A Carnivore's Inquiry

Rating:
Summary: DARK AND DRAMATIC- BOTH THE STORY AND THE READING
Review:



Dramatic, dark, disturbing - all describe this tale by Pen/Faulkner Award winner Sabina Murray. Stage, television, and film actress Wendy Hoopes gives articulate voice to 23-year-old narrator Katherine Shea.

Apparently lacking any form of moral compunction Katherine first befriends and then cohabits with Boris, an older Russian novelist. She hasn't wasted a great deal of time as she has only recently arrived in New York City from Italy. We already know that this gal is not one for settling down, what we have not yet discovered is that her taste for new adventure may border on the psychotic.

Her time with Boris is brief. She's soon seeking the company of other men and other places as she crosses the country and winds up in Mexico. She leaves in her wake a trail of dead bodies. Katherine's interests become increasingly macabre as she begins to research cannibalism wherever she may find it - in art, literature, research.

Why is this young woman so transfixed by behavior that repulses most? Listen as her story races to an astounding conclusion.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat tasteful, but definitely predictable
Review: For the most part, this was an "average" novel. Murray has a way of mesmerizing the reader with her use of words and references to actual works of art and literature; diving into the hidden meaning behind all of our "animal instincts" and motives/hungers. As much as the reader would like to side with their morals, it is hard to argue with the main character's (Katherine) reasoning for the thirst of gore and blood. You have no excuse but to accept the main theme of cannibalism as acceptable through her eyes.
None of the characters are given reason to be cared for exceptionally, including Katherine--altho you have to admire her in-depth knowledge and ferocious attachment to symbolism. Not any one character is likeable. Nor is any event in the storyline misleading (maybe it should be), as the entire plot is very predictable, even after the climax.
The trickling of events do no justice to keep you in suspense, as any reader would already know what the inevitable is. The ending brings the components together, but they were already there without being spelt out.
Altogether, this novel was okay. The blood-thirsty theme of it keeps you enthralled to continue reading, but the ending may just leave you wanting more or regretting its reach.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat tasteful, but definitely predictable
Review: For the most part, this was an "average" novel. Murray has a way of mesmerizing the reader with her use of words and references to actual works of art and literature; diving into the hidden meaning behind all of our "animal instincts" and motives/hungers. As much as the reader would like to side with their morals, it is hard to argue with the main character's (Katherine) reasoning for the thirst of gore and blood. You have no excuse but to accept the main theme of cannibalism as acceptable through her eyes.
None of the characters are given reason to be cared for exceptionally, including Katherine--altho you have to admire her in-depth knowledge and ferocious attachment to symbolism. Not any one character is likeable. Nor is any event in the storyline misleading (maybe it should be), as the entire plot is very predictable, even after the climax.
The trickling of events do no justice to keep you in suspense, as any reader would already know what the inevitable is. The ending brings the components together, but they were already there without being spelt out.
Altogether, this novel was okay. The blood-thirsty theme of it keeps you enthralled to continue reading, but the ending may just leave you wanting more or regretting its reach.

Rating:
Summary: "Unlikable Heroine" equals brilliant novel
Review: I don't understand why someone believes that an "unlikable" heroine equals an unlikable book. It isn't critquing the work or valid criticism; it is instead an oversimplified and childish approach to literature. Such readers would probably dismiss "King Lear" as too depressing and therefore not worth reading. Murray's novel is a dark and brilliant treatise on cannabalism disguised as an equally dark and brilliant novel about a young woman's search for identity. I found Katherine, in fact, to be a deeply empathetic character. Who hasn't gone through a part of their life feeling aliented and alone, certain every relationship will end badly? Most of the reviews of this novel dwell on the question of whether or not Katherine is a likable charcter. It is a sad state of affairs indeed when whether or not a character in a novel is likable is used to decide the quality of the book. I only hope that most readers will see past such simplistic criticisms and enjoy the novel for what it is. Murray has written a wickedly entertaing book and has crafted an intriguing heroine. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: "Unlikable Heroine" equals brilliant novel
Review: I don't understand why someone believes that an "unlikable" heroine equals an unlikable book. It isn't critquing the work or valid criticism; it is instead an oversimplified and childish approach to literature. Such readers would probably dismiss "King Lear" as too depressing and therefore not worth reading. Murray's novel is a dark and brilliant treatise on cannabalism disguised as an equally dark and brilliant novel about a young woman's search for identity. I found Katherine, in fact, to be a deeply empathetic character. Who hasn't gone through a part of their life feeling aliented and alone, certain every relationship will end badly? Most of the reviews of this novel dwell on the question of whether or not Katherine is a likable charcter. It is a sad state of affairs indeed when whether or not a character in a novel is likable is used to decide the quality of the book. I only hope that most readers will see past such simplistic criticisms and enjoy the novel for what it is. Murray has written a wickedly entertaing book and has crafted an intriguing heroine. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Good but could have been better
Review: I thought I would like this book more than I did, and I was disappointed. While Katherine Shea is a strong narrator with a penchant for describing the macabre. It's interesting but becomes too convoluted,despite this I liked her character and her often cutting insight into those around her..it was the plot that left a great deal to be desired.

