The Glutton is very reminiscent of Lapvona. It's equally as weird, set in a historical background, and filled with characters and events which do not mince the truth. The Glutton is incredibly up front and at times hard to read, especially when he starts to put his eating skills to the test. I thought it was really interesting to read from Tarare's perspective and to see his view on the world, him being very much someone who just want to be loved but is only ever betrayed or used. I'll definitely be checking out further publications from this author and looking into their backlist.

An exceptionally written book that seeps with sadness. The Glutton is set in late 18th century France and reimagines the story of The Great Tarar, a figure famed for his bottomless hungar and ability to devour anything. The descriptions are brutal and raw, so not for the fainthearted. The story is told from the perspective of Tarar tethered to a hospital bed under scrutiny from a young nun, who bears witness to his story and ailing frame. Tarar's early experiences in his village are tough, and he suffers a great deal. His story is tragic. A.K Blakemore has captured his story so evocatively. #theglutton #akblakemore #netgalley

Insatiable hunger
Poor Tarare, his life gets of to a bad start, his Father is killed just before his birth, leaving his Mother Agnes to cope alone with him, she works hard and becomes a prostitute and ends up fostering two babies from the city along with his half sister, one of the babies dies amd Tartatre has to dispose of the body, he is a very emotional, trusting child. Nollet lives with his Mother and Tartare thinks of him as his Step Father although he is cruel with a harsh temper.
Nollet starts to smuggle salt and hides it in the cottage, whilst drunk Nollet gives away the secret to his friend Herve, who then breaks in and steals the salt. Nollet takes Tarare into the forest and beats him senseless with an axe, thinking he has killed him. Tarare recovers enough to crawl away, he is changed after his beating and is permanently hungry. When he comes across a group of itinerant travellers, they look after him and take him with them, on finding out his capacity for eating they make an exhibition of him and he eats many things, animals, intestines and metal. The travellers rob a rich woman and a man is murdered, it is too much for Tarare he manages to leave the group but is miserable and hungry.
Tarare then becomes a soldier thinking that he will get fed, the rations are not enough for him, on finding his ability to eat anything he is sent as a spy behind enemy lines and ends up eventually in hospital.
A sad sometimes amusing story of a misfit who is taken advantage and misunderstood.
Thank you NetGalley and A.K.Blackmore

A.K. Blakemore's sophomore novel, The Glutton is utterly brilliant. Bringing to life revolutionary France, it's a blackly funny read about a man's insatiable appetite

The Glutton is set in 17th century France and is about Tarare, a boy who seems to have an insatiable hunger. I found his story strange and at times uncomfortable. I found myself at times feeling pity towards him, and at times disgust, just like many other characters in the book. Tarare is a young man who is a victim of his circumstances in a tough world. I enjoyed the book but found the language overly complicated at times. I had to push through some of the slower parts but overall an interesting read.

"The Glutton" by AK Blakemore serves up a tantalizing feast of historical fiction set against the backdrop of Revolutionary France. Meet Tarare, a man with an appetite as legendary as his journey. Blakemore's narrative grips from the first bite, as Tarare's insatiable hunger leads him through a landscape teeming with turmoil and upheaval. From the quaint village to the heart of Paris, Tarare's tale unfolds with electric intensity, offering a vivid glimpse into a world of desire and destruction. With prose as rich as a French pastry, "The Glutton" is a captivating exploration of one man's voracious appetite amid the chaos of revolution.

In a Versailles hospital Tarare lies unloved, and largely forgotten, with only the young Sister Perpetué for company. That Tarare is dying is not disputed and as we travel along the journey of his past so we begin to see just what has made this man into The Great Tarare, The Glutton of Lyon, and into a monster whose gargantuan appetite would be his downfall. We meet Tarare in the aftermath of Revolutionary France as he recounts his life in dreadful detail to Sister Perpetué, which at times shocks her into silence. From rural France to his life as a soldier, and showman, Tarare is unsparing in sharing the horrors of his life.

Based on the true story of Tarare, the French showman and soldier, who was renown for his unusual eating habits, this is serious historical fiction at its absolute best. At times quite shocking whilst at others gravely serious I followed Tarare as he moved from the small rural village he was named after and into the nightmare which became the French Revolution. His huge and unusual appetite made him the subject of public scrutiny and in doing so he seemed to lose his humanity altogether.

