Sacred Hunger (Norton Paperback Fiction)

Rating:
Summary: A Slaveship Could Be a Happy Ship
Review: I can but echo the comments others have made about how utterly magnificent "Sacred Hunger" is. I recommend it without hesitation. Rich with detail and sharply drawn, it makes an impression not quickly forgotten. Ostensibly the story of a slave ship joining the British merchant fleet in the 1750s, Unsworth manages to capture the spirit of the times, though I am not sure if it is ultimately those times or our times.

The primary dramatic tension in the narrative arises from Unsworth's portrait of two cousins. On the one hand, Matthew Paris is a sort of poor cousin who was imprisoned for questioning Anglican dogma. In despair and somewhat resigned to humiliation, he agrees to serve as the physician on the slave ship. While he seeks only to degrade himself, he cannot escape degrading others. Erasmus Kemp, the owner's son, is a type still very much with us. The reader loathes him, and all like him, as he understands no morality but money and the pursuit of profit, the "sacred hunger" referred to in the title. Although inexorably juxtaposed, the cousins sprang from the same soil, from the same genes, and are related in ways impossible to sever. This tension remains familiar in our cultural impasse. Like it or not, we are all a part of the system that produced the slave ships in the first place. We are all products of capitalism, less important than the wealth of nations, and all of us benefit, in ways large or small, from the exploitation of faceless people who live far away in presumed darkness.

The image of America itself in the novel reinforces this ambivalence, and yet provides the only hope. As the British colonized America, from Maine to Florida, slavery was an accepted and acceptable part of the economic system. No loud voices protested; only soft voices, far out of the mainstream, might have dared to complain. Yet, after the slaves and this crew in this novel overthrow the captain, while he is in the process of committing mass murder in the name of cutting losses, they find their way to Florida and establish a commune of sorts. The latter part of the novel portrays the settlement after twelve years, when tensions began to arise, again, between those who promulgate the theories of equality and those who seek gain at others' expense. America was their only hope, their only safe port, and ultimately is the hope of all of us. In spite of the forces of wealth and power arrayed against us, in spite of steps backward during reactionary periods, things are possible here that can only be dreamed elsewhere.

Rich and disturbing, beautiful and horrible, "Sacred Hunger" accomplishes more in one volume than many writers can accomplish in a career. It draws us back from visions of utopia while it makes us hope for something better. As the captain said earnestly enough, "If they would make the best of their condition, a slaveship could be a happy ship." Here is a toast to all who refuse to accept their conditions, whether as a slave in the 1750s or a corporate employee these days. Read this book and think, if you dare.

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous exploration of power and desire
Review: I read this novel on the advice of my sister, who is a doctoral student in Comparative Ethics. The expansive, intriguing story kept my attention through this thick volume, but the author's exquisite understanding of human desire and the exercise of power make the book a must-read. It has lead to wonderful conversations between my sister and I, which is, to me, the hallmark of a great book.

Unsworth chooses a fitting topic for his exploration, slavery, which could easily become too obvious if handled less deftly. The tremendous suffering caused by the slave trade is a constant backdrop, but its daily harvest of minor (and not so minor) humiliations on its participants is the real story here. Unsworth uses exacting detail to reveal how this perpetual pressure makes both the slavers and slaves engines of their own misery.

Don't be frightened off by this seemingly dark subject matter, though. The book is enlightening, warmly written and engrossing. You could find few better ways to spend your time than this wonderful read.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Make no mistake about it, reading Sacred Hunger is a significant undertaking -- both in terms of the impact this complex and epic story will have on you and because of the time and concentration it will take to navigate the book's more than 600 pages. That significance is something to savor.

I will avoid the cliché of saying that the story "has it all," but Sacred Hunger does come close to that. There's the adventure of a band of men moving between three continents and pushed until they snapped and yet optimistically deciding to create what they saw as a kind of utopia, there is an examination of the cruelty that humans are capable of inflicting on each other, the story includes an accurate lesson in a period of history and its economics and geography, a touching love story, a metaphor for modern times.

Curiously, the pages also include the story of a small brass button. I still haven't decided what the button represents, but I did note that it is the only thing in the story that manages to survive all the kinds of hell the length of the story includes, changing hands at least six times between the beginning of the book and its final pages and yet it ends up no worse off.

The title of this volume refers to its grandest theme, the desire that drives men to extreme action. It is in this aspect that the book shines brightest, as the term is defined differently but compellingly for each of the main characters, especially the two main characters, cousins Erasmus Kemp and Matthew Paris.

There is a sacred hunger in almost all of the less central characters as well, in Michael Sullivan (the fiddle player who longed to be treated like a man ... and only person to own the brass button twice), in Billy Blair (who was robbed of his money and who ended up a judge), in Saul Thurso (the captain who never failed his owners), even in many of the slaves and the other seamen forced into service, and in the soldiers camped in Florida and Africa. Therein lies one of the potential stumbling blocks for readers of Sacred Hunger: it includes a great many characters and to really understand the book it is imperative to remember who came from where and which character has a problem with or a debt to whom. Most of the crew is introduced starting with chapter 12, and I found myself referring back to that part of the book often to remember the particulars of certain figures. Later, it is also important to remember the characteristics of different African tribes involved in the story.

There are few female characters in the book, and those who do appear can seem unconvincing compared to the complex representations of many of the men. Similarly, I found myself wishing I knew much more about the artist and philosopher Delblanc, who comes into the story late but who plays an absolutely key role. If I have a criticism of the book it is the way Delblanc is developed.

But I use the conditional on that point because I am not sure if I do indeed have a criticism of the book. It is easy to seek out minor discrepancies or personal critiques in a volume of this size and scope, but the fact remains that sacred Hunger is a breathtaking story, the best I've read in some time.

