Sacred Hunger [Paperback]

Barry Unsworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1993

Winner of the 1992 Booker Prize for Fiction: "Possibly the best novel I've read in the last decade."—David Halberstam

Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered full into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies. In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded, young Kemp.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This vast, vividly realistic historical novel follows the crew of a slave-trading vessel from its Liverpool shipyard through days at anchor bartering human cargo on the Guinea Coast, then on beyond the slaver's disease-ridden and mutinous Middle Passage. With an epic ambition that seems suited to its 18th-century setting, Unsworth ( Stone Virgin ) takes on a big theme--greed, the animating "sacred hunger" of the title--but at the same time fills his huge canvas with the alternately fascinating and horrifying details of shipboard life, colonial plunder and power struggles, the London clubs of absentee sugar lords, even a pidgin Utopia created by slaves and seamen on unclaimed Florida coast. Deftly utilizing a flood of period detail, Unsworth has written a book whose stately pace, like the scope of its meditations, seems accurately to evoke the age. Tackling here a central perversity of our history--the keeping of slaves in a land where "all men are created equal"--Unsworth illuminates the barbaric cruelty of slavery, as well as the subtler habits of politics and character that it creates. As intricate as it is immense, this masterwork rewards every turn of its 640 pages. (July) one with a continuing fascination for readers and authors alike--Unsworth illuminates its cruel ties and miscarriages, its floggings and murders, as well as the subtler habits of politics and character that it creates. As intricate as it is immense, this masterwork rewards every turn of its 640 pages.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

With its graphic depiction of the 18th-century slave trade and a society driven by the desire to maximize profit regardless of the human cost, this new novel by the author of Pascali's Island (Penguin, 1988) offers a dark view of human nature clearly relevant to our own time. William Kemp hopes to recoup his losses in cotton speculation by entering the Triangular Trade. As ship's doctor, his nephew Matthew experiences firsthand the horrors of shipboard life, ultimately leading a revolt that lands the crew and remaining slaves on the southeastern coast of Florida. Here they try to establish "a paradise place," but events force Matthew to conclude that "nothing a man suffers will prevent him from inflicting suffering on others. Indeed, it will teach him the way." Though the pace drags at times, taken as a whole this is a masterful effort that delivers an important message. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (November 17, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393311147
• ISBN-13: 978-0393311143
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 98 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable June 22, 2005

By Jeffrey Leach HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

When I had the opportunity to read Barry Unsworth's "Sacred Hunger," I jumped at the chance, and not because this author won the Booker Prize. I didn't know a thing about him, had never heard of him, and couldn't have cared if he had won any prize related to writing. All I knew was that I could receive credit for a directed readings class at my university for reading the novel. The topic I was working on at the time concerned Atlantic history, a hot area of research for historians, and most of the books I read up to this point were lengthy, scholarly works full of footnotes and massive bibliographies. So when my professor suggested the idea of a novel covering many of the same themes, I readily accepted. Who wouldn't take a break from the tedium of academia? I quickly discovered that Unsworth's book involved a bit of work to get through. This novel isn't a mass-market paperback type read, not by a long shot. It's an incredibly well researched, multilayered piece of historical fiction that manages to incorporate nearly every aspect of the slave trade while maintaining a level of prose that would make Charles Dickens stand up and applaud.

"Sacred Hunger" follows many characters throughout its 600 plus pages, from lowly sailors to venture capitalists to slaves to dozens of other major and minor characters. The overarching storyline involves one William Kemp, a wealthy English cotton merchant currently down on his luck, and his effort to reap a quick profit from the slave trade circa 1750. He commissions the building of a vessel for just such a purpose, hires a bellicose tar by the name of Saul Thurso to helm the ship, and stakes his entire fortune on its success.... He even enlists his nephew Matthew Paris, a physician who spent time in prison for challenging church dogma, to serve as the ship's doctor. The book flip flops back and forth from the travails of the slave voyage to the adventures of William's son Erasmus, a dour young capitalist whose plans revolve around marrying the daughter of a wealthy businessman and expanding his own family's holdings once his father passes on. Erasmus's plans come to naught when the slave ship disappears somewhere in the Caribbean, leading to a series of events that take many years to unravel. It takes that long to ascertain that Thurso's ship didn't just disappear into thin air, but was hijacked through a mutiny involving slaves, shipmates, and Matthew Paris.

Unsworth spares no effort to convey to the reader a sense of actually witnessing the slave trade up close and personal. We learn of the vile techniques used to impress hapless sailors into maritime service through the stories of unfortunate wretches such as Billy Blair and the fiddle player Michael Sullivan. The book shows us the utter brutality inflicted by Thurso and his subordinates on both slaves and the crew. We sit in open-mouthed wonder as we witness how the captains of these ships bartered with African kings over their "cargo." We see the ravages of disease on both slavers and slaves alike. And we quickly understand how the sale of human beings degrades everyone involved, from the merchants to the government to the Africans. The author even takes time out of his busy schedule to show how the English drove a wedge between Indian tribes in their quest to acquire territory in North America. Every negative aspect of Atlantic history--the class issues, slavery, territorial ambition, unrestricted trade, greed, murder, and torture--appear in this book in intricate and often nauseating detail. Don't come into this book expecting a joyful experience. The themes in "Sacred Hunger" are serious business, and Unsworth treats them as such.

