Tender Morsels [Hardcover]

Margo Lanagan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 14, 2008

Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, a world given to her in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters grow up in this soft place, protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever—magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga’s refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In her extraordinary and often dark first novel, award-winning story writer Lanagan (Red Spikes) creates two worlds: the first a preindustrial village that might have sprung from a Brueghel canvas, a place of victims and victimizers; the second a personal heaven granted to Liga Longfield, who has survived her father's molestations and a gang rape but, with one baby and pregnant again, cannot risk any further pain. As she raises her two daughters, placid Branza and fiery Urdda, she discovers that her universe is permeable: a dwarf or littlee man, in Lanagan's characteristically knotted parlance, slips in and out of her world in search of treasure; and a good-hearted youth also enters, magically transformed into a bear in the process. A less kind man-bear follows, and then a teenage Urdda, avid for a richer life with the vivid people, figures out how to pass through the border, too. Writing in thick, clotted prose that holds the reader to a slow pace, Lanagan explores the savage and the gentlest sides of human nature, and how they coexist. With suggestions of bestiality and sodomy, the novel demands maturity—but the challenging text will attract only an ambitious audience anyway. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)
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From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up—A traumatized teen mother magically escapes to her own personal heaven in this daring and deeply moving fantasy. The characters, setting, much of the action, and even the very words of the title are taken from the Grimm Brothers' "Snow-White and Rose-Red," a sweet story of contrasting sisters who live deep in the forest and whose innocent hearts are filled with compassion for a lonely bear and an endangered dwarf. In the novel, Liga's daughters—one born of incest, the other of gang rape—first flourish in Liga's safe world. But encounters with magical bears and the crusty dwarf challenge them to see a world beyond their mother's secure dreamscape. Eventually the younger one, Urdda, and subsequently her sister and Liga are drawn back into the real world in which cruelty, hurt, and prejudice abound. But it is also only there that they can experience the range of human emotion, develop deep relationships, and discover who they truly are. The opening chapters vividly portray the emotional experience of a boy's first sexual encounter, mind-numbing abuse by Liga's father, and a violent gang rape. It's heavy fare even for sophisticated readers, but the author hits all the right notes, giving voice to both the joys and terrors that sexual experience can bestow without saying more than readers need to know to be fully with the characters. While the story explores what it means to be human, it is at its heart an incisive exploration of the uses and limitations of dissociation as a coping mechanism. Beautifully written and surprising, this is a novel not to be missed.—Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375848118
• ISBN-13: 978-0375848117
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My best of the year -- so far October 27, 2008

By Sarah Miller

Format:Hardcover

Once upon a time, the skeleton of this story was called Snow-White and Rose-Red. Like all fairy tales, it left much unexplained. Too much. Well, Margo Lanagan took those bones and added muscle and guts, bracing the loose joints of the plot with her characters' emotions, motivations, and histories. That's the secret of successful retellings: fleshing out the gaps that relied almost entirely on the readers' willful ignorance or suspension of belief, yet still leaving room for the existence of magic. And Lanagan knows how to handle magic delicately enough to make it believable: Tender Morsels revolves around magical doings, but never degrades enchantment to the level of coincidence. The plot must bend to fit the whims of the magic, and never, ever the reverse. Yet the setting is so rich that it all feels impossibly real.

And the characters -- hoo, the characters. They are vivid, passionate, flawed, sometimes randy (but never gratuitous), and fiercely devoted to their hearts' desires. Desires tangled with magic, though, turn out to have more power than any one of them have bargained for.

It's been almost a week, and I am still basking and soaking in this story. It is deep, thick, and heavy, but not in the ways that makes reading tiresome. It isn't a book you finish and set aside -- you surface from it and wait for it to roll off you. (I know, I know -- I'm going all purple and gushy. Plus I've overshot my adjective quota without ever managing to work in "visceral." Crap.)

An about face: I am somewhat loathe to admit this is not a book for everyone. Not by a long shot. The switching points of view, the nature of the abuse Liga weathers, and the spattering of old world Britishy-Irishy dialect each have the potential to deter a number of readers.

However, if you loved the themes of sweetness and brutality in The Giver, the robust characters and setting of The Moorchild, and the emotional tone of Donna Jo Napoli's fairy tale-based novels, I'd lay odds you'll be content to envelop yourself for a few days in Tender Morsels. It is quite possibly THE best reading experience I've had so far this year.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark retelling of Snow White and Rose Red May 21, 2009

By L. H.

Format:Hardcover

First of all, I will say that I did not exactly *enjoy* reading this book which is one reason why I took away one star. It's a bit too heavy to *enjoy.* I also think that although this is technically a "young adult" book, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 16 years old - the themes seem like they would resonate most strongly with someone older (whether you should shelter your children from the evils of the world or just do your best to equip your children to handle them; being overlooked by the younger, more beautiful woman; and so on). I don't think younger readers should be prevented from reading it, I'm just not sure how interested they would be.

If you do give this book to someone on the younger side of "young adult" be prepared to discuss some of the issues that arise in it with them. As other reviewers have stated, there is incest, rape, forced abortions, contemplations of suicide, and borderline bestiality. The audience for this book is not the same as say, Ella Enchanted or Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast or The Goose Girl. If you want a fairy tale re-telling that is funny, or adventurous, or romantic, this story is NOT the right story for you.

So who is the audience for this book? I think that those who like the SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED (CREED S.) series of adult fairy tale re-tellings are good candidates to like (maybe even love) this book as well.

So far, it sounds like I hated the book, but obviously, giving it four stars, I didn't. It is beautifully-written and very powerful. I'm still thinking about it even though I finished reading it over a week ago. It's the kind of book I think I'll probably come back to years from now to re-read, and I know I'll get something different out of it than I did the first time through.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Snow White and Rose Red retold, but not for the faint of heart. December 25, 2008

By Librarian

Format:Hardcover

This retelling of the Grimm Brother's Snow White and Rose Red is a compelling, but disturbing read. It is definitely for older teens. The book covers incest, abortion, gang rape, a suicide attempt and ends with sodomy. In addition, throw in some witchcraft, a dwarf, and young men turning in to bears. The story centers on Liga, who through incest, then rape gives birth to 2 daughters. Traumatized by the events that happened to her she considers suicide, but is saved by a mysterious magic that whisks her to an alternate universe where she can raise her daughters Branza and Urdda in peace. In this "heaven" the town is rid of all the people that hurt her, everyone is kind and supportive, and her daughters can magically commune with animals and romp in the woods. Eventually a greedy dwarf and 1/2 trained witch find a way into this world, followed by young men dressed in bear suits who become bears and stay awhile. Eventually, Urdda, the youngest daughter finds her way out of her mothers heaven and into the real world. With the help of a real witch, Liga and Branza are pulled into the real world, where they must confront the harsh reality of life there. The book ends on a sad note, with the daughters happy, but Liga is heart broken.

What makes Tender Morsels such a compelling read is the variety of characters and all their different voices. The story is told from a variety of view points, which makes for a rich and intriguing read, despite the many disturbing topics. I would have given it a 3.5 stars, but that's not an option. This book is definitely a grim retelling of one of the Grimm Brother's less scary and violent tales.