I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price – £8.99 paperback £6.99 Kindle eBook

In the quaint religious town of Seagate, abstaining from food brings one closer to God.

But Beatrice Bolano is hungry. She craves the forbidden: butter, flambé, marzipan. As Seagate takes increasingly extreme measures to regulate every calorie its citizens consume, Beatrice must make a choice: give up her secret passion for cooking or leave the only community she has known.

Elsewhere, Reiko Rimando has left her modest roots for a college tech scholarship in the big city. A flawless student, she is set up for success . . . until her school pulls her funding, leaving her to face either a mountain of debt or a humiliating return home. But Reiko is done being at the mercy of the system. She forges a third path―outside of the law.

With the guidance of a mysterious cookbook written by a kitchen maid centuries ago, Beatrice and Reiko each grasp for a life of freedom―something more easily imagined than achieved in a world dominated by catastrophic corporate greed.

A startling fable of the entwined perils of capitalism, body politics, and the stigmas women face for appetites of every kind, Chana Porter’s profound new novel explores the reclamation of pleasure as a revolutionary act.

The concepts of food and sex are often intertwined in our society. They’re human desires that in theory are just us following our species biological imperatives but they’re at a societal level a lot more than that. They’re how we express or supress ourselves. They’re important to all sorts of elements to our lives from relationships, religions to health. These days food tends to be the more openly discussed one but, in many ways, the vast array of eating disorders and views on what a healthy eater is raises many issues that we tend to ignore - it’s not for discussion in public. In Chana Porter’s unusual novel, The Thick and The Lean we explore a world where food is the less permissible subject and what that would do to a society and what it tells us about our own.

Seagate is a lovely peaceful town that many wish to join. But here is a price following the way of the Church and trying as hard as possible to abstain from food. Eating is something done simply for survival. Only close family will witness someone eating food. Beatrice though throughout her life is always feeling the call towards exploring food in all its tastes and flavours and that risks social rejection. Reiko is a talented artist filled with bright ideas she follows a path towards university mixing with the majority population of the town and despite being a part of an immigrant society she thinks she has a chance to succeed but the world tends to change the rules when it suits it.

This is a slightly frustrating tale of two great ideas that ultimately that I don’t think gelled as well as I wanted them to. The plot of Beatrice is fascinating, and Porter creates a world that is extremely happy with sex – from Churches that encourage teenagers to explore and no issues with queer relationships, television and even reality show being very happy to explore and rate sexual performance and casual encounters but if someone was to have a huge feast they’ll be reviewed with disgust. It’s a fascinating inversion of our world and moves into a look at how strange that society can say x is permissible why z is not. It also raises issues of body shaming – Beatrice’s society is very much against anyone showing themselves to be anything other than thin. When Beatrice escapes her society and finds life as a chef that she finds herself for the first time in control of herself from her looks, her profession and her relationships.

With Reiko we also have an interesting plot of someone from an immigrant population trying to fit within the mainstream and finds it a challenge. Prejudice on her looks, her culture and the casual attitude of the system to change the rules to trap her into debt all mean Reiko finds her choices are narrowing and crime may be the only option. They’re both fascinating stories but I didn’t feel they gelled that well. They’re both exploring the injustices of societies that are applicable to our own but the overall plot while makes sense I felt more contrived than really propelled the story. This may have worked better as two separate stories in parallel.

The Thick and The Lean is a really enjoyable and challenging read that explores our desires and also our shame over giving into our desires. Are those valid or just us being controlled by bigger societies. It is fascinating but perhaps also a little frustrating that it feels to not quite land the punch it is aiming for. Worth a look!