Elegantly written, with beautifully written prose, which is, at times, so scarily realistic that I had to catch my breath, The Glutton definitely fired my imagination. I started the story feeling only revulsion for this man who was purported to have eaten all manner of unusual things only to find, by the conclusion to Tarare's story, that he was merely a misunderstood man and not a depraved monster.

This just wasn't for me unfortunately, I found it hard to get into and a bit too strange for my tastes.

Regrettably, I didn't finish the book. While the writing style was commendable, I lost interest as it seemed overly verbose. Perhaps it's just not aligning with my current preferences.

A real historical romp, this. Truly a feast of pleasures. The writing, the vivid scenes, the characters - they were engrossing from the very start. I didn’t want it to stop.

Unfortunately I dnf’d at 50%, although the writing style was good the book failed to keep me interested as it felt long winded. Possibly just my personal tastes at this moment in time.

I had no knowledge of Tarrare before reading this wonderful book but such was the quality of the writing that I decided to do some homework after the event!

This piece of historical fiction was a feast for the senses. Descriptions were beautiful and real, almost Hardy-esque but less wordy! The writing verges on the academic at times, vocabulary is complex (again, Hardy springs to mind).

It is a dark story, yet compelling. I think that I am glad that I sought out information on the main character AFTER reading the novel as it made me question why certain things had not been dealt with. This notwithstanding, there is so much to love about this tale with clever nods to philosophy along the way.

The Glutton is an enthralling, gut-wrenching story of hardship and humanity set in revolutionary France, following the bizarrely likeable protagonist, Tarare. From his ugly childhood, raised by a single mother who fights to give him a decent life but inevitably falls victim to the terrible reality of society, resorting to the unthinkable to keep food on the table.

When his mother falls into a toxic relationship with a shady character, so begins a chain of events through which Tarare stumble, fighting for his life at every corner, getting to know an eclectic and fascinating ensemble of acquaintances along the way. The plot flows exceptionally smoothly and the action keeps coming, keeping the reader thoroughly engaged as the novel develops.

Blakemore has truly created a wonderful world in which I found myself absorbed. I didn't want this book to end, and found myself mulling over so many questions of morality. This is a wonderful novel, I highly recommend reading if you're a fan of historical fiction, borderline magical-realism with a basis in real-life mythology.

Thank you to NetGalley and Granta Books, who gave me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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“'Perhaps you can write my story down somewhere. He closes his eyes and tents his hands over his chest, with a chuckle. The Great Tarare. My own little blue book for sale at Monsieur Dessein’s. It would please me.'
The memoirs of a cannibal, she thinks. But who would wish to read such a thing?"

Everyone who picked up this book, apparently.

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The Glutton is a novel that introduces us to Tarare, a peasant who lives in eighteenth-century France. He is in the care of a convent and is rumoured to be a cannibal and a monster. He begs the Sister on watch to hear his final confession, in which he details his sad life: how he came to have the unnatural, uncontrollable hunger that he was infamous for and the dark paths that hunger led him down.

I’d never heard of Tarare before I came across this book. The fact that he was supposedly a real person is a bit of a mad thought. Though I know this is a reimagining of a real person’s life, I found myself wondering in general how much of Tarare’s ‘real story’ is legend and how much was true. Every great legend is based in fact, after all much like every lie has a nugget of truth. Of course, it will be impossible to know for sure.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I kept putting the book down and walking away from it for days at a time, but whenever I did pick it up, I flew through a fair chunk of the text. The middle was quite slow which I think is why it took me longer to get through. I also found that it highlighted a lot of things that I personally find I overlook when it comes to revolutionary periods in a country’s history: how the revolution affected the working classes outside of the cities or how chaotic the years immediately after the end of the revolution would have been for the ordinary person. I appreciated that Blakemore chose to focus on the pressures such revolutionary changes would cause in the general population of a country.

