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    As Meat Loves Salt
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    As Meat Loves Salt
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    As Meat Loves Salt
    Ebook738 pages12 hours

    As Meat Loves Salt

    By Maria McCann

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A sensational tale of obsession and murder from a wonderful writer. ‘An outstanding novel, fresh and unusual [with] all the dirt, stink, rasp and flavour of the time.’ Daily Telegraph

    ‘Early in the English Civil War, a body is dredged from the pond of a Royalist estate. “As Meat Loves Salt” is the testament of Jacob Cullen – homicide and fugitive. Obsessed with the graceful Christopher Ferris, he follows him to become a London printer, a Digger and, finally, an emigrant to the New World…An electrifying erotic thriller, rich in secrets and surprises.’ Independent

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateApr 28, 2011
    ISBN9780007394449
    Unavailable
    As Meat Loves Salt

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    Reviews for As Meat Loves Salt

    4/5

    300 ratings22 reviews

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    • 5/5
      1645 and Jacob Cullen along with his two brothers is in service, but on the day of his betrothal to another servant he has to make a hasty escape as he is pursued for a recent indiscretion. Fleeing with his new wife and one of his brothers he however soon finds himself on his own, and then enlisted in Cromwell's New Model Army. There another young soldier, Ferris, takes him under his wing. Following a successful battle Ferris and Jacob desert and make their way to London and Ferris' home where Ferris persuades Jacob to join him in his scheme to set up a commune. All looked set to work out well for them but that the two men became more than good friends and engaged in a passionate love affair that just might be the undoing of them, that and one or two other potential problems.Be sure, this is no M/M romance, but a well researched historically based novel centred around two very different men. The slight young Ferris is portrayed as the epitome of goodness, mild, gentle, caring and just (yet he is not perfect). By contrast Jacob is large, strong and well built, and with an impulsive temper to go with it; he is also jealous, selfish and a little cynical, all of which he will admit to, for it is he who candidly narrates the account. One is both drawn to and at times infuriated by these two men, and here MaCann has excelled in drawing the pair, along with the many other characters, that we stick with them despite their flaws and care what becomes of them; the dramatic finale is all the more powerful and moving for it.As Meat Loves Salt is very well written and constructed, it is a engrossing and ultimately heart-breaking story. Maria MaCann must surely join the ranks of they select few women writers who can write convincingly about men who love men.
    • 5/5
      This book is stunning. Probably the best that I've read all year. I loved it so much that I read it as slowly as I could, dragging the pleasure and pain over several days, because I knew that if I read it all at once, it would make me sick like eating too much candy. Not that As Meat Loves Salt is candy-like in any way. Far from it; this book is violent, gritty, erotic, and harrowing. It hits you until you have trouble breathing, and when I finished it, I would have cried if I hadn't felt so sapped of energy.As Meat Loves Salt takes places during England's civil war. It is the story of Jacob Cullen, a violent and jealous man who cannot seem to control his baser nature. After leaving the manor where he works as a servant, Jacob is drafted into Cromwell's New Model Army and meets Ferris, a fellow soldier. They develop a bond and abandon the army together for London, where Ferris plies his idealism by distributing political pamphlets, and Jacob becomes his lover.This book is part historical drama, part psychological portrait, but at its heart, it is a love story between two flawed men. Jacob is severely troubled to the point where if you met him on the street, you'd probably call him a psycho. But he's a compelling character and aware of his own flaws, especially when they lead to his downfall. There are passages of incredible beauty and eroticism when Jacob and Ferris are together, but they only make the ending harder to bear. Yet the ending is what pushes As Meat Loves Salt to greatness. It's the only plausible ending in a story about love, obsession, and the violence of human experience, but oh did it hurt. I knew it was coming, but it ran me over anyway.
    • 4/5
      I was going to give this a long review but like... I just can't care anymore.

      Good if you're looking for a very well written, beautifully constructed, minutely researched bury your gays. Yeah, I'm miffed. Fuck this book. It had everything going for it to be my favorite book of the year, and having a completely unnecessary and shoddy relationship split after spending 500 pages with a couple is............ disappointing.

      Gay lit deserves better. Still a fucking amazing book, but we deserve better.
    • 3/5
      I'm not sure where I should start with reviewing this. There was nothing wrong with the writing, it wasn't as sentimentally romantic as I feared it would be but having finished it the book just leaves me completely cold. I'm not sure I want to know what goes through an author's mind when they conjure up such a selfish, narcissistic, psychopath as the main character. I won't say I hated the novel entirely as some historical aspects were interesting, and I did eventually finish it. Gushing romance is not my cup of tea either and I'm glad it didn't turn out to be that but I also didn't expect it to be so utterly dismal, especially towards the end. Anyway I've read it now and I won't be picking it up again.
    • 4/5
      More notes than a review. I'm still processing it.

      Really well-crafted. Dark like Faulkner. Jacob is a train-wreck and a fairly satisfying anti-hero, albeit deeply fucked up and deeply crazy. Ferris is also fucked up, and not in ways that compliment Jacob's crazy. It's clear from the allegory in the preface that things are going to end badly, although I admit I hoped for a happy ending.

