Immagine dell'autore.

Ian Flitcroft

Autore di The Reluctant Cannibals

3 opere 62 membri 5 recensioni

Opere di Ian Flitcroft

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Sesso
male

Utenti

Recensioni

I'm not a very scientifically minded person, so I appreciate this new approach to presenting big scientific ideas. The author and illustrator definitely make "life, the universe, and everything" easier.

My only complaint is that my copy contained several typos--or the handwritten equivalent of a typo. While I was able to figure out what was being said anyway, the typos, usually incorrect but similar words or missing words, did make me stumble in the reading of those passages, and it took me longer to get through those passages than if the correct words had been there. Hopefully, the typos will be found and fixed for later editions.

Note: I received my copy through the Goodreads First Reads program.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
fernandie | Sep 15, 2022 |
As much as I liked the eccentric Oxford dons in this story, it was a very looooooooong story. With sometimes boring secondary and tertiary stories.
About halfway into the book I would have bailed, but I wanted to know whether the gastronomic society would eat human flesh or not.

Shorter story and better editing would have made this a 5 star novel.
 
Segnalato
JulesGDSide | 3 altre recensioni | Nov 29, 2018 |
I hadn't even finished reading out the back cover copy for this book before members of my book club were shaking their heads vehemently and saying no and nope as fast as they could. Interestingly, their reactions mirror the reactions of the characters in the book when the word cannibalism (sorry, it's anthropophagy according to the character suggesting it because that somehow makes the concept more palatable--snort!) is first brought up. All I have to say is that it was their loss since this was a slyly funny and highly entertaining read about morality and taboo set in the normally staid, hidebound world of academia.

It's 1969 in Oxford. St. Jerome's College is the epitome of the hallowed halls of learning, with a gatekeeper who regularly yells at students to keep off the grass, gowned faculty and students, tutorials, crews of eight, and so on. Intriguingly, St. Jerome's is also the site of a secret dining society, the Shadow Faculty of Gastronomic Science, and one of the gastronomically adventurous dinners they throw is going to bring them some rather unwanted attention. Japanese diplomat, Takeshi Tokoro, the guest of one of the shadow faculty members prepares the potentially deadly delicacy of fugu for the assembled company. An incorrect preparation means death. And Tokoro does indeed do one small thing that ensures his own death right at the table. Now this group of six gourmands, all members of the faculty and staff of St. Jerome's, is garnering attention and threatened with forced disbanding. First, the vice-chancellor, a veritable stick in the mud whose taste buds run to bland nursery food, gets the group in his sights for causing him to have to hush up an international debacle that could have cause the college's reputation grave harm. Then a snobbish undergraduate whose opinion of his own importance is excessive, the Honorable Matthew Kingsley-Hampton, takes offense that he has not been invited to join this secret society (assuming incorrectly that it's made up off fellow undergraduates like himself) and so determines to expose the society, but mostly through manipulating others around him to do his dirty work.

The best thing to do given the climate at the school would be for the shadow faculty to either skip one of their scheduled end of term meals or at least not court controversy in any way. But Professor Arthur Plantagenet, one of the founding members of the group, an eccentric, and lifelong food and wine enthusiast, discovers that his unbridled appetites have left his heart failing and his time on earth much shorter than anticipated. Rather than fighting fate, he devises a plan for his remaining time and for what to do with his remains after death and his plan will embroil the shadow faculty in a situation the likes of which they've never before faced. He is going to donate a piece of himself for consumption at one of the shadow faculty's culinary adventures, looking on this as a scientific donation to determine not only what people taste like but if he tastes better than the animals we do eat. The others are horrified and when the time comes, as executors of the good professor's will, they will face moral, legal, and ethical dilemmas as they contemplate the horror (or is it intrigue?) of eating their late colleague.

