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As Meat Loves Salt

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 1,630 ratings · 284 reviews

In the seventeenth century, the English Revolution is under way. The nation, seething with religious and political discontent, has erupted into violence and terror. Jacob Cullen and his fellow soldiers dream of rebuilding their lives when the fighting is over. But the shattering events of war will overtake them.
A darkly erotic tale of passion and obsession, As Meat Loves...more

Paperback, 584 pages

Published January 7th 2003 by Mariner Books (first published February 19th 2001)

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Best Gay Fiction

16th out of 697 books — 866 voters

The Gentleman and the Rogue by Bonnie Dee

Best Gay Historical Romance

16th out of 278 books — 465 voters

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Nov 10, 2012 Madeline rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, historical-fiction, revolution, stuarts, class, queer, love-story, novels, 2012, utopias-and-dystopias

1. There are three things you should know about this book before you start it:
1a. IT IS BRILLIANT.
1b. EVERYONE IN IT IS EXTREMELY FUCKED UP.
1c. It's gonna wear you out.

2. As Meat Loves Salt is a dark, brutal, intelligent, and moving novel. If you could write Caravaggio down, it would be this book. (Interestingly, it has a lot in common with Jarman's movie too - and for reasons other than obsessive erotic fixations with beautiful blond men!) It is beautiful and frightening - terrifying, in some p...more

56 likes · like · see review

Jan 24, 2010 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: littry-fiction

this is the kind of book worth missing a subway stop for; and another book i have had for at least five years without picking up. how many hidden jewels do i have buried under stupid lurid family sagas?? but to be relevant: this is a real sink-your-teeth-into-it book, full of war and rage and betrayal and rough sex. but there are some tender things in it to, like umm... umm.... i dunno, a man who loves red-tinted glass?? yeah but he does some raping, so.. there are some rabbits... but they are m...more

41 likes · like · see review

Jun 13, 2011 Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalker rated it 5 of 5 stars

I will never, ever, ever start a book late at night again (or until I forget that I said this). I literally read this book straight through the night, non fricking stop!

This damn author has this wicked ability to warp my numb ass right back in time so that I felt like I was there watching the scenes unfold instead of simply reading the scenes.

Oh and let me tell you the scenes I was watching were not of the fluffy bunny type. No, they were of the Ted Bundy type. Here is the most twisted revelati...more

26 likes · like · see review

Sep 26, 2007 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book will make you absurdly happy and sad. At one point, I read trembling with excitement, my heart racing and a smile stretched on my face. The day before I had sworn never to read it again. The thing about this book is that you will find yourself repulsed by the protagonist, you will hate him, and yet you are bound to him. And throughout it all you will play the part of the good angel on his shoulder, just hoping he will make the right choices. And when he does you feel happy enough to ex...more

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May 09, 2011 Catie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books, historical, romance, read-in-2011

This is one of those books that I just fell hard and fast for – there was no “warming up” or “getting to know you” period. The first line is one of my favorites this year:

”On the morning we dragged the pond for Patience White, I bent so far down trying to see beneath the surface that my own face peered up at me, twisted and frowning.”

It immediately sets the gruesome scene, and is the first peek into a dark mind. Maria McCann has such a gift for writing. I feel like I didn't so much read this boo...more This is one of those books that I just fell hard and fast for – there was no “warming up” or “getting to know you” period. The first line is one of my favorites this year:

”On the morning we dragged the pond for Patience White, I bent so far down trying to see beneath the surface that my own face peered up at me, twisted and frowning.”

It immediately sets the gruesome scene, and is the first peek into a dark mind. Maria McCann has such a gift for writing. I feel like I didn't so much read this book as lived it. Every sentence is so potent; I just wanted to linger in this book (as heartbreaking as it is) for days. When I put it down, I felt a little lost for a while. That’s the hardest and most brilliant part of this book – I was so connected to the main character that I felt everything that he was feeling, and I dared to hope for great things for him. Unfortunately, this is a doomed hope because Jacob Cullen “was not made to be loved” (in his own words).

