After finishing The Glutton several days ago, I find myself still thinking of the main character often. If you google the subject first, you understand that the shocking sections of the book are necessary but what will remain with me is the deep connection and empathy I feel for this young man. The books stands out for me, because it was both very interesting and beautifully written.

The Glutton tells the story of Tarare, a peasant born during the French Revolution. A historical figure, Tarare had a prodigious appetite, which could not be sated. He was able to eat almost anything and became a showman.

As with A.K. Blakemore’s previous novel, The Manningtree Witches, The Glutton is concerned with those people who find themselves on the outskirts of society. Although this is set during the French revolutions with its cries of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité!” Tartare finds himself ostracized and mistreated.

Always on the outside, even within his own family, we follow Tarare on his journey from a wide-eyed naïf to a jaded 27-year-old. During this journey we see Tarare try to find community, love and understanding. He never manages.

Yet, despite his strangeness and despite being driven by his hunger, Blakemore managers to make Tarare a character that the reader empathizes with and understands.

It is this and Blakemore’s exquisite language that makes this both one that is worth reading and spending some time with.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

It is the end of the eighteenth century in France, and Tarare is hungry.

I really enjoyed this bizarre and at times disgusting (affectionate) novel about Tarare, the famous glutton who lived during Revolutionary France. I liked Blakemore’s take on Tarare—it is, of course, entirely fictional—and I really enjoyed her writing style for this story. The novel covers the entirety of his life, from his birth to his childhood to the years he spent wandering around France, and then ultimately the end of his life. The prose was beautiful and did a good job at portraying the genuinely grotesque, disgusting, and horrifying things that happen. At times I think the descriptions were so beautiful that it was easy to get a little lost in the narrative itself, but I found it to be overall compelling and interesting.

I think Blakemore did a good job painting Tarare as a sympathetic character, though I personally didn’t feel that much for him. I don’t think this was because of Blakemore’s skill, I’m just not particularly drawn to characters like this interpretation of Tarare. I’m impressed at the balance that Blakemore achieved between treating him with such care and also writing him so grotesquely!

The ending line for this one was really excellent, to me, and I found this book to be an absolute treat in terms of overall writing quality.

I enjoyed The Manningtree Witches and was very much looking forward to this title. Unfortunately, early-on I hit the description of animals being eaten alive, and I had to put it aside. I'm just not good with novels that use violence toward animals as a plot device—even in passing. I will continue looking for more of Blakemore's work in the future.

Thank you for approving me for this title. I'm marking it as three-stars, which seems like an appropriate compromise. I'm not planning to post this review on GoodReads, since I don't think it will help sales, but if you would like me to do so, just let me know.

The Glutton was a super interesting- bizarre, gross, but also heart-breaking at times. The author really brought Terare to life and presented him as a complex character.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was good and well-written. Beautiful prose, truly. I loved the grotesque and horrifying aspect of the story. An interesting read for the fall season.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of The Glutton. This was such a grotesque, beautiful, tragic read. I loved everything about it, especially the prose which was a treat for the eyes. I adore unique stories like this, which can only be found and done well rarely. 5 stars, unforgettable.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

I couldn't get into this story, this book was not for me.

2☆

An interesting read that I couldn't put down. It's a unique story at its heart, written with the authors brilliant prose.

3.5 stars. First: my story. A few weeks ago, I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole (you know the one) and ended up reading about this fascinating Frenchman with a bizarre medical case — he could eat ANYTHING, literally anything, in massive, inhuman quantities and yet he remained ravenous and rail-thin. His name was Tarare, and I was absolutely delighted to later realize that one of the ARCs in my library was about him in particular.

So that's pretty much the set up for the story, telling the tale of this man's life from childhood until his early death at age twenty-seven. Where did this hunger come from? And can it be cured? Tartare relays his story to a curious and sympathetic nun, who listens with that same kind of horrific fascination that probably led me down that Wikipedia hole in the first place.

The writing in this book is well-paced and I found myself engaged throughout. Tartare himself is definitely a sympathetic character, though I didn't feel a strong emotional connection to him, which I prefer to exist in my historical fiction. The most startling thing about this book is the story itself — by all accounts, Tarare was a real person in the 18th century with a real, insatiable hunger. His exploits are pretty outrageous and a little sickening to read about in that "this really happened" context, especially one of his later acts, which left me cold and evaporated much of my sympathy.

I definitely recommend this one if you want to read more about Tarare, or just have a fascination with history and all its gruesome characters! Thank you to A.K. Blakemore, Scribner, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

The Glutton was a trip! It was poetic, horrifying and at times heartbreaking. The kind of writing, story telling that will stay with me. I don’t believe I’ve read anything like it before. The novel pulled me in and I hoped to find meaning to why Tarare ended up here. The entire thing was difficult, like a freak show I had to see.
I also listened to the audiobook and it was narrated by Philippe Spall who did an excellent job.
The novel is fitting for a Halloween release.
Quote:
“I am lost on a sea of hunger, blue and black and heaving and full five fathoms deep below and rarely, rarely do I feel anything besides hungry, rarely, rarely does a jolt of feeling or emotion pierce the hide of my hunger, and never, never have I been able to live the life God presumably gave me to live….” -this book
Thanks Scribner and Bolinda Audio via NetGalley.