Flitcroft has managed to write a hilarious novel about one of the biggest taboos in our society. The characters are wonderful, from the pragmatic Augustus Bloom to the spiritually agonizing chaplain Charles Pinker, from the unpleasant bully Matthew Kingsley-Hampton to his meek and downtrodden roommate Patrick Eccles. The novel feels madcap and somehow filled with hijinks even though it really isn't. The shadow faculty can be pretentious in their gustatory delights and pompous opinions but they are also endearing and the reader enjoys spending time with them as they go into raptures at their over the top dinners and as they spar with each other over the subject of eating Arthur's left thigh. Sounds wonderful and crazy, right? It is. This novel has it all: decadent, mouth-wateringly described feasts, a ghost or two in the wine cellar, undergraduate shenanigans, a moral and ethical dilemma, a wet blanket of an administrator, a secret society with declining membership, and plenty of gallows humor. Clever, funny, and original, after reading this rollicking tale I might be a bit wary of eating anything with Flitcroft but I'll happily read more of his work.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
whitreidtan | 3 altre recensioni | Jan 5, 2018 |
The Reluctant Cannibals is a delicious tale dripping with gallows humor and British wit. It’s the zany story of Oxford intelligentsia who devote themselves to the gastronomical pursuit of sampling exotic and exquisite cuisine. While academics consuming new foods may seem like a dry topic for a novel, as the name suggest, the plot quickly takes a macabre twist.

After Professor Plantagenet is diagnosed with a heart condition due to his years of decadence, he submits a bizarre request to the shadow faculty of gastronomic science–one that teaches them just how far they’re willing to go in the name of the perfect bite. Nothing goes smoothly as they have to deal with curing techniques, student rivalries and arrests for grave robbing. And since every boy’s club needs a Vernon Wormer, they must also contend with Vice-Chancellor Ridgeway whose greatest desire is to see them disbanded.

From walls lined with leather bound volumes, to the ghost who haunts the stone cellar, The Reluctant Cannibals has tons of atmosphere and style. There’s more than enough quirk and black humor on each page to insure no part was a drag. The footnotes peppered throughout were an amusing touch, and the history of cannibalism was more interesting than it should have been.

The Reluctant Cannibals is for anyone who enjoys their humor dark, and for the gourmands who will appreciate the references. Oh, and of course, for all those determined cannibals out there.

What I learned from reading The Reluctant Cannibals

- The Shingnon monks of Yamagata practiced self-mummification while still alive. The practice was called Sokushinbutsu--which was austerity to the point of their death and mummification. Their founder, Kuukai, believed enlightenment could be reached physical pain. It took 10 years for them to mummify themselves, and though many tried, only around 2 dozen successful mummies have been found.
To begin they consumed only nuts and seeds for 1,000 days while engaging in strenuous physical activity meant to strip them of all body fat.

For the next 1,000 days they ate only roots and tree bark and drank a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree which caused vomiting, severe dehydration and made their tissues poisonous to insects such as maggots.

The monk would then lock himself in a stone tomb sitting in the lotus position. Everyday he would ring a bell tied to string through a small opening to let those outside know he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the opening would be sealed.

After another 1,000 days the monks would open the tomb to see if the mummification had been successful. Japan has outlawed the practice and it is no longer practiced by any Buddhist sect.

- Johnathan Swift, of Gulliver's Travels fame, penned a satirical pamphlet in 1729 which encouraged cannibalism. Commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, he suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the rich. Meant to mock the heartlessness of people's attitudes toward the poor, he lists several ways a child could be cooked and makes detailed calculations of the economic benefits of such a practice.

-Kuru is an incurable degenerative neurological disease (similar to mad cow) which was endemic in the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea and spread through their ritual funeral practice of cannibalism. The Fore believed by eating the deceased they kept the persons life force within the community. Researchers in the 1960's were able to trace the outbreak of kuru to a single infected individual who lived on the outskirts of the village in 1900.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
MMFalcone | 3 altre recensioni | Sep 25, 2013 |

Potrebbero anche piacerti

Autori correlati

Britt Spencer Illustrator

Statistiche

Opere
3
Utenti
62
Popolarità
#271,094
Voto
½ 3.5
Recensioni
5
ISBN
7

Grafici & Tabelle