Unusual Appetites Book Club with Melanie & Quinn

 

 

Have you ever hungered for something more? Or maybe you’ve been told you want too much: too much power, money, food, sex. Maybe you’ve been told you are too much— too fat, thin, hungry, loud, ambitious… We’re curious about appetites. What constitutes too much—or too little; who gets denied what they want, and why. This book club aims to examine the desires of those on the fringes, and what happens when we give in to or suppress those desires. No matter how… unusual these desires may be. We will draw on texts across genres, ranging from memoir to horror to literary and short fiction. Come join us, and sate your appetite for something more.

This month we'll discuss Fernanda Trías' harrowing, intimate novel about a woman and the people who depend on her as the world around them teeters on the edge, Pink Slime, translated by Heather Cleary.

"After Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream and Mariana Enríquez's Our Share of Night, Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías completes a triptych of extraordinary works that have come to us in the last decade from the Rio de la Plata area. Three very different novels that nonetheless share the force with which they look straight into the abyss, maintaining the lucidity necessary to focus on each revealing detail."—L’Indice

"An intimate, melancholic look at an ecologically ravaged future."—Silvia Moreno-Garcia, New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic

In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out the only food anyone can afford—a revolting pink paste, made of an unknown substance. In the short, desperate breaks between deadly windstorms, our narrator stubbornly tends to her few remaining relationships: with her difficult but vulnerable mother; with the ex-husband for whom she still harbors feelings; with the boy she nannies, whose parents sent him away even as terrible threats loomed. Yet as conditions outside deteriorate further, her commitment to remaining in place only grows—even if staying means being left behind.

An evocative elegy for a safe, clean world, Pink Slime is buoyed by humor and its narrator’s resiliency. This unforgettable novel explores the place where love, responsibility, and self-preservation converge, and the beauty and fragility of our most intimate relationships.

Reserve your place with a $5 voucher, redeemable on the night of the book club meeting on any product in store.