As Meat Loves Salt

[louiselux]

Two Cromwellian soldiers in love-- As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann. I would say, read this book.

Ow, fuck that hurt. It's a gorgeous story. You know it can't end well right from the start and dammit why can't these things ever end well? I found it Even More Depressing than The Charioteer by Mary Renault, but it's very different to that book-- incredibly sensual and with extreme sexual tension. Towards the end you think it might be going to be all right, but no. It's not. I had to squinch my eyes shut on the last few pages, it was really that painful to read.

I liked what she did with Jacob Cullen, the main character and whose POV we get. There's something not right about him-- we know, but at first he doesn't seem to realise. There's very little self analysis, as though he's blind to himself, and lots of detail on his interactions with other people: we learn this way that his family, friends, fellow soldiers, his lover Christopher Ferris are afraid of him, to varying degrees. What happens with Ferris is amazing, intense and it has such a long build up, all through the months of fighting and later in London.

Ow.

Comments

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, it's frustrating that these sorts of books end with the Big Tragedy. It's not necessary. I got angry with the author at the end of this book because things don't always come to a screeching messy end. I thought it was more than a bit gratuitous. But then I suppose the ending gave it lots of drama and it was hard to think of where else she could go with the plot if her protagonist is a psychopath.

I was left hoping that at least the Diggers and Ferris could still be alive, if badly beaten.