Jacob Cullen is a large and imposing man, dark and prone to violence, possessive with hints of madness. He loses his temper and commits unspeakable acts. Desperate and on the run, he joins up with a group of soldiers and meets quiet, naïve dreamer Ferris. As his attachment to Ferris becomes more intense, he becomes more emotionally unstable.

Jacob is as compelling as he is unreliable. I was drawn in by every word, but at the same time was caught wondering how much is colored by his own madness. I really wonder what this story would have looked like from another character's point of view. Through the course of the book Jacob shows himself to be cruel, abusive, and quick to anger, but he also shows himself to be caring and loyal and brave. I hoped desperately for Jacob to find peace and happiness, but I read this book with a sense of total dread, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This is a book about the complete altering power of love - it can make you gentle and patient; it can make you crazy; it can make you lose everything.

Perfect Musical Pairing

Radiohead – All I Need

As usual, there are some differing opinions on the interpretation of the lyrics of this song. But, since this is my review, my opinion is all that matters! Mwa ha ha! I think that this is the ultimate intense, devoted, sick-love song. It has a dark, haunting orchestral sound that fits perfectly with this book.

I'm an animal
Trapped in your hot car

I am all the days
That you choose to ignore

You are all I need
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Mar 23, 2012 Rich rated it 5 of 5 stars

Short Review: Other reviewers have beautifully described the plot and the characterization, and if you read the reviews, you will see the passion this book elicits. This is the kind of novel that should win awards, but doesn't. For me, it was a completely engrossing experience. I found myself struggling to get through the work day so I could get home and continue reading. What a complex, bloody, beautiful, and terrifying read. McCann is a writer of great skill. Though the book is over 500 pages...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Red Haircrow rated it 5 of 5 stars

The reader is immediately drawn into the world of Jacob Cullen, a darkly charismatic former servant turned soldier whose sincere cravings for love and understanding are too often marred by his jealous and suspicious nature which creates a mystery the reader discovers in well-timed increments.

After seeming to escape a troubled past, he falls in love with a fellow warrior, who passionately accepts and teaches him of the love between men, yet their own obsessive behavior threatens to destory everyt...more

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Apr 04, 2008 Jerry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finishing this book broke my heart. I honestly did not want it to end and when it did I cried. Maria McCann has written the most beautifully historically accurate story about two soldiers in Oliver Cromwell's army who quite unexpectedly fall in love. The story is at times savage and grisly in war and tender and heartbreaking at times. London in the 17th century was not a civilized place. McCann is a professor of history at Sommerset College in England and you get the full benefit of ther knowled...more

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May 27, 2009 Maya Panika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My lord but Jacob Cullen is a disturbed and dangerous soul! - Something you should know before reading this book because he draws you into his world and makes you love him, hate him, weep for him by turns as he destroys everything he loves and - for what?

The lovers are two halves of a coin, light and dark, one as honest and easy to read as the other is secretive and Machiavellian – or are they? Because there’s a cruel twist that had me aching and an end that made me cry half the night (and that...more

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Apr 11, 2013 thegift rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: unitedkingdomlit, womanauthor, historifiction, society, religion, crime, xlong-over-100kwords, xxxeslit, lgbtfiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 01, 2008 Denis rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very original, well written, exceptionally researched historical novel centered on an impossible gay love affair between two men that everything separates, except desire and love. It's violent and brutal, it's also about war and British society as much as a doomed love affair - it's totally believable, which cannot be said about a lot of historical novels, and it's heart-rending without falling into all the false romantic traps associated with such stories. The fact that the two protagonists i...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

It just occurred to me that, without necessarily meaning to, I find myself rereading this book once a year. I'll go months without thinking about it, without thinking about anything related to it, and then one day I'll be driving and see a tired-looking pedestrian and I'll be back there with Jacob on the Devizes road, parched of throat and sore of foot and so hungry he won't even think about food. Then nothing will do but read those scenes again, and before I know it I'm in Winchester, I'm in Lo...more

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Jun 15, 2013 Jayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic first novel. I was told to read this a couple of years back by a friend and I've read it again since. Each time, I picked up something new. The background is meticulously researched. I could almost smell the blood and filth of the battlefield during the Civil War scenes, and feel the tension as the young brothers looked through the inflamatory pamphlets that would cause them so much trouble. As a novel, it seemed accurate without being deathly, the facts interwoven with stron...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Quinn rated it 3 of 5 stars

