“The simplest way to identify with another being is still to eat it.” — Claude Lévi-Strauss

* Spoiler Free
Joy Sorman’s Tenderloin is a macabre piece of literature depicting a young butcher who’s cravings for meat cloud his every waking thought. Readers be warned: as you can imagine, there are countless detailed descriptions of chain massacres in slaughterhouses and killing and carving domesticated animals. However, Sorman denounces this and advocates for camaraderie with animals, with some sprinkling of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

My score: 3.5/5

Pim is an interesting protagonist. He is somewhat of a crybaby, but learns to be a butcher with obsessive precision. When Pim is not working in cold rooms or watching cows graze fields, he is taking his obsessions home—mapping out the flanks, ribs, and haunches of women who come home with him. To be a butcher, to Pim, is to be one of madness and ecstasy. Moving from character, I noticed some interweaving of concepts, such as masculinity, ethnicity, hunger, and the ethics of eating meat.

“Pim is off-center, a man who doesn’t play the leading role in his own play, who occupies the back seat in this existence that’s his all the same. Meat has the starring role.” — page 128

Overall, I found this novel to be above average and I recommend it for anyone who enjoyed reading Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

Thank you to LibraryThing for this advanced copy! ( )

I am someone who really struggles with novellas, and that trend continued for this one. I had high hopes because my French speaking peers and friends seemed to have really enjoyed this novella. However, being translated into English, I can't help but wonder what was lost. Great detail was given to the butchering of animals, but it was nothing severe. Pim was, to put it simply, weird. I kept thinking this would devolve into absolute depravity. There were instances where it could, but it never did. I read over a 100 pages of a man obsessed with butchery and making comparisons between humans and meat. It never went where it could have very easily gone. This could very easily be a point of praise. Sorman did an excellent job subverting the "could be killer" aspect. However, I think if Pim were to be a killer and draw on that comparison, reading this may have been more worth my time. Ultimately, this novella culminated with Pim hellbent on changing butchery in the most mundane way possible - attending talks and conferences. ( )

First of all, I love that Goodreads classifies Tenderloin as "Weird Fiction". I struggled to classify it in my own collection, but I eventually decided it falls under "Horror". The gruesome descriptions of meat and Pim's mindset toward the end are what ultimately did it for me. I spent much of this story debating if I am supposed to leave as a vegan or a cannibal and that alone made this novel fantastically horrific.
Tenderloin is a quick read that will take you on a journey of understanding not only the literal process of meat processing, but the spiritual side of it as well. Tenderloin gets you thinking not only about how humanity began eating meat, but how the process has changed over time and what that means. 
If you need something weird on your plate that you can't get out of your mind, and you don't mind visual descriptions of meat, this book is for you!
Thank you, LibraryThing, for a copy of Tenderloin! ( )

I thought that this was one of the most unique books that I've read so far. The translator did a fantastic job! A lot of the time, translated books don't seem to flow well, but it wasn't the case for this book. Overall, this book was an interesting story about a young man's obsession gone too far. It was hard to read at some points in the book, but I think that's what was intended. It's intended to be an uncomfortable book. I'd give it a 3.75/5 for a rating.

Is it a novel about a man's love for a trade, a piece on the language of meat, or a dissertation on an industry? Maybe some, maybe none.

This is one of those works where you're immediately wondering if the author is trying to convince you of something. If you were vegan this novel will keep you firmly vegan, assuming you make it through the dripping viscera of its bloody innards. If you're a carnivore I don't think this will nudge towards veganism or vegetarianism. Mostly I felt that this book tries to overload your senses to make a point and missing it altogether. Instead it accomplishes the same as adderall does for ADHD: it pushes you over the edge of caring and numbs you to the very effect it tries to create. This dissertation on butchery confuses litany for literature, characteristics for character and narration for narrative.

Do I like the language? Yes actually. Even with the constant summing up of things it still glides along nicely. It has that quality where you want to keep going, regardless of its content or subject matter. Quite an achievement if you consider what it's about and how it handles that about. I wish we learned more about Pim, the protagonist. Only at the very end does he make a story move that's interesting and adds depth, even though it feels tacked on.

Originally I was going to give this book 3 out of 5 stars but I have to admit to myself that I'm a negative and jaded bastard and should rate this book better than my gut feeling. I will probably read this again in a few years and I'm curious to see if I feel differently about it. ( )