Rating:
Summary: A true moral masterpiece
Review: Sacred Hunger is a powerful book set during the years 1752-1765. The story revolves around the merchant familly Kemp that enters into the slave trade - allowing passage on the slaver "The Liverpool Merchant" to the cousin Mathew Paris, a doctor recently released from prison. Unsworths book explores the slave trade, highlighting the rationale, in painful detail - and paints a sordid picture of the merchant mind of the time. "The Sacred Hunger" is allowed to emcompass everything, even human life.

For anyone interested in history in general, and Africa in particular "The Sacred Hunger" is an essential but painful read. It leaves you touched, deeply, on behalf of the millions of life lost to the inhuman trade.

Rating:
Summary: perfect
Review: This epic of the eighteenth century British Slave Trade works at two levels. The first is as a straight and exciting narrative of the different stances to it of the two main characters, one who profits from it, and is at last morally enslaved by it himself while the other recognises its evil and attempts his own ultimately futile protest against it. At the second level the novel serves as a meditation on the nature of greed - the "Sacred Hunger" of the title, and the extent to which it can become a justification for any excess. Mr.Unsworth's genius in this book is however that the does not adapt a simplistic moralising tone but writes with understanding of the society that produced this abuse, and shows how potentially decent people could be drawn, unthinkingly, into the position of profiteers and exploiters. One does not get a sense here of modern perceptions and values being projected back on to an earlier age - the weakness which destroys so much serious fiction set in the past - and the characters' behaviour and attitudes, whether sympathetic to the Slave Trade or not , are consistent with those of eighteenth century British society. Like other novels of Unsworth's, this work has many echoes of Conrad, in its depiction of the depths to which humanity can so quickly plunge once the restraints of law and custom are relaxed. Though gripping from the first page it is disturbing work and the vividness of its plot and imagery will not quickly leave the reader. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: One of those books you finish and say WOW
Review: This is an original and fascinating book. The writing is outstanding and the book explores important themes: greed, evil, corruption, justice and man's inhumanity to man.

When Wm. Kemp loses money in his cotton shipping, he decides to go for the big money and enter the slave trade. He sends his nephew, Matthew, along as ship's doctor. Disgusted by the horror on ship, he leads a revolt and an attempt by the seaman and slaves to form a utopia -- but his idealism is disappointed by the realization that suffering doesn't teach compassion, so much as it teaches how to inflict suffering on others.

This is a marvelous exploration of greed-the sacred hunger- and how it affects people and society.

Rating:
Summary: The Hunger That Never Dies
Review: This is one of the most painful books I have ever read, and my action of mailing copies to my closest friends is both an action of great friendship and great sadism. This story of the slave-trade and a new society formed after one slave-ship escapes -- through sickness, mutiny, opportunity -- pains as much as it pleases. Characters we live with and love are hunted down by characters who see them only as animals. We see both societies that can come about, only to face the fact that they will not be permitted to exist -- will be hunted mercilessly.

And from the very beginning of the book, we know that events will come to a very bad end, that a paradise found will be recalled only by a pathetic old man (who we later know in his youth) whose strange stories tell us, before the book unfolds, that paradise will be lost -- *is* lost before it is even found. As for the irony of the title, *Sacred Hunger* seems to be the insatiable imperialistic drive towards hierarchy according to skin color, slavery, world expansion. It is small consolation that their seems no curbing of that voracious hunger.

I find that once I send this book to a friend, I follow up to make sure it's been read. Like Coleridge's wedding guest, I need to impart this story. I lurk near the wedding guests, ready to leap out with the tale.

It reached my soul, and may yours.

Rating:
Summary: An epic work. A great work. Devastating and beautiful.
Review: Unsworth! You have given us a truly marvelous epic--one which crisscrosses the Atlantic, from women who sip sweet tea in England, to the slave trade in Africa and the Carribean, where their sugar cane is made. There is a battle for the soul of the West--a gut-wrenching search for decency and humanity, pitted against the cruelest kind of marketplace.

Naked power made manifest in patriarchy and White supremacy scour the novel, seeking out any who dare to challenge it; a 'free market' destroying and enslaving those who confront it.
I dream that this will be a epic mini-series one day. In any case, it is a tale for the ages--a story of rich characters and moving human struggles. Truly this is a mighty and masterful work of art.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book, but not the Norton version !
Review: What MORON at Norton decided that they should give away the whole plot on the book's back side ?! As if it wasn't enough to give away the beginning, the middle and the end of the story on the book's back side, they have made certain to take away any thrill the reader might get by giving away the outcome of the story also on the front page. What was wrong with the first edition ? The front page illustration was also a lot better on the first edition. Luckily I had already read this book, I just ordered it for a friend, thus I could warn him about the idiot cover. When it comes to the content of the book, it's brilliant, -to a degree where you end up ordering it from Amazon if you can't find your old copy, in order to lend it to someone who has just praised "Master and Commander".

Rating:
Summary: modern themes
Review: What reviewers seem to miss about this ambitious and well-crafted epic is that the themes have a strong pertinence to modern times. The move to globalization by American companies is so much like the colonialism that this book explores. The slave trade was so much an extreme yet logical extension of the "god -given" colonial outlook of the era them. Now we have sweatshops. Picture the similarities of our comfortable suburban lives with the gentrified English life shown in the novel. Contrast that with Third World factories making our designer goods and seduced by our ads for expensive clothes and sugary sodas. Like the colored cotton, baubles and alcohol in the novel. Nike, Coke etc, etc. Feels like the the same colonial attitudes and the same Sacred Hunger at work. Interesting, hmmmm. I'm not a fan of historical novels in general, but this is as much about the human spirit that is part of us today as it is about a harrowing historical period. I don't see it so much a story about "them." but more of a powerful story about "us." Do you think I'm nuts?