      Turning the Jewish folktale about a father and daughter's screwed up relationship into a doomed romance between two men in 17th century England is...surprising, and it works pretty well. Power dynamics and violation and class warfare and hypocrisy and (most of all) love, in variously demented forms, weave throughout the story.

      Also, it's a single-narrator novel, so the POV is skewed to Jacob's prejudices and we only see what he deigns to notice. Mostly what he notices is Ferris, especially as his crazy progresses.

      Flaws: I don't know why Jacob survives (no really, how is he not dead of drink, poison, violence, plague, or suicide by the end? he is a danger to everybody! I don't often want to kill a main character on finishing a book, and yet). Zeb's story is underplayed, which is hell from a single narrator, but I wanted more of what happened to him.

      This book feels like Faulkner doing Southern Gothic about crazy people except in early colonial England. It gets points for ambition.

      Warning for violence, sexual violence, war, assault, and more violence along with all the usual misogyny, racism, feudal class-ism, and religious fanaticism of the period. Again, dark like Faulkner -- except here the forbidden relationship is male/male and cross-class rather than mixed race or incest.
    • 5/5
      Protagonist with an unfortunate name does some bad things and doesn't get what's coming to him in a just, karmic comeuppance. I loved every minute of it.
    • 5/5
      No words - incredible. phenomenal. unreal. Quite possibly my favorite book of all time.
    • 4/5
      This was supposed to be a guilty pleasure, and at times it was. At times I found myself overjoyed at the events unfolding and couldn't stop reading. At other times, though—in fact, throughout most of the book now that I think about it—I found myself horrified, wondering why things had to be happening this way and slamming the book closed. And yet McCann's writing drew me back into the muck and kept me irrationally hoping that everything would turn out beautifully. The book did end beautifully, but not in the Jane Austin double wedding sort of way, rather with a terrible beauty that underlies the whole novel and leaves you (or left me, at least) broken and sobbing. A guilty pleasure indeed.
    • 5/5
      My lord but Jacob Cullen is a disturbed and dangerous soul! - Something you should know before reading this book because he draws you into his world and makes you love him, hate him, weep for him by turns as he destroys everything he loves and - for what?The lovers are two halves of a coin, light and dark, one as honest and easy to read as the other is secretive and Machiavellian – or are they? Because there’s a cruel twist that had me aching and an end that made me cry half the night (and that doesn’t happen very often, believe me).Dark, cruel, all too believable, terribly real (in a literal sense) and highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      From the very first sentence you're immediately drawn into the world of Jacob Cullen, a darkly charismatic former servant turned soldier whose sincere cravings for love and understanding are too often marred by his jealous and suspicious nature which creates a mystery, as the reader, you discover in well-timed increments.After seeming to escape a troubled past, he falls in love with a fellow warrior, who passionately accepts and teaches him of the love between men, yet their own obsessive behavior threatens to destory everything they hoped to build.Although written in first person, which so many people tend to be biased against because it has been lamentably done so many times, this author does it well. So well in fact, you forget your self and literally are drawn into the emotional conundrum which is Jacob. At times you can hate his viciousness but somehow you never lose empathy for his struggle to find out who he really is, and what he really wants.For myself, I love history, I love food and I love good descriptions and an in-depth yet not overly heavy tone. Maria strikes the perfect balance with her extensive knowledge of the customs and lifestyles of the people in that era of England. Yet not only that, but the dynamics of politics and societal class are conveyed to her readers without being boring or academic.This novel is proof positive a woman can very well write not only a good book involving gay or bisexual male characters, but do an outstanding job of capturing and revealing some of the unique dynamics such relationships have, plus heart pounding sensual scenes which are seared into your imagination long after you’ve turned the last page. The power struggles, the twists of love and hate which reflects one’s own personal doubts and biases: this novel has everything.Originally posted on my review site Flying With Red Haircrow.
    • 3/5
      Agree with the previous review. I did not find the book compelling, or the characters engrossing. I didn't feel sympathy for them, and really not much happened in the book, when looked at from the end. I did however appreciate the period details, and have had a bit of a read about the siege at Basinghouse.
    • 3/5
      Written with an excellent understanding of the English Civil War period, this novel charts and experiences of two soldiers in Cromwell's New Model Army, both at war and after they desert and set up a Diggers encampment. The two have an affair and this book is as much about their relationship as it is the history events. Ultimately, though well written the story failed to command my interest: I had little sympathy for either of the main characters (one a rapist and the other self-obsessed) and in truth, not a great deal happens for much of book.
    • 4/5
      An original tale of a man during the 17th Century English Civil War. Jacob Cullen starts out as a servant to a family loyal to King Charles, but after Jacob commits murder, marries, runs away, he joins the New Model Army and falls in love and lust with a fellow soldier. Jacob is not a very likable character, but his adventures make for interesting reading, although his religious views seem at odds with his actions. Nevertheless, As Meat Loves Salt makes for interesting and engaging reading, albeit with a dark tone and atmosphere.
    • 4/5
