Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Powerful, immediate and disturbing - a wonderful novel, 26 Oct 2001
This epic of the eighteenth century British Slave Trade works at two levels. The first is as a straight and exciting narrative of the different stances to it of the two main characters, one who profits from it, and is at last morally enslaved by it himself while the other recognises its evil and attempts his own ultimately futile protest against it. At the second level the novel serves as a meditation on the nature of greed - the "Sacred Hunger" of the title, and the extent to which it can become a justification for any excess. Mr.Unsworth's genius in this book is however that the does not adapt a simplistic moralising tone but writes with understanding of the society that produced this abuse, and shows how potentially decent people could be drawn, unthinkingly, into the position of profiteers and exploiters. One does not get a sense here of modern perceptions and values being projected back on to an earlier age - the weakness which destroys so much serious fiction set in the past - and the characters' behaviour and attitudes, whether sympathetic to the Slave Trade or not , are consistent with those of eighteenth century British society. Like other novels of Unsworth's, this work has many echoes of Conrad, in its depiction of the depths to which humanity can so quickly plunge once the restraints of law and custom are relaxed. Though gripping from the first page it is disturbing work and the vividness of its plot and imagery will not quickly leave the reader. Very highly recommended.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Fantastic piece of history, 23 Feb 2004
By A Customer
What a wonderful book! The amount of research required for such an epic must be mind boggling. This is not just a novel about the slave trade, but a close look at the two very different personalities of the main protagonists, (as relevant today, as in 1752), and the justifcation, or not, of the Sacred Hunger of the title. We are treated to a graphic description of the terrible privations suffered by both the crew and their human cargo, and reminded of how human beings in certain parts of the world were treated worse than any animal, simply because of the colour of their skin. What more can I say? read it!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The finest piece of historical fiction I've ever read., 21 Feb 2001
By A Customer
Unsworth's Booker prize sharing _Sacred_Hunger_ is a book of virtually unparalleled beauty. It sustains you, beckens you along, and leaves you heartbroken, with an entire new lexicon of heroes, villians, and victims. Ruthless in its intensity, unforgiving in its accusation and sparing of no detail, this monumental novel should be considered a landmark on the horizon of late 20th century literature. Far superior to _Pascli's_Island_, another Booker nominee by Unsworth and the only other book of his I've read, I can only pray that this was not a solitary effort. How it was the co-winner with _The_English_Patient_ I'll never know. This surpasses that text in every respect.
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