Without a doubt, the prose work is the best element of the book. Sentences spark and pop off the page as Unsworth effortlessly captures the tones and rhythms of eighteenth century speech. Whether he's writing dialogue that comes out of the mouths of upper class English elites or the singsong slang of the sailors, the effect is always totally believable. Heck, he even pulls off Pidgin English in the latter part of the book! So excellent is the prose that it's easy to overlook the deep thematic structures of the story. Don't forget that you're reading a narrative that attempts to examine the struggle between unfettered capitalism on the one hand and utopian socialism on the other. A deep pessimism about free markets seems to run throughout the book, which I don't necessarily agree with, but at the same time Unsworth doesn't reject that form of social organization entirely. I don't want to spoil the conclusion for you, but it's obvious at the end that the author recognizes that socialism isn't all its cracked up to be either. No matter what your position is regarding political organization, this book will definitely make you challenge your dearly held convictions. If you seek a more challenging theme than the rather obvious capitalism/socialism duality, try to identify each character's "sacred hunger."

Speaking of the conclusion (which I still won't spoil), did anyone else wonder about the character's sudden questioning of everything he held dear up to that point? I know I did. An individual this single-minded and...well...evil most likely wouldn't possess the mental faculties necessary to examine his motivations. I'll grant that this ending helped take some of the gruesome edges off the story, and it is poignant in its own way, but it just doesn't make much sense. Perhaps Unsworth wanted to leave his readers with a glimmer of hope that exploitation could give way to compassion and introspection. Whatever the case, pick up this book when you get a chance and follow the brass button. You won't be disappointed. Read more ›

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking May 11, 2000

By C. Burgess

Format:Paperback

I read this book about three years ago, and some of the passages are still etched vividly in my mind. The writing in amazingly lush. As some reviewers have already pointed out, there is a great deal of detail in some of the passages which, in lesser hands, could be terribly boring (Like in Millhauser's "Martin Dressler"). But here, they are magical. This is one of the few books where I would actually stop periodically to re-read the previous couple of pages just to savor the writing once again. Unsworth is a gifted writer who paints luxurious pictures on every page. The passages about crossing the ocean in the hold of a slave ship are harrowing.

But this book succeeds because of more than just good writing. The plot is complex and compelling, and the characters are entirely real. I'm normally not a fan of historical fiction, but this one is a real winner.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The brass button August 6, 2003

By Eric J. Lyman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Make no mistake about it, reading Sacred Hunger is a significant undertaking -- both in terms of the impact this complex and epic story will have on you and because of the time and concentration it will take to navigate the book's more than 600 pages. That significance is something to savor.

I will avoid the cliché of saying that the story "has it all," but Sacred Hunger does come close to that. There's the adventure of a band of men moving between three continents and pushed until they snapped and yet optimistically deciding to create what they saw as a kind of utopia, there is an examination of the cruelty that humans are capable of inflicting on each other, the story includes an accurate lesson in a period of history and its economics and geography, a touching love story, a metaphor for modern times.

Curiously, the pages also include the story of a small brass button. I still haven't decided what the button represents, but I did note that it is the only thing in the story that manages to survive all the kinds of hell the length of the story includes, changing hands at least six times between the beginning of the book and its final pages and yet it ends up no worse off.

The title of this volume refers to its grandest theme, the desire that drives men to extreme action. It is in this aspect that the book shines brightest, as the term is defined differently but compellingly for each of the main characters, especially the two main characters, cousins Erasmus Kemp and Matthew Paris.

There is a sacred hunger in almost all of the less central characters as well, in Michael Sullivan (the fiddle player who longed to be treated like a man ...... and only person to own the brass button twice), in Billy Blair (who was robbed of his money and who ended up a judge), in Saul Thurso (the captain who never failed his owners), even in many of the slaves and the other seamen forced into service, and in the soldiers camped in Florida and Africa. Therein lies one of the potential stumbling blocks for readers of Sacred Hunger: it includes a great many characters and to really understand the book it is imperative to remember who came from where and which character has a problem with or a debt to whom. Most of the crew is introduced starting with chapter 12, and I found myself referring back to that part of the book often to remember the particulars of certain figures. Later, it is also important to remember the characteristics of different African tribes involved in the story.

There are few female characters in the book, and those who do appear can seem unconvincing compared to the complex representations of many of the men. Similarly, I found myself wishing I knew much more about the artist and philosopher Delblanc, who comes into the story late but who plays an absolutely key role. If I have a criticism of the book it is the way Delblanc is developed.

But I use the conditional on that point because I am not sure if I do indeed have a criticism of the book. It is easy to seek out minor discrepancies or personal critiques in a volume of this size and scope, but the fact remains that sacred Hunger is a breathtaking story, the best I've read in some time. Read more ›

39 of 45 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Hefty tale, but too rich for some February 25, 2000

By Barbara Ann Galler

Format:Paperback

Our Seattle-area book club members were mixed in their praise for Sacred Hunger. Some count it has one of the top five books of our club's five year history; others note the merits of the book, but are turned off by what they feel are unnecessary details throughout the story. We all agree that Unsworth has an astute eye for capturing what motivates his characters and for re-creating the spirit of the mid-18th century slave trade and class system of England. We also agree that Sacred Hunger is a unique mixture of an epic sea-faring tale and a moral examination of a society dominated by greed at any humanitarinan cost. Whether it's freedom (however ephemeral), revenge, or greed, the reader cannot mistake each character's moments of pain or contentment made possible by the desolate clarity of Unsworth's prose. Give it a try. Suffer the play scenes. The themes and characters of Sacred Hunger will not disapoint you.