The Taste of a Man [Mass Market Paperback]

Slavenka Drakulic (Author), Christina Pribichevich Zoric (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997

Meeting by chance and falling in love, both Tereza and Jose have complete lives in other countries, but they become caught in a terrifying web that seems to have them trapped, in a tale of obsessive love, passion, and their deadly results. Original. Tour."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Croatian journalist and novelist Drakuli'c (Cafe Europa, LJ 3/15/97) makes her third venture into fiction with a paperback original described by its publisher as likely to be "very controversial." Possible, indeed, considering that the book consists of narrator Tereza, a Polish doctoral candidate, detailing graphically how she spent much of her research time in New York planning and carrying out the murder, dismemberment, and cannibalization of her married lover. As a professional academic, Tereza is skilled at defending theses: she presents her motivation and reasoning in logical, even dry, locutions. But this young lady makes the Glenn Close character in Fatal Attraction seem mildly eccentric. For those with strong constitutions, the book offers some wry commentary on modern mores and the degrees of separation inhibiting male-female communication; however, this is for a very specialized readership.?Starr E. Smith, Marymount Univ. Lib., Arlington, Va.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Widely known journalist Drakulic (The Balkan Express, 1993, etc.) tries her hand at a second novel (Holograms of Fear, 1992) with results that seem unlikely those she intended. Her tale of a love match that fulfills itself in murder and cannibalism is more risible than moving. Coming from Warsaw for graduate study in literature, 30-year-old Tereza meets--across a study table at the New York Public Library--the Brazilian Jos‚, on a three-month grant in NYC doing research on cannibalism and religion. Love at first sight (``as if my body had already surrendered to his touch'') brings the two together again, and soon they're living in Tereza's apartment, united by a love so passionate that words are unnecessary, where ``nothing but the senses exist.'' Too bad Jos‚ has a wife and child--who both come from Brazil for a visit to San Francisco so that he's got to fly out to see them. Tereza follows, deciding more or less then that she'll never ``let us part''--but instead will internalize Jos‚ in a union forever by killing and then eating him (there are references to the Andean plane crash whose survivors found Christian symbolism in eating their dead comrades). As Tereza plans Jos‚'s death, the novel slides helplessly (``My eye was caught by a set of six large knives. . . which said `all purpose' '') toward comedy. Poor Jos‚, after ingesting vodka, pills, and being smothered, still has to be tasted and cut up for disposal (Tereza's bought an electric saw). Even then, he's still in the way (``I stood under the shower. Jos‚ was still lying in the tub. Without his legs he took up only three quarters of it, so there was room for me as well. Nevertheless, I had to be careful not to step on him''). If intended as political satire or an allegory of love or madness, the point is missed, leaving just highbrow hooey. (First printing of 50,000; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First edition. edition (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140266224
• ISBN-13: 978-0140266221
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,484,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Silly, Repetitive Dirge, April 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Taste of a Man (Mass Market Paperback)

Drakulic deserves credit, and indeed received a lot of attention, for writing sympathetically about a taboo subject. The descriptions of dismemberment and cannibalism are gruesome, but less so than a similar scene in Ian McEwan's acclaimed "The Innocent." In fact, the book so repetitiously drills its "romantic consumption" theme into our heads that by the time the act is described, we are totally numb to it.

Numbness is a big problem in this book. The protagonist, despite her first person voice, is so vaguely drawn and woodenly written that we cannot empathize with her. We know nothing whatsoever about her past or what experiences brought her to such an unusual fixation, aside from a Catholic "menstruation" anecdote so cliched as to be laughable. Finally, Drakulic gives us nothing to think about or feel about, since her religious/cultural/sexual interpretations of cannibalism are established so quickly and so baldly. Such a theme offers many opportunities for passion and humor, but these are completely ignored, aside from the accidental humor of the heroine's (implausibly) deadpan descriptions of her grotesque actions.

I think the main problem is that a convincing narrative about such an extreme obsession requires immersion--the author has to think, feel, shudder, and crave along with her character. Only a deep and reckless plunge can redeem the silliness of the novel's events. But Drakulic seems uncommitted, and wades into the pool only deep enough to wet her toes. The result is an overlong outline.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant piece of writing, September 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (David Veronese) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Taste of a Man (Mass Market Paperback)

This book, which I came to quite by chance, knocked me for a loop. Drakulic's use of language is simply incredible; she uses all the conventions of prose writing, but every line comes out in the form of poetry. Her apprehension and use of language is abstracted at an extremely high level and yet she writes in a style so simple to read, that I find it nothing short of magical. Compare her style to the moronic use of English in the Kirkus Review above. They haven't a clue as to what she is doing. This woman is a genius of high order and a fascinating narrator as well. Her treating of a taboo subject without ever entering into any squeamishness in the least, by preserving the beauty of her poetry until the last word is a feat of legerdemain and incredible beauty. I hope that I will be able to find some of her other fiction. Five stars, a writer's writer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sumptuous feast, September 29, 2000

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Taste of a Man (Mass Market Paperback)

Tereza is a Polish graduate student studying in New York City, who begins an affair with Jose, a Brazilian man studying cannibalism. In a twist on "Fatal Attraction", Tereza takes control of the affair, which she can't let end at any price, and maneuvers Jose into a full-fledged corporeal union, culminating with Tereza killing him and devouring parts of his flesh to unite them forever. In the literary tradition of Virgilio Piñera's "René's Flesh", Poppy Brite's "Exquisite Corpse", Bret Easton Ellis's "American Psycho", Carole Maso's "Defiance", and Stephen King's "Misery", Drakulic's book is more than a dark fantasy. It's a commentary on culture and humanity that is captivating, sensual, and potently memorable. This is a book that bites the reader back.