit nightclub. The characters that inhabit his numerous novels rarely fully explain their motives. Instead, Bret holds his audience captive through the sparseness of his writing. Typical themes of love get pushed aside in order to examine the angst found within our society.

The Informers is Bret Easton Ellis’s 1994 collection of short stories that further explores the motifs he set up in Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction. The thirteen stories contained within are full of drug use, 1980’s pop references, drifters and despair for tomorrow’ ills. There is a sense of primacy to his writing that by the time this book was publishing.

The characters feel alien to the typical reader, but that is the point. They exist within a reality that at first seems very real, yet we don’t have access. In one story the protagonist is the front man for the group “Bryan Metro” attempting to re-launch his career undeterred by his destructive sexual habits. In another, a couple attempts to enjoys a date at the zoo despite the underlying tension hinted at between the two.

Perhaps, the best example of Ellis’s style of writing is the story “Letters from L.A.” The narrator takes the reader through the corruption of morality that generates the characters inhabiting his novels. One gets a sense of the desire to escape this environment but the lack of willpower preventing so.

Ellis’s is not a reader that everyone can enjoy. One will not find any tales of unrequited love or adventure here – only relationships that have weathered one too many gin and tonics and cocaine. The characters feel distant. Ellis focuses his attention on the chain of events rather than the actions that led to their creation. Fans of Hemmingway would be well-suited to read at least one of Ellis’s novels in order to see how far the genre has developed since his unfortunate demise. I would recommend reading Less Than Zero before sinking into The Informers in order to get the full flavor of the L.A. he has crafted. I would also recommend avoiding the new film of the same name at all costs until long into its HBO circulation.

Seven Years In Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Although I said earlier that I would post on a book that I was reading about Chinese philosophy, I will not post on that book. That is to say, my post will not exceed the following sentence: do not read “A Short History Of Chinese Philosophy” by Fung Yu-Lan for it is boring and useless in terms of understanding Chinese philosophy. I will, however, post on the book that I just finished yesterday evening: Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer. In Seven Years in Tibet, Harrer tells the true story of his escape from a British internment camp in India and his ensuing journey to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

One thing to keep in mind is that Harrer is a badass in every sense of the word. For starters, in his younger days, Harrer ascended a peak in the Austrian Alps so dangerous every attempted climb prior to Harrer’s had resulted either in the deaths of the climbers or mere incompletion. Harrer’s own conquering of the mountain would not go overlooked; it was described in, according to the author himself, not one, but “several books”. Harrer also happened to be a world-class skier as he was a member of the Austrian Olympic skiing team and winner of the World University Slalom Championship. Mind you, this all takes place during the preface.

Harrer’s tale continues to amaze as it moves into the first chapter and beyond. Harrer’s successful completion of the climb in the Alps granted him a spot in a German climbing expedition set for the Himalayas. Unfortunately for the group of climbers, World War II broke out soon after their arrival in the Himalayan region. British forces, which occupied India at the time, apprehended the group of German mountain climbers and sent them to an internment camp where they were, nonetheless, treated well. After several unsuccessful escape attempts, Harrer and a few others were finally made it across the Indian-Tibetan border where they were somewhat safe from British troops, as Britain had no jurisdiction in Tibet.

During his time in the camp, Harrer somehow managed to become relatively proficient in Tibetan. He and one of his hiking partners used their language skills to attempt to befriend the Tibetan people as they made their way through the Tibetan mountains and into Lhasa. Their journey was, of course, fraught with obstacles. A constant source of fear for Harrer and his partner was the fact that they were illegal immigrants in Tibet and if discovered would be returned to India, and thus to the British authorities. Amongst the other dangers they encountered during their travels were leopards, bears, bandits that roamed the countryside mercilessly killing anyone they came across for their possessions, 20,000 foot passes, and temperatures far below zero. They had no defenses, only some tattered clothing, a few possessions, and some money that they ran out of just before arriving in Lhasa.

After arriving in Lhasa, Harrer and his friend were both taken in by a Tibetan noble and gradually increased their status as they found work and assimilated into the life of Lhasa. Being essentially the first Europeans to come to Lhasa peacefully, Harrer was eventually sought out by the young and inquisitive Dalai Lama. Harrer served as his tutor for a couple years before Harrer and the Tibetan nobles were compelled to evacuate Lhasa when the Chinese invaded in 1950. Perhaps not badass, but nonetheless a cool thing to be able to say you were the tutor to a boy who was believed to be a living god by the more than 3 million people of Tibet at that time. After Harrer’s evacuation from Tibet in 1950, the book closes with a few remarks made by the author about the changes he saw in Tibet pre and post 1950 and his own feelings on the matter.