A historical fiction, written during the French Revolution, gives a colorful account to the life of Tarare - The Glutton of Lyon. A bastard son of a prostitute, Tarare's life begins and ends in suffering, but was he born a monster - or made? Often used by those around him, Tarare becomes an enigmatic figure who suffers at the hands of others while also suffering from his insatiable hunger. While his character seems to be doomed to live a life of struggle and despair, we find that Blakemore has given Tarare more humanlike qualities that we find ourselves feeling empathetic towards the beast of history.

Written in a poetic style, I felt that I was reading a Grimm style fairytale. An enjoyable read!
Not a story for someone with a weak stomach.

In a word: marvelous. I forget which list of “most anticipated” new releases I saw this on, but the premise reeled me in instantly and sent to NetGalley in search of an ARC. (Thank you, Scribner.) It is a story, set in Revolutionary France, of The Great Tarare, the Glutton of Lyon, half-myth, half-real person whose all-consuming, ever-present hunger drove him to eat almost anything—objects, animals. People?

Pretty grabby stuff, right?

At first, some resistance set in: it seemed too easy to like a plot like this, filled as it is with violence and lurid descriptions of bodies and their existence in the world. I wondered, not oblivious to the pun, whether what I was reading—consuming—was in good taste. Before I knew it, though, I was highlighting sentences and entire passages, taking notes, and debating myself in the comments. In the end, the writing, the vivid, fiercely poetic prose—finding room for beauty and filth, literalism and abstraction—swept all doubt away. There is simply no mistaking the undeniable gall of originality in display here. (One symptom: I did not bother to name-check any influences as I was reading.)

But meanings are handled as carefully as words. Hunger, which is everywhere in this book, can make for such an easy, all-purpose metaphor as to mean little and explain less. What does it mean to say that someone “hungered for love (God, purpose),” for example? Instead, in her emphasis on an exacting physicality, Blakemore de-metaphorizes hunger and re-humanizes Tarare: maybe he does not stand for the trodden-on Third Estate or for anything or anyone else. This does not remove the historical context, with all its depravity and violence; on the contrary, it fills that context with the kind of reality that lazy metamorphizing takes away.

What this book left me with is exactly the kind of unease that I look for in literature—an unease that arises from a sense that a single text gives rise to multiple meanings, without appearing to treat any of them as privileged; a sense that I am not sure which of these meanings to choose and that, as a result, each must be examined and wrestled with.

Hunger is all-encompassing in this brilliant historical fiction by A.K. Blakemore. Born to an unwed mother in 1776 France, Tarare grew up longing for, but never receiving, love and belonging. Tarare’s unmet needs turn into a bottomless yearning that he desperately tries to fill by eating anything and everything, from rocks to animal corpses. An object of gossip and revulsion, The Glutton of Lyon was a real historical figure, and the author does a wonderful job of bringing the person behind the grotesque side show to life.

Ughhhh. I wanted to like this much more than I did. It had elements that called to me; it was absolutely bizarre, disgusting, gruesome, but with a fantastical and whimsical touch...sometimes even quite humorous.

However, I just could not get in to it! I don't know if it's because of a personal issue I'm dealing with at the moment or what, but I didn't feel hooked. Although I love learning new vocabulary in books, I felt as if I was looking up words constantly (which I recognize to totally be a personal thing).

The Manningtree Witches by the same aithor was one of the few books I've ever DNF'd. I was able to get through this one based on the absolutely insane premise and fabulous writing--I will definitely remember this but it was not my favorite.

This book was such a surprising read! It is one of my favorite books that I have read this year. Terare is a character that broke my heart. This book made me feel the same way I felt when I read Frankenstein for the first time. It was horrific joy to read.

I REALLY enjoyed this ARC of The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore.

I didn’t realize this was historical fiction until after finishing the book, but the Great Tarare DID exist and Blakemore has done a fantastic job telling this story set in Revolutionary France.

The writing is beautiful and descriptive - sometimes a little drawn out but worth it. My only other (minor) complaint is the lack of quotation marks, but that’s a personal reading preference of mine.

The Glutton will be published October 31st and I recommend grabbing a copy!

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner!

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!

The Glutton follows Tarare, a young peasant boy and son of a prostitute. After leaving home (not so willingly), he becomes a freak show act to a charismatic man (pimp?), then French soldier and spy. Flipping back and forth from present and past, we watch Tarare grow, suffer, and succumb to his insatiable hunger. The Glutton stretches the myth into an incredibly empathetic, explorative, and touching narrative. Tarare transforms from a small, naive boy to a somewhat pessimistic and knowledgeable man.

Immediately into reading, this reminded me of Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh! If you liked that, you might enjoy this too. This is ultimately more lyrical and with a more philosophical, humorous plot. It is well researched. The history, landscape, and language is very detailed. It’s SO well researched that some of it definitely went over my head—you need a dictionary on hand for this. This is pretty fast paced in general but looking up vocab/translations slowed the reading down quite a bit for me.

