MEAT – by Joseph D’Lacey – A Review

MEAT

Author Joseph D’Lacey

Publisher: Bloody Books

Published 2008 – Softcover – UK £7.99

Without reservation, MEAT is one of the most literate, astonishing, and intriguing books I’ve read in years.  I think it is unfortunate that it was published specifically as a horror novel because, for one thing I don’t believe it is a horror novel, and for another your average horror fan is going to find it an odd fit.  The marketing makes it seem more like a “B” Movie scream fest than what it actually is – a very serious novel with a lot to say, set against a grisly backdrop.

If I was to try and categorize MEAT I’d have to put it alongside works like Brave New World, or The Martian Chronicles, or 1984.  The book takes place in a post-apocalyptic town and the meat processing plant on its border.  The protagonist is one Richard Shanti, “The Ice Pick,” so named because of his speed and reliability with the nail gun used to kill cattle on the meat processing assembly line.

Shanti doesn’t eat meat.  He rarely eats at all, in fact, he runs.  Though his performance is without question, his mind is full of doubt.  The meat they serve up comes from a very different sort of herd – the “chosen” – whose grisly secret is never really hidden from the reader, though it is also not addressed directly.  The subject matter, in fact, would seem to lend itself to the horror novel you’d expect, but it is handled with subtlety and finesse, not cleavers and gore.

There are a lot of levels to this novel.  D’Lacey doesn’t focus in on Shanti and his family exclusively.  He builds a world around them, the religion that decrees the eating of the meat processed in the plant, the hierarchy of workers behind the process, the psychological implications of different duties and perceptions.  There is a prophet, John Collins, running around stirring up the people against both the laws of the city and the religion, as well as openly preaching that it is not necessary to eat meat – a central tenet of religion and culture in the town.

The relationships are carefully drawn.  Shanti is very close to his children, but estranged from his wife.  She wants to be accepted and to take advantage of the status her husband’s position at the plant should afford them.  He wants to turn inward and find an answer to the conflict that is his life.

And alongside it all, almost forgotten in the shuffle, are the chosen.  They are designated by color and number rather than any name.  There are champions among them – prime stock – and a subplot of the novel involves a bull known only as Blue-792 who impregnates a cow designated White-047.  The two are the focus of several conflicts throughout the book, and in the ending become symbolic.

This is a novel of rebellion against intolerance. It’s a complex character study covering many aspects of life, culture, and the basic differences between right, wrong, and accepted behavior and belief.

In short, this is a very well-written literary statement – a novel I’d classify more as science fiction than as horror, despite the grisly nature of its underlying premise – and a work that deserves to be more widely read than its chosen genre is likely to allow for.

Highly recommended.  You can purchase a copy from Amazon.com by clicking on the cover art.