      An engrossing read that covers part of 17th century English history, as it relates to commoners during the Civil War, morality, sexuality and the desire for a new, freer, way of life.Incidentally, this novel was written by a school teacher who worked on it during the early morning hours of each day, before heading off to her students. Very impressive!
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed the book for its story, ideas, characters, setting, and writing style. The author portrayed the main characters (Ferris and Cullen) as complex, but very real, 17C people having to deal with the same hard human issues of good/bad, obligation, duty, love, jealousy, and free will as we do today . As a person who doesn't read much historical fiction, I also greatly enjoyed learning a little about the English Civil War and life in 17C England.
    • 4/5
      A very good historical novel taking place in mid 17th century England.
    • 5/5
      After reading it back in 2005, As Meat Loves Salt instantly became one of my favourite novels. All these years after its publication it still manages to be one of the most frequently recommended books on the internet’s gay fiction communities, so I thought it was high time I posted my thoughts.On its surface, McCann’s novel is merely a love story, or perhaps a story of sexual obsession. And it will certainly reward anyone who chooses to read it on that level alone. It is, after all, an emotionally involving and erotically charged experience. But for the thoughtful reader, this book has so much more to offer. After all, it is certainly by no accident that she set the tale during the English Civil War. Her two main characters are polar opposites and, while they desire one another, their relationship is extremely volatile. Jacob Cullen, the delusional, superstitious anti-hero and his lover, Christopher Ferris, an atheist who is thirsty for reform, represent the two sides of England at that particular moment in history. Jacob, an unforgiving and jealous man who is guided by voices in his head, represents the rigors of religion, traditionalism and stasis, while mild-mannered Ferris is the practical, forward-thinking man of action. The story of their love, and its eventual disintegration, is the story of England at the crossroads of modernity and tradition. If one is looking for a historical "romance" novel, I would advise against this one. This is a work of literature. And while the early scenes between Jacob and Ferris are passionate and the few sex scenes between them are undeniably erotic (without being pornographic, mercifully), McCann hasn’t written a manifesto for gay rights, nor is she interested in saving the souls of her characters. Instead she offers us an intelligent, engaging allegory that will continue to haunt my memory long after I’ve forgotten all those half-baked happily ever afters.Recommended for serious readers of gay literature.
    • 5/5
      This is well researched historical fiction , atmospheric with vivid descriptions on the battlefields set during the English civil war. After a body is found in the pond of a royalist estate a man flees and enlists in the army. What follows in an obsession with a fellow soldier and a relationship that ultimately spirals downwards to a violent finale.
    • 5/5
      If I reread it, I'd probably end up suicidal. Still, it gave me one of the best reading experiences of my life.
    • 5/5
      This book is stunning. Probably the best that I've read all year. I loved it so much that I read it as slowly as I could, dragging the pleasure and pain over several days, because I knew that if I read it all at once, it would make me sick like eating too much candy. Not that As Meat Loves Salt is candy-like in any way. Far from it; this book is violent, gritty, erotic, and harrowing. It hits you until you have trouble breathing, and when I finished it, I would have cried if I hadn't felt so sapped of energy.As Meat Loves Salt takes places during England's civil war. It is the story of Jacob Cullen, a violent and jealous man who cannot seem to control his baser nature. After leaving the manor where he works as a servant, Jacob is drafted into Cromwell's New Model Army and meets Ferris, a fellow soldier. They develop a bond and abandon the army together for London, where Ferris plies his idealism by distributing political pamphlets, and Jacob becomes his lover.This book is part historical drama, part psychological portrait, but at its heart, it is a love story between two flawed men. Jacob is severely troubled to the point where if you met him on the street, you'd probably call him a psycho. But he's a compelling character and aware of his own flaws, especially when they lead to his downfall. There are passages of incredible beauty and eroticism when Jacob and Ferris are together, but they only make the ending harder to bear. Yet the ending is what pushes As Meat Loves Salt to greatness. It's the only plausible ending in a story about love, obsession, and the violence of human experience, but oh did it hurt. I knew it was coming, but it ran me over anyway.
    • 5/5
      A remarkable novel, a homosexual love story set in the English Civil War and amongst the communist Diggers in 1649. Not only is it rich in historical detail, without being suffocated by the faux-archaic language other authors might use, it has a classic unreliable and deeply flawed narrator whose testimony gets very problematic towards the end. (Pedantic historical note: a scene with a printing press talks about point sizes of type, but the point system wasn't in use in England until well over a century later. At that time each type size had its own rather splendid name, such as Minion or Long Primer. End pedantry.)
    • 4/5
      This is one of those books that practically demands that each review be filled with Important Social Commentary and Serious Discussion. Except I don't do that, and this really isn't a review anyway.I liked it. You know the writing is wonderful when you are only one page into the story, which takes place some 500+ years in the past, and the cadence of the language is so well done that you are caught in the flow immediately. The story revolves around Jacob, whose volatile jealousies and impulsive behaviours lead him to murder, rape, near-rape, and madness. It's a testament to McCann's writing that Jacob remains sympathetic throughout; a 'well written' evil man doesn't believe himself evil, after all. Also, thank you to McCann for leaving some mysteries unsolved and some blanks unfilled.565 pages.