The Carnivorous Lamb (Little Sister's Classics) [Paperback]

Agustin Gomez-Arcos (Author), Sharon G. Feldman (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2007 | Series: Little Sister's Classics

The latest in the Little Sister’s Classics series resurrecting gay and lesbian literary gems: a viciously funny, shocking yet ultimately moving 1975 novel, an allegory of Franco’s Spain, about a young gay man (the self-described “carnivorous lamb”) coming of age with a mother who despises him, a father who ignores him, and a brother who loves him.

Author Agustin Gomez-Arcos left his native Spain for France in the 1960s to escape its censorship policies. The Carnivorous Lamb, originally written in French, won the Prix Hermes, and this, its 1984 English translation, was widely acclaimed.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Triumphant ... provocative and carnal ... An astute examination of a repressive political and religious environment’s impact on moral judgment and behavior.
—Library Journal (Library Journal Library Journal 20081212)

Haunting ... unusual ... Eerie yet amusing ... Gomez-Arcos neatly satirizes Franco’s Spain and the Roman Catholic Church and gets in a few pokes at America as well ... refreshingly distinctive and engaging.
—New York Times Book Review (New York Times Book Review )

I had never heard of Agustin Gomez-Arcos' The Carnivorous Lamb before learning of this new translation of the book, but now I want to read all of his works.... Delicious in its anarchist subversiveness, titillating in its blasphemous transgressions, incisive in its droll irony, The Carnivorous Lamb deserves a place in our libraries as a work of protest against the social and political conventions that circumscribe our lives.
—Gay & Lesbian Review (Gay & Lesbian Review )

Gomez-Arcos not only takes on Spain but the Catholic Church as well. He does so with humor that disguises the true horror and tyrannical rule of Federico Franco.... The concept of authority is blown away and in its place we get identity and liberty as the author defies all in beautiful and provocative ways. This is a book not only to be read for the excitement of reading a masterpiece but to be cherished as a document that has returned to us from the dead.
—Eureka Pride (Eureka Springs, Arkansas) (Eureka Pride )

Gomez-Arcos' prose, poetic but economical, is the perfect foil to his chosen subject. He writes beautifully of the boys' affair, fully aware of its illicitness.... [It is] a book that is as politically charged and appropriate now as it was in 1975 when it was first published.
—Washington Blade (Washington Blade )

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551522306
• ISBN-13: 978-1551522302
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,384,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a perfect book, June 21, 2005

By 

Suzanne Bourchier (Byron Bay, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Carnivorous Lamb (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

Its been a while since reading a book that was so profoundly satisfying and well-finished. It is a beautiful book celebrating an exuberant, deep love. It sells the book short to call it simply homo-erotic, just because the main protaganist is a man who loves his brother. The book deals with love and its devastating mutations in a protective confined stultyfying Spanish home in the Franco years. The metaphors for the "chronically dead" fascist regime are so graphic that you find yourself gasping for air...and the characters, as portrayed by Ignacio, the younger brother, are gruesomely real as he tells his story with wit and skill that have you smiling hard as you read. Very sexy too, even for a hetero woman.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magic realism?, October 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Carnivorous Lamb (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Carnivorous Lamb unfolds itself like a particularly lovely, intricate, and satisfying dream. Things that at first appear to be matter-of-fact reveal themselves to be larger metaphors for politics, philosophy, social atmospheres, and religion, in prose both decadent and surreal. At heart this is a love story: love between brothers, literally and figuratively.

One of my favorites. :)

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love, freedom and politics: loaded book!, January 10, 2002

By 

"rils" (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Carnivorous Lamb (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

Augustin Gomez Arcos makes several political statements on the appearance of a love story.
At first, everything looks wrong: incestuous love, uncaring parents...
Then the colors appear: red - yellow - red...
Yellow is the color of the church and the military 'dictatura'
Red is the one for Revolution, with defeated freedom dreams.
Augustin plays his colors with a very fine hand. Self-exhiled from Spain, he writes in French as a first statement against Franco. The love story will move you, but still the surface of it may repel the puritan in you. And those two colours will haunt you until you finish this book... But you have to restrain yourself... if you still want some for tomorrow...

My only complain is the translation: the original text is so beautiful and yet it's been translated into slang... Hum, if you understand two words of french, that would be a good twisted training book- and it's not 'out of print' over there!