I finally started this. I had wanted to read it for awhile but knew it was heavier than the less stellar lit I had suddenly become engrossed with of late(literally the last month) ie, gay romances. I figured there'd be some historical narrative but I felt myself thankful for having read Thomas mores utopia and other lit from the era as well as being somewhat familiar with the time. I'm not sure how I feel at this point. The first half is very full of the historical and the personal concerning Ja...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

An epic story, provocative and enthralling
If anything, Maria McCann’s epic historical novel portrays as profoundly as anything I’ve read the razor-thin line that separates love and hate.

Two foot soldiers in Cromwell’s New Model army during the English Civil War – Jacob who wields a pike and Ferris who minds the canons – find soul mates in each other, later become lovers and then two scorpions circling one another. Throughout, they experience life in the Seventeenth Century with an intensity that...more An epic story, provocative and enthralling
If anything, Maria McCann’s epic historical novel portrays as profoundly as anything I’ve read the razor-thin line that separates love and hate.

Two foot soldiers in Cromwell’s New Model army during the English Civil War – Jacob who wields a pike and Ferris who minds the canons – find soul mates in each other, later become lovers and then two scorpions circling one another. Throughout, they experience life in the Seventeenth Century with an intensity that can as amazing as it is often dangerous and appalling.

As well as the politics and social structure, the sights, sounds, smells and flavors of the period are vividly rendered by McCann’s scrupulous research. Cromwell’s army fought epic battles including the siege of Basing House, which McCann makes visceral with all its mud and sweat, gore and glory.

“Slashing back I laid a face open. Muskets fired on us from the upper storeys, hand grenades rained down and I saw a man’s head shot bits in front of me, felt his blood and brains fleck my skin. Men fell screaming and were pressed on the stones, the scrape and clatter of their helmets adding the hellish noise.”

Reading “As Meat Love Salt” is much like listening to Shakespeare, it takes more than a few beats for the ear to adjust to the language and adapt to a different cadence. McCann chose to tell her story in the first person and that means we’re reading and need to mentally translate many now-dead words.

But for my ear a great part of my enjoyment of the book results by pulling the meaning from the Seventeenth Century vernacular: “What’s ado, Jacob? Since you came back from London everything jars between you and him.” That’s nice for rendering a different time and place while being clear and precise.

Of the two main characters Ferris is more magnetic but Jacob is the most complex, the most provocative of the pair. Violent and likely deranged, he hears voices, is a thief and murderer – he’s all that but also a person with his own vision of morality that gives him dignity and makes him the more compelling.

“As Meat Loves Salt” is disturbing in its violence but true to its time. Its eroticism serves the intense emotional attraction, the “oneness” the two characters feel for each other. I can imagine readers being either enthralled or put off by the book, which offers no reader any middle ground. Either way it stands apart for being ambitious, daring and ultimately enthralling for the sweep of its story.

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Aug 12, 2011 Elisa Ramblings added it

I waited and waited before reading this book; I found all the possible excuses, like it was out of stock… and they released a paperback version! Like it was too expensive for the shipping cost… and they released an ebook version! It really seemed “they” wanted for me to read it… who they are? My conscience, my heart and my damn love for good historical novels that of course overcome the small voice that was saying, be careful, this book will haunt you. Oh, how much it was right! And unfortunatel...more I waited and waited before reading this book; I found all the possible excuses, like it was out of stock… and they released a paperback version! Like it was too expensive for the shipping cost… and they released an ebook version! It really seemed “they” wanted for me to read it… who they are? My conscience, my heart and my damn love for good historical novels that of course overcome the small voice that was saying, be careful, this book will haunt you. Oh, how much it was right! And unfortunately my voice was not as strong as Jacob’s voice, that made this man the devil that he was.