We already know that something is "not quite right" with Katherine but any reader could see what was coming from a mile away, and it was the thought, that this was going to end differently or unexpectedly attracted me to the story. A Carnivore's Inquiry is a good book but I hope to see better in the future from such a talented author.

Rating:
Summary: Thinking Mans Horror
Review: If you are looking for a gross-out gore book - look elsewhere. That isn't where this book is coming from. The book blurb states that the author is a professor of Fine Art, and I think that that is the kind of audience that this book is aimed at. It contains lots of sidebars off into literature, art history and American history, all of the dark and grisly kind. Which makes this book an intellectual investigation into madness, both in art, and unfortunately to some of the characters in this book, in life as well. That component of the book is brilliantly done.

I was also very struck by the narrators' personality - although I do not think that I would want to date her! I agree with the reviewer that wonders why a character has to be "likable" to be interesting. I found the narrator to be absolutely riveting. And I loved the relationship between her and her mother. The mother was quite a riveting character herself. And as the book comes to the end, we see that the father is more than the family square and unfeeling autocrat that his role would seem to be. Which all turns this book into a very strange and interesting riff about family inheritances, predilections, and duties, all stretched to their most gothic extremes. I found this family dynamic to be brilliantly done as well.

Bravo.


Rating:
Summary: An absolutely dark, obsessive & stunning novel
Review: Reviewed by Felicia C. Sullivan, Small Spiral Notebook

Conspicuous consumption, obsessive meditations of cannibalism and its intricate ties to history, literature and art, are prominent themes in Sabina Murray's third book, A Carnivore's Inquiry. A Pen-Faulkner award-winner for the short story collection, The Caprices, Murray introduces us to the itinerant 23yr. old Katherine Shea, who has just arrived to the U.S. after time spent roaming through Europe. Amidst hipster protestors carting signs that read: COLUMBUS BLOODY COLUMBUS and COLUMBUS WAS A MURDER, Katherine encounters a Russian émigré novelist, Boris Naryshkin. As quickly as they meet, they take up house together, and this begins our immersion in this elegant and fiercely engaging novel.

As the story unfolds, the reader becomes more intimate with Katherine's detached persona from which we gather Is due greatly in part to a cold wealthy father who doles our impersonal presents like faxes, and on a trip to the zoo, he confesses, "I suppose I have to feed you." Feeding is keenly appropriate when we meet Katherine's eccentric and heavily medicated mother who spikes her daughter's enemies' Halloween treats with anti-psychotic medication and delivers horrific tales about the bloody Donner party as if they were bedtime stories. The murky family history is deliberate on the part of the author and heightens a surprising and highly satisfying ending. Like mother, daughter becomes obsessed with cannibalism - musing over the works of Goya (notably "Saturn" from the Black Paintings - does Saturn, in his fear of death, devour the son that will assume his throne?), Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa", the folktales of Hansel and Gretel, and other great works of literature (Melville & Poe) and history that revolve around this theme. Society's taboo is consistently praised by the narrator who considers cannibalism survival of the fittest in an American culture obsessed with goods and consumption. History and art is the brilliant mirror of man's natural and perhaps darker tendencies. The weak perish while the fittest thrive.

Through the course of the novel, Katherine moves to a small cabin Maine and then across the great plains of the Midwest to the ancestral burial grounds of New Mexico. A series of brutal murders follows her passage, and with deft narration and supremely elegant prose, Murray draws out the thinning margins of Katherine's sanity: her desperation for comfort and warmth, yet her need for survival. As the reader speeds towards the novel's climax, the threads of her family's true and frighteningly sinister history quickly unravel.

In a wonderful blurb, Jonathan Ames relates the novel to Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho. and he couldn't be more accurate as the two hold up society's obsession with greed, survival by any means necessary and the wonderfully calculated and controlled voice of Patrick Bateman is chillingly similar to Katherine Shea.



Rating:
Summary: Waste of time, read something else
Review: The author and publisher of this travesty need to spend a little more time in the real world, perhaps in the helping professions and less time in literati land where obviously they thought this tripe was a good idea. To those who believe this is an accurate commentary on American society, I say to look a little more closely; altruism abounds in our society, it just isn't as sexy or glamorous as the narcissism and the greed and so isn't as easly seen.

Further a comment on the audio version of this book: the reader needs to stop trying to imitate regional accents. Speaking as someone who actually lives in Maine, very few of us actually talk with an accent and to hear it imitated (badly) in media is insulting.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful, compelling dark comedy
Review: The heroine of this compelling dark comedy, Katherine Shea, is unlike any other character in American literature (or World literature, for that matter). Consider her the smart and strange god-child of Angela Carter and Paul Bowles--or Milan Kundera and Jane Bowles. Funnier and more intelligent than--but just as cunning as--Patricia Highsmith's Ripley, with her wry tone, her brilliant meditations on art and exploration, and her fast-paced, sexy, and intimate narration, Katherine will fascinate you--and at times she will frighten you.

This novel is a page-turner, and its engaging narrator tells her story with a sense of humor and the confidence to explore any taboo subject. Read it--quickly.