I will admit that this book’s saving grace is not its subject matter, however, but its writing. I loved the way the author described food and scenery in this, it was cinematic in style without the prose becoming overwhelming. There were also sections where the writing represented Tarare’s devolving mental state due to the toll his enormous appetite was taking on him. These sections were my favourites to read, even though they were heavy at times, as they portrayed his despair very well. A stand-out section came toward the end:

“He walks south. He thinks perhaps if he walks far enough, the grass will pale and the trees will die off into scorched carcasses, and he will have a desert, a certain white wasteland, in which to live out his contrition, circled by bald-headed vultures. Tarare’s imagination was always rich. Now it is richer. No stars no roots no glow of rain. It is good to hurt, godly. It is good to be circled by vultures. Let the sandstorms tear the hospital smock from his body. Let his face be slashed by blazing winds.”

See what I mean? The prose, much like Tarare’s imagination, is rich.

I suppose my prevailing thought on reflection is that this book may not have become a favourite of mine, but I certainly enjoyed Blakemore as a writer. I may have to reach for her work again in the future.

I loved The Glutton! I've been obsessed with Tarrare since I first heard about him, so was very keen to read this book and it didn't disappoint. Beautifully created historical fiction that's full of life, with descriptions so vivid you could reach out and touch them.

Absolutely no eating when reading this one. I definitely had to pause my audiobook while preparing food, and I’m not queasy. Since Tarrare was quite the tumblr phenomenon back in the day (Tarrare girlies out there, you know who you are), I was vaguely familiar with the historical figure and only did a quick Wikipedia read before starting into The Glutton.

With that revision in mind and my memories refreshed, I’m afraid the novelization of Tarrare’s life story didn’t add much to the Wikipedia article on the person. While in part beautifully written (and in part a gruesome, ugly account of Tarrare’s worst moments), and successfully giving especially young Tarrare more of a background story and motivation, the later events of his life weren’t exactly reinvented by A.K. Blakemore.

This is not a book to read on a bad day.

And now it's time for me to take a break from literary fiction.

The harrowing and unnerving story of Tarare, a lonely outcast with insatiable hunger which was triggered when he underwent a near-death experience at the hands of his mother’s lover.
As expected, the writing and language from Blakemore is exemplary and the content is occasionally quite grotesque, for this vegetarian’s appetite anyway…
At times I was reminded of Suskind’s Perfume which also features an unpleasant protagonist with questionable proclivities which is high praise indeed. Excellent stuff.

Really great, a hilarious, tragic and disgusting read about a man named Tarare who just cannot stop eating. This is a historical novel set in France and since his traumatic childhood Tarare has always had an insatiable appetite. When he leaves home his hunger forces into various situations around the country and his desires become increasingly dark and taboo.

I loved the writing in this and how it used a sort of framing narrative for a lot of the book. When he was lying in the bed speaking to the nun I was really enjoying these sections. His childhood was also one of the best parts of the book. I found the writing really tongue in cheek and it suited Tarare’s character so well. I felt like it was a great mix between satire and a truly abominable story - dark comedy at its finest.

Well, here’s another absolute banger of a historical fiction novel!

The Glutton by A. K. Blakemore is based on the real life story of Tarare, a man born into poverty but happy with that life. That is until his mother meets the man who changes her life, presumably for the better - and changes Tarare’s life for the worst.

He’s known as the man who ate a golden fork (that eventually kills him), live animals, offal, a baby - but still people want to watch him put away vast amounts of food (and non-food!). And if it means he’s fed, Tarare sees it as a way of satiating the ever-present hunger. The draw of the circus freak is overwhelming for the French public.

Tarare is a simple man who is taken advantage of at every turn. I felt so sorry for him. He has the disadvantage of not only being very unusual, but also uneducated and poor. He has to fight to survive, both as a soldier and as a civilian, and he’s seen as a joke by the more well-off.

For such a grotesque subject matter, the writing really is rather beautiful. Descriptions of Tarare’s childhood and the place that he grew up were sensitively done - you could see the love of his local area and the love he felt for his mother. Even in the most disgusting sections of the book, there was a kind of beauty.

A deliciously bizarre, beautifully written book. I loved it.

Retelling the story of Tarare, the seemingly bottom less pit with no limits of how much and what he consumed, Blakemore twists his gluttony in something darker and twisted. It was a bizarre but entrancing read, and the writing itself was done beautifully, despite the subject matter.