The book is set during the English revolution of Cromwell and Jacob Cullen is what today you will define a psychopath. For how much I liked him, yes, I did, I was probably liking the man I wanted him to be, the man he could have been if his illness was not making him a monster. When he was able to not listen to his devil inner voice, Jacob was almost a romantic hero; and even if he commits ugly actions, even uglier since they are against the ones he loves more, he is in pain after that… is it enough to make him a good man? No, unfortunately it’s not, since the other Jacob, the one who is following the voice, is like the puppy who bites the hand that is feeding him, for no apparent reason if not that he believes that hand was feeding/loving someone else.

Jacob falls in love for Christopher, and Christopher for him; I truly believe it was love, and I truly believe Jacob is regretting the end of this love (and please don’t be angry, this is not a real spoiler, it’s enough to read any review, or even the blurb, to understand this is not an happily ever after story). Only a man in love could say to the voice (yes, Jacob “talks” with the voice…): “Why did You bid me drown the letter? I have lost something that he touched, and the destruction of it has gained You nothing, for now I no longer read the words, I hear them, as if he implored me face to face: Speak to me, Jacob, do not play the tyrant. Speak to me.” Almost as a precise surgeon, the author chose these words, “Speak to me”, to open and close the first time Jacob went to Christopher, exactly in the middle of the novel, and to close the book, right the last words before the End. Speak to me, Jacob, maybe Christopher was saying, Speak to me and not to your voice? Was Christopher aware that Jacob was crazy, that there was nothing to do to save him?

But there is nothing much to say, Jacob is ill, completely crazy, and for how much Christopher loves him, the other man has dreams that in the end he realizes cannot include Jacob, and that is the moment when Jacob will bite the hand who is feeding him, feeding him love.

You want passion, wrenching love, wonderful and original characters, perfectly carved setting? As Meat Loves Salt is your novel. You want sweet and romance, frilly dresses and comfortable feelings? Avoid this novel as a plague.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0007429266/?...(less)

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Jun 06, 2010 A.M. Riley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review is a little spoiler-ey. And a tad annoyed. Don't read if you don't want to know.

Gorgeous historical, beautifully written which, nonetheless, felt angry towards homosexuals. Or, perhaps, men.

The main character is a brutal narcissist. I tried to find a metaphor to explain his behavior, thinking that perhaps he represented the old bourgeois?

****

****

SPOILERS

There is neither redemption or consolation for the characters or the reader. The main character is filled with remorse but who know...more

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Nov 08, 2009 Sophie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, lgbt, historical-fiction, owned

This is an excellent book. A historical novel set during the English civil war, it's an absolutely engrossing read. It's also very, very dark, and the story really got under my skin. The two main characters are both appalling and appealing at the same time.

I picked it up after it was recommended on some m/m list, and indeed the relationship between the two men is at the heart of the book. But it is not a happy romance, no, far from it. But it was breathtaking to read - I don't recall ever readi...more

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Jan 04, 2008 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thepinkroom

disturbing book. first person narritive that leads you to believe the main character is a bum-around-joe, but later becomes truly demented. I feel like a true first person narritive would clue in the reader immediately - meaning that if I were able to read the thoughts of a derranged killer, I would hopefully be able to "pick up" on it pretty quick. Maybe I overestimate my abilities...but lord help me if I can't..."there are some pretty twisted tickets in this town"

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Aug 13, 2009 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: gay, contemporary-fiction, 2009-read

Ah yes, tortured gay romance. Exceedingly tortured gay romance. "Is there any other kind?" he asks, tongue firmly in cheek.

Actually, this was much better than that piece of tortured fluff Call Me by Your Name. For one thing, there's no masturbation-with-a-ripe-peach scene. Other than the sheer cheesiness of that, if you've ever held a squishy ripe peach in your hand, you'll know that the end result of that will be smeary peach pulp and not two neat halves that can be assembled back together lik...more Ah yes, tortured gay romance. Exceedingly tortured gay romance. "Is there any other kind?" he asks, tongue firmly in cheek.

Actually, this was much better than that piece of tortured fluff Call Me by Your Name. For one thing, there's no masturbation-with-a-ripe-peach scene. Other than the sheer cheesiness of that, if you've ever held a squishy ripe peach in your hand, you'll know that the end result of that will be smeary peach pulp and not two neat halves that can be assembled back together like a Tiffany box with a diamond ring inside. That type of maudlin saccharine fantasy is not what you are going to get here.