Characters come and go, and I cared for each of them in the same way (even when I totally hated them). I loved that Tarare was queer/questioning. I loved his epiphany on love nearing the end of the book. I loved Tarare’s curiosity and unique insights and somewhat socially awkward quirks. In the end, I just wished he had more joy. But I can’t imagine joy was much of a reality for him.

The Glutton is obviously a bit gross (I mean, c’mon he eats a kid), but it was not unbearable or unnecessary in its detail. And it’s obvious that, most of the time, the grossness is thrusted upon him for the entertainment of other characters. But if the sheer idea of live animals being eaten is a hard no, this is not the one for you.

The most impressive thing about The Glutton is the writing. It’s accessible but so poetic. I’m left with a handful of the most profound and beautiful quotes, but I’ll share my favorite:

“I am lost on a sea of hunger, blue and black and heaving and full five fathoms deep below and rarely, rarely do I feel anything besides hungry, rarely, rarely does a jolt of feeling or emotion pierce the hide of my hunger, and never, never have I been able to live the life God presumably gave me to live, to dance and think and remember and kiss, no, all my life I have stood at the threshold of my life waiting to be let in”, which unironically describes how I’ve always felt as an obese woman, as a binge eater. I weirdly resonated with the outlandish descriptions of hunger. But besides this, I think this really shows Blakemore is a poet at heart. I didn’t know they actually WERE a poet (as in, has multiple poetry collections out!) until I was finished. This has me so excited to read the rest of their stuff.

The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore is a story about a Frenchman who had a miserable life during the time of the French Revolution. Many poor people had hard lives, but Tarare’s was misery ridden. His mother was a one time prostitute who hitched up to a salt smuggler name Nollet. He had no great love for Tarare, who was a goofy kid. Nollet was a serious man and when Tarare reached adolescence, Nollet wanted him to go to the city to make his name and make is own way in the world.

Without giving too much plot away, Tarare was not very good at providing for himself. He developed an incredible, insatiable appetite and found himself eating anything and everything, even non-food items just to fill the void in his belly. He became famous for being able to eat dead rats, offal of all sorts, other nasty things, and licking the dish when the “food” was gone. He became famous for this incredible appetite, but Blakemore shows that he was seriously uncomfortable.

The Glutton is an uncomfortable story. It follows a young man set out at too young an age who could not be responsible for himself. In the background of the story is the French Revolution, which adds to the drama. Blakemore has a very readable style, almost poetic while describing things that are not for the squeamish. Her writing takes the reader to a time and place where difficult things happened to people all the time. Her narration is put forth in such a way as to be able to put ourselves there.

This is a fictionalized tale of the infamous Tarare, The Glutton, a tortured young man who lived in France around the time of the French Revolution. The story opens at the end of his life where he is comforted by laudanum chained to a hospital bed. Over the course of the night, his short life (he’s in his twenties) is revealed via confessions, of sorts, to the nun who watches over him while the doctor is summoned. These “flashbacks” recount his birth to an impoverished, unskilled, single mother – thus the humble beginnings of shame and ridicule sets the blueprint for the next two decades. Sadly, Tarare is described as weak-minded, people-pleasing, and overly trusting, so when he leaves home on the cusp of adulthood, the reader is not surprised when he is easily manipulated into becoming a sideshow headliner for a roving band of charlatans and thieves. His unnatural ability to unhinge and extend his jaw allows for him to ingest both organic and inorganic objects and digest most with little discomfort. He is exploited for the amusement of the masses and financial gain:

“In this time Tarare swallows rusty nails and dry bones and rotten cabbage and dead things and things living,
squirming, frightened. Trotters and snouts, sod and corks, snakes and rats, mice white and brown and
throbbing in mute terror as they are dangled by their tails above the mouth, scrabbling their tiny person-like
hands uselessly. And Tarare sees that the crowd that gathers wherever they go indulges this theatre of
horror with screams and shouts and wild widened eyes. Tarare sees that what he gives them is a kind of
pleasure, and that the more appalling the thing he does, the more pleasure he brings them.”

It is not only the hustlers who use him to their benefit; he is also used and abused by the military and medical “professionals.” Tarare’s self-described appetite is more like an insatiable hunger. To the modern reader, he obviously has a mental syndrome and/or physical abnormality that drives him to despicable acts leading to gross ingestion of the unimaginable (in equally unbelievable quantities) without gaining any weight. Sadly he was born centuries too soon to receive the proper care needed to diagnose and treat his condition.

The author writes beautifully and stays true to the tones, phrasing, and language of the era; great historical fiction is woven into the pages. The religious, national and provincial political, and social views are reflected in the encounters Tarare has with the common folk (peasants), religious leaders (priests/nuns), military (soldiers), and edicts from the ruling class (aristocracy).

Trigger warnings are for animal cruelty, lewd/gross and inhumane acts, graphic violence.

Thanks to the publisher, Granta Books, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.