The book moves at a rapid clip, which is further aided by the author’s barebones, yet eloquent, writing style. Not only is it a highly enjoyable read, it also provides a fascinating insight into the life and customs of the Tibetan people before the Chinese invasion and subsequent overhaul of the country. Lucky for the reader, Harrer refrains from ranting about Tibetan independence or China’s actions in Tibet. Instead, Harrer maintains an objective view as he describes his observations of the habits, lifestyle, and general demeanor of the people.

Whether or not you are interested in Tibet, I would highly recommend this book. The story alone is reason enough to take the relatively short amount of time one needs to read it. When you add in the cultural and historical insight that Harrer’s experiences provide, the book simply becomes a must-read. If, however, you wish not to read the book, perhaps you should watch the movie, which features Brad Pitt, with whom I want to slow dance.

To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever by Will Blythe

Also read by Hunter.

While Hunter was waxing poetic on Will Blythe, I think I’m just gonna wax on him. This was the worst single piece of sportswriting I have ever encountered. Which is a real shame because there are some good sportswriters out there and with this serious a subject matter, I kindly wish it was written by one of them. Since Hunter has already reviewed the book and described what it’s about, I’m gonna make this blog cathartic by screaming questions at the author.

My questions for Will Blythe:

1.) First and foremost, what was your scope?
Throughout the entire book, I could not really pinpoint whether he wanted it to be his memoir of Duke-Carolina related stuff, a meditation on the rivalry, a research paper on Christianity and basketball (I’m not kidding!), an (semi-) in-depth look at the 2005 Carolina season, or a journal on Melvin Scott (probably the 5th player that I would choose on that team to learn more about). He talks about his family outside of basketball without developing any of their personalities and thus makes them inconsequential. Over and over, he brings up God and his existence as well as Christianity’s effects on basketball. He recounts multiple games during the 2005 season and just kinda writes some of his own thoughts on them. Lastly, he shadows Melvin Scott on and off the court while not doing the same with any other player. This may be the most befuddling and he doesn't even qualify why he does that. If you're gonna write about a basketball rivalry in NC, why are you going to go all biographical on a non-starting player from Baltimore?

2.) Did you really think you could write this book without doing any homework?
He interviews only one player, Art Heyman, who was involved in the rivalry before 2000. This is one of the top rivalries in sports with a rich history and he only talks with one player. Furthermore, he doesn't even get much into the story and the fights and the progressions of the rivalry. Again, scope.

3.) Did you realize you were going on tangents that weren't even basketball related?
He puts in little snippets of information that boring. In other parts, he questions the existence of God. In the last few paragraphs of the book he talks about how his dad died and came back as a bird. Need I say more?

4.) Do you realize how unclear your writing is?
I'm just gonna put in a quote here:

Driving to the Dean Dome, I found myself stuck behind a jogger who was running down the middle of the road at the bend near Forest Theater. He never turned back to look at the long line of cars forming behind him. He never detoured over to the sidewalk. This struck me as suggestive of an overly idealistic worldview that deserved to be complicated by a good tap on that professorial ass with two or so tons of Subaru.

Are you kidding me? Now imagine a whole book littered with sentences like the last one in the quote. This was easily the most frustrating writing style I've seen lately.

5.) Did you recognize that you nearly became Duke-neutral and that your sister sounds like a bigger Carolina fan than you?
Blythe transforms from hating Duke (self-proclaimed) to doing high-5s with a Duke fan during a Duke game. It isn't till the end of the book that he seems like a true Carolina fan. However, I think his sister, who seems cool, is more die-hard, though.


6.) Here's a list of other annoying things:

Name-dropping without introductions for people
Typos, about 5 occurring in the last half of the book
Bad grammar

I'll include a few things I did like about the book:

I liked reading insights from a Duke Law professor about the mentality of Duke students. This was a good interview subject. This is a excerpt where the professor talking about his students:

'[My wife] just hates them. And it's interesting; when at the end of each semester I have all my clinic students over for a party, she can tell right off who went to Duke undergrad . . . They're different,' he said. 'Almost without fail, they'll talk about money. They'd want to make sure you knew they went to Duke undergrad. They'll talk about the firm they're going to next. Students who went to other colleges as undergraduates will come in, they'll ask my wife about herself, they'll ask about the kids. This last semester, I didn't have any double Dukes in my class, and my wife said it was by far and away the best group of students I'd ever had.'

I also really liked his interview with a Wharton-grad mega-fan who goes by the alias ManhattenHeel on Inside Carolina, a message board website for fans. She had some really fascinating stuff to say. Sadly, my two favorite parts had nothing to do with Blythe and more to do with bigger fans.

Needless to say, I cannot recommend this book to anybody. The only reason why I was able to choke it down was the subject matter, which I care deeply for, and thus why I might be so critical of this book. Frustrating is the most accurate word I can use to describe it.

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

For me, this book stands as the 20th century gold standard for short story writing. Not that I'm well-versed in a ton of short story writers, but, nonetheless, this is the best I've ever come across. The book is a collection of 9 short stories--I'm not sure why he didn't go for 10; maybe to have this sweet first edition cover
--and a few are of the Glass family, some have crazy story lines and ambiguous endings, and all are great. Everybody loves top 10 lists so I think it is appropriate to rate these stories in order of my liking.


9.) Teddy
This story appears last and perhaps because it has such a shocking and disturbing last line. The beginning of this was quite good but then the main character, Teddy, begins talking about metaphysics and Buddhism which is not as fascinating as Salinger's ordinary plots.

8.) De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period
This is one of two stories that uses first person. It is narrated by a painter who begins teaching art to students and becomes enamored by one of his students who is a nun. This one didn't really resonate with me though.

7.) The Laughing Man
Inside this story lies another story that is incredibly weird. The tone of the inside story follows the tone of the storyteller who becomes disheartened by a doomed relationship. I just read that this is often regarded as the finest of the 9 stories. I may disagree.

6.) Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut
I actually don't remember much of this story except that I liked it a lot. Good enough for 6, I know that.

5.) Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
Nearly the entire of this story is a phone conversation and it appears that one of the men on the phone is in bed at that moment with the other man's wife. The man whose wife is out is worrying about her and his friend tries to calm him down. I probably shouldn't give away the ending because that's the whole story. However, the ending is a little ambiguous, in my opinion.

4.) Just Before the War with the Eskimos
This story is awesome! It requires careful reading but it is rewarding. One of the characters is a lot like Holden Caulfield.

3.) For Esme - With Love and Squalor
Really, the top 3 is interchangeable but having to choose, this is what I went with. This story is probably the second most popular of the collection. It is also feels a little like Lolita. Esme is a really fascinating character and when you find out the precise definition of squalor it makes the story much better.

2.) Down at the Dinghy
I had a really hard time not putting this at 1. It is, in a word, incredible. And it is the only story where Boo Boo Glass makes an appearance, and she is lovely. Great ending to the story. Read it.

1.) A Perfect Day for Bananafish
This was the second thing I ever read by Salinger and it confirmed as the real deal. This story exploded when it was first published in The New Yorker and it continues to stun today.

To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forver by Will Blythe

"It is a basketball rivalry that simply has no equal. Duke vs. North Carolina is Ali vs. Frazier, the Giants vs. the Dodgers, the Red Sox vs. the Yankees. Hell, it's bigger than that. This is the Democrats vs. the Republicans, the Yankees vs. the Confederates, capitalism vs. communism. All right, okay, the Life Force vs. the Death Instinct, Eros vs. Thanatos. Is that big enough?"

What is it about college sports that captivate us so? Is it the fact that the referees actually call traveling or that the stadium does not reverberate with pop anthems such as the Baha Men’s “Who Let The Dogs Out” whenever a star player slams in a dunk? Yes, college sports are the beginning, middle and end of what most consider “the fun years” – when teamwork is supposed to thwart individual stardom and coaches appear to genuinely be interested in the course of the overall season.

Will Blythe’s first foray into the world of books could be written by no other fan of the sport. Blythe, a former literary editor of Esquire and contributor to The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Oxford American, represents the essence of “sports beatnik” journalism. To Hate Like This follows the Tar Heel team through the 2004-2005 season as they attempted to win a first national title for Coach Roy Williams. ¡SPOILERS!: The Tar Heels took the title that year, resulting is a top notch analysis of the invested emotions that restored the rivalry to Tobacco Road.

Blythe does not attempt to disguise the fact that he is unbiased; in fact, he grew up in Chapel Hill watching every game with his mother and sister. When he wasn’t watching his Tar Heels, Blythe could be found in his backyard shooting hoops in his futile attempt to imitate the numerous heroes that came out of the program under Dean Smith during the late ‘70s to mid-‘90s. Blythe often refers to the side his inner hatred of everything Duke as “the Beast.” Blythe’s “Beast” comes out when he is most vulnerable (ala the presence of Duke Graduates or a late-game made Tar Heel free throw).

In order to fulfill the requirements of the book’s subtitle, Blythe travels to the arched Gothic spires of Duke University into the evil lair that is Cameron Indoor Stadium for numerous Duke Basketball games and interviews with key players such as J.J. Redick and Sheldon Williams. Blythe manages to remain civil during an interview with Coach K (just barely).

The passionate zeal the author exudes is echoed in the fans the author encountered during the writing of the book. Blythe courageously documents the activities and outlets for numerous fans such as the creator of Inside Carolina website to the restless anger that still grips Duke player Art Heyman. One such fan equates the Duke-Carolina rivalry to that of a battle for control over a certain popular fictional land typically inhabited by hobbits, elves and trolls.

Blythe’s effortless writing belies his passion towards the subject. From team practices to the biographies of Rashad McCants, Melvin Williams, Raymond Felton and Sean May, Blythe breathes a sense of reality into the often foggy fame that fandom generates. Rashad McCants took every criticism personally while Sean May dealt with the same articles in stride thanks to the advice of his father, Scott May who played at Indiana under Coach Bobby Knight.

Now that Carolina has won another national championship under the tutelage of Coach Williams it is important to understand how the most famous rivalry in all of college basketball was founded. One can only hope that Will Blythe has been secretly working on his second book since 2006 that will match the frenetic intensity found within To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever.

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

This is the best I've read all year and quite possibly the best ever. Again, Salinger uses very little plot and heavy dialogue to create scenes that are so human. The characters are just so ineffably real. Although I might call them ordinary, just like Vonnegut's characters, they are so much more compelling than his.

I think these two stories of unequal length are actually better than The Catcher in the Rye. Franny is an incredible, and Franny the character is to die for. Her story is simple and takes place in a single afternoon but I was pleading for it not to end. His writing may not be the most intricate and complex, but I think Salinger's brilliance stands alone. I think it will be a long time before I find somebody whose prose is so genuine, so witty, and so freaking entertaining as his. Really incredible stuff.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Not the most entertaining read. The prose was ordinary. Billy Pilgrim was even more ordinary. At times, Vonngut was funny, but just sparsely. Only a few passages made me think, that was put nicely. I'll certainly write more on this later, but, for now, this book is getting pushed back into the corner. I really wanted to like this book but, apparently, it was unwilling to compromise. I'm gonna come back to it at a later time because something tells me I'm not getting the whole picture. More to come when I'm feeling more verbose.

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Also read by Jon.

Moby-Dick. I think this one of those stories that has become such a part of America's fabric that the actual book--the real masterpiece--has become diluted. The importance and brilliance actually gets overlooked with kids versions, cultural references to it, and so forth. At least this is what happened with me. I didn't ever feel the need to read it because I knew the essential plot line and that it was well-written; so what else is there to discover in it? Then I saw that Jon was reading it for class and what he said about it made me realize that I couldn't ignore this classic any longer.

In a sentence, my high expectations for this book were met. There are countless passages that are so beautifully crafted. Finding a remarkable quote from this book is like shooting fish in a barrel. Check out this one:

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

It's incredible how paragraphs like this occur one after another and each keeps you drooling for more. Very little of the book is plot (probably about a fourth or a third) and the rest is basically an encyclopedia on whales and whaling ships. It's easy to see that Melville was fascinated with whaling almost to the point of obsession and many of the information in the book comes from his direct experiences with whaling as well as his delving into many sources. But in this tedious information are many metaphors for God and humans. Reading it is sometimes hard but getting it is gratifying. So, yes, it is an exhausting read because it does take concentration to fully appreciate but, I think, meticulously is the only way to read this one.

The book is also really humorous. I wish there were more double-entendres with the whole Moby Dick being a sperm whale and all, but the humor does come through in other ways. This comes from one of my favorite chapters:

How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair.

Now you might think Queequeg is a sweet little darling when in fact he's a tattooed cannibal. Nonetheless, he and Ishmael become bosom-friends.

This is an incredible read and I recommend it to any serious reader. This is truly the great American novel and I don't think the story should be experienced in any way other than the Melville way.

Sacred Hunger By Barry Unsworth

‘Money is sacred, as everyone knows,’ said Delblanc. ‘So then must be the hunger for it and the means we use to obtain it. Once a man is in debt he becomes a flesh and blood form of money, a walking investment. You can do what you like with him, you can work him to death or you can sell him. This cannot be called cruelty or greed because we are seeking only to recover our investment and that is a sacred duty.’

Barry Unsworth’s 1992 novel provides a seminal, sometimes frightening window into the British Atlantic slave trade during the mid-eighteenth century. Sacred Hunger was required reading for my history 278 course, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but stands as an important part of our modern understanding on one of the cruelest examples of “globalism” gone awry.

The novel follows the lives of two relatives as they experience the different “legs” of the slave trade first hand. The older physician Matthew Paris seeks passage on his uncle’s slave ship, the Liverpool Merchant, in order to make a life for himself in the Caribbean after being imprisoned for teaching evolution in England. His younger cousin, Erasmus Kemp, enjoys a more relaxed lifestyle taking part in the daily life of Liverpool, courting Sarah Wolpert, drinking expensive wine and participating in a production named The Enchanted Island that borrows heavily from The Tempest. The younger character, Erasmus, despises the “utopian” beliefs his older cousin documents throughout the novel in his journal.

As the Liverpool Merchant reaches the coast of Guinea, Paris begins to grow increasingly frustrated by the implications of the slave trade. He is allowed special privileges by his uncle, but his character remains distant from the rest of the crew which is made up of convicts and men that swindled out of their money and forced onto the slave ship. As the ship’s surgeon, Paris is forced to constantly check the human cargo below for diseases that might lower their value once the ship reaches its intended destination of Jamaica.

The book then shifts over a decade into the future where Paris and the crew run a small settlement off of the southeastern coast of Florida. The Liverpool Merchant never made it to Jamaica after it was overrun by a slave mutiny and hit by a hurricane. On the surface, Paris’s vision of a tolerant, equal society is realized in the settlement, but a perverse version boils to the surface complimenting the book’s central theme – a sacred hunger for greed that is at the root of all our capitalist desires.

Unsworth clearly shows that he has done his research with Sacred Hunger. The sights, sounds and smells that accompanied this trade are in full effect. Paris observes the steam rising from a cargo hold grate on the Liverpool Merchant when the doors are sealed during a storm in order to protect the slaves from downing. The feverish journey unfolds around Paris in a manner that constantly tests the reader’s knowledge of the slave trade.

The novel makes excellent use of dialects, particularly in the second half of the novel. At times, I was forced to read aloud the Creole mix of pigeon, English and Spanish spoken in the settlement in order to grasp the change that has occurred over the decade gap. The narrative structure unfolds as well as any drama should and slowly fills in the intricate details and motivations encountered. This is one of the few novels I have been forced to read the epilogue in order to fully understand the story.

Sacred Hunger is a challenging book on many levels. The novel follows two diverging personalities that lead separate lives. This creates a wide cast of actors that constitute the world of the novel. This chronicle is not short by any means – weighing in at 630 pages. Unsworth also creates many scenarios that feel too “cinema graphic,” meaning that they feel ripped from the silver screen of his mind in order to keep to narrative flowing. Characters mention information that others would already know or likely know in order to fill the novel with evidence from the actual slave trade. As a student, taking a course on the slave trade much of this information feels severely forced. Also, the character of Erasmus Kemp was not fleshed out as well as Matthew Paris in my opinion causing his emergence later in the novel to be more of a whimper than the bang it should have been. His intentions did not balance with his actions. Kemp was supposed to be the yin to Paris’s yang, and yet, it felt as if Unsworth lost this in his delicate reconstruction of the slave trade.

The first book parallels the real-life case of the British slave ship called the Zong. During the ship's journey to the Caribbean the captain forced 122 slaves to drown themselves as they had grown too sickly to be worth any value and he could collect insurance on those that had died. The reckless abuse of humans spirals out of control until the beginning of Book 2. The Zong Massacre of 1781 ended up becoming a major tragedy that led to the eventual abolition of the slave trade in England and elsewhere.

Sacred Hunger is not a book I can recommend to everyone. As a fan of fiction culled from history Barry Unsworth has no doubt crafted a moving testament to the slave trade. Nearly all the perspectives and legs of the trade are accounted for. Going into the novel with an interest in the time period is a must in order to survive the first book. That said Sacred Hunger is one of the most truthful fictional interpretations of the trade that linked the world together. This is not a “beach read” but a powerful novel you will want to save for a time in your life when you can dedicate your full attention to the message contained within. The result might move you to tears.