This story has heft.

We are in the head of Jacob Cullen, and he can be an exceedingly unlikeable man. Indeed, the novel starts off with us learning that he has killed someone. And after that he rapes his newly wedded wife. Later, he bashes his best friend. This is one chappie who really should go for Anger Management Classes.

But, those were violent times. England was in the throes of the Glorious Revolution. We learn facts about the murder victim and his wife that, if not entirely exonerative of Jacob's actions, at least show that all is not black and white in this world where brother is set against brother and kings were to be beheaded by commoners.

I found it difficult to read in the same way I found Giovanni's Room difficult to read. The emotions were too raw, too close for me sometimes; I had to put down the book and go away for a while. But that is what, ultimately, I loved about this book. It paints people in all their ugly glory: pulsating with need and desire, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but entirely human. If it's hard to read about, it's hard in the same way holding a mirror up to our own conflicted selves is hard.

Maria McCann gets us well into the psyche of Jacob Cullen and no, Jacob Cullen is not a nice man. He rages with anger, need and desire; desperate to be good, and failing as often as not. In other words, he's human. And that's why I liked this book.

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Apr 16, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa by: Sath

Shelves: favorites, glbt, historical-fiction, m-m, psychological-drama

It’s said the opposite of love is not hate, nor is the opposite of hate love. The passion behind both emotions is too connected and too keen for them to be entirely contrary to each other. Crimes of passion, after all, have been committed in the name of both love and hate. Sometimes it’s difficult to detect a difference between the two.

No, the opposite of love and hate both is cold, cruel, and calculated indifference.

I am anything but indifferent toward this book.

I hate it with a passion that bu...more It’s said the opposite of love is not hate, nor is the opposite of hate love. The passion behind both emotions is too connected and too keen for them to be entirely contrary to each other. Crimes of passion, after all, have been committed in the name of both love and hate. Sometimes it’s difficult to detect a difference between the two.

No, the opposite of love and hate both is cold, cruel, and calculated indifference.

I am anything but indifferent toward this book.

I hate it with a passion that burns with the intensity of a thousand suns. I love this book with a passion that burns like a madness that has wormed its way into me and will never leave. Reading As Meat Loves Salt is a slow and subtle torture, like your skin is being flayed in small, barely discernible strips—until you reach the end and realize that you’re nothing but a raw nerve that’s been scoured by a story so gritty and seductive that it may very well ruin me for other books for some time to come.

As Meat Loves Salt is the sort of novel you read and it makes you realize how ridiculous it is to either rate or review it, because sometimes a book is so unparalleled there’s nothing to compare it to, nothing that you can use as a barometer against which to measure all you felt about it as you became absorbed by the words the author chose to tell the tale, words that were pure poetry and the writer’s postscript to a love affair with storytelling.

It is epic, from the gruesome opening to the forbidden obsession to the betrayal and eventual descent into madness; this is not a romance, nor is it a love story. It is a story of possession, of control, of dominance, of manipulation. It is the story of two men who misused the word love, when what they really meant was they wanted and needed each other with a fixation so overwhelming that it consumed them whole. It is a story of deception and a deceptive story, a study of virtue and vice, in which Patience, Wisdom, Grace, and Mercy are no more than mere humans, a story in which Courage and Providence stand shoulder to shoulder with Vanity and Shame, a book where Eternity is Hell not Paradise. There is no Eden, in the end, no Utopia where men and women will live as equals. In the end, there is only Sodom and Gomorrah and a pillar of salt to witness its destruction.

Too much salt will not preserve but spoil. Too much salt will not season but taint. “It seemed like wine and tobacco, I was delicious, but still not reckoned a necessity of life.” As oversalting is to meat, Jacob was to Christopher and Christopher was to Jacob—something that was so vast it set out to taint and spoil rather than to preserve.

I am lost to describe the beauty of this book. I reckon I’ll never read another like it again.

TNA (less)

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Jun 21, 2011 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, historical-fiction

You know how an injured or frightened animal will strike out fiercely, biting and scratching, when feeling frightened or cornered, even a pet at its much-loved master? That's Jacob Cullen. As the book begins, he is a servant dragging a pond for the body of a servant missing from a neighbouring house; we soon find out that he is the one responsible for the man's violent death. Against the background of the English Civil War, he moves from countryside to London and back to countryside again, drive...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Lisa (scarlet21) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! A bodice ripper with a difference! If this book is meat then I don't think salt could make it better, seriously. It has everything you could want from a historical novel - powerful depictions of a country at war; the stench and gore of the battlefield; the heat, excitement and greed of lust; jealousy; doomed love; the strive for power; and a compelling and dangerous love story.

Both Jacob and Ferris are complicated and disturbing characters who evoked my sympathy, disgust and confusion but I...more

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May 22, 2010 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, m-m, military, ugh, monthly-challenge

I can't even decide how to rate this one. On one hand, it's incredibly well done. There's a reason people call it a masterpiece. The storytelling is amazing, the historical setting so clear you can picture-- even smell and taste-- the surroundings, and there are a lot of lovable characters to enjoy-- albeit for a short time. On the other hand, the story itself, the main character, Jacob, his spiral into insanity... It's not an easy book to read and not something I enjoyed. I was captivated in a...more

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Aug 19, 2009 sage rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, glbt-interest, horror, reviewed, fiction, crime

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. More notes than a review. I'm still processing it.

Really well-crafted. Dark like Faulkner. Jacob is a train-wreck and a fairly satisfying anti-hero, albeit deeply fucked up and deeply crazy. Ferris is also fucked up, and not in ways that compliment Jacob's crazy. It's clear from the allegory in the preface that things are going to end badly, although I admit I hoped for a happy ending.

Turning the Jewish folktale about a father and daughter's screwed up relationship into a doomed romance between...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Rancour Comma The rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-best-books-in-the-world

I picked this book up at the library once for no other reason than I thought the title was odd and I figured if I didn't like it, I could return it unread. I didn't even read the blurb or anything. I ended up being blown completely away.
The book hooked me from the very first word. I think Maria McCann is a genius. I truly do. What an emotional rollercoaster this book is. Books and movies almost never affect me, but when this book was over I didn't know what to do with myself. I never wanted it t...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Mandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

Really well-written book even though the main chacter was a JERK!

From NPR: http://www.npr.org/2010/11/01/1309761...

Wish I'd heard of it before bookclub, would have recommended it. Esp. when the reviewer says "Yet McCann's novel — to my incredulity, her first — is one of the most erotic I have ever read, but it isn't, like so much erotic literature, embarrassing."

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Dec 12, 2011 Chance rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, a-gay-old-time

I needed a few minutes to compose myself after completing this book. This book opens up raw wounds--physically, emotionally, spiritually--and pokes around inside them.

As Meat Loves Salt is the story of Jacob Cullen, a manservant in 17th-century England. The setting could not be more perfect. As England is wracked by Civil War, so is Jacob torn apart by his changing attitudes toward religion and sexuality. Jacob is filled with wrath, reasons which can be inferred but are never fully explained. He...more

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Nov 16, 2009 Mary rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My initial thoughts about this book were fairly accurate. The main characters had few redeeming qualities and there are far too many loose ends left as you turn the final page.

I knew the book would end badly, but I assumed it would be because of the affair the men were having. Medieval England frowned on diversity- I braced myself for the same sad feelings that surfaced upon watching Brokeback Mountain, feelings of anger at the unfairness of it all and at the narrow minded bigotry of so many pe...more My initial thoughts about this book were fairly accurate. The main characters had few redeeming qualities and there are far too many loose ends left as you turn the final page.

I knew the book would end badly, but I assumed it would be because of the affair the men were having. Medieval England frowned on diversity- I braced myself for the same sad feelings that surfaced upon watching Brokeback Mountain, feelings of anger at the unfairness of it all and at the narrow minded bigotry of so many people. But none of this happened. The affair ended on its own, through the brute bullishness of the main character Jacob and the single mindedness of his lover, Christopher Ferris.

Jacob, for want of another word, was a bully. He was large and strong and he used that strength to bully others into doing what he wanted, and he wanted to have Ferris to himself. He scared off Ferris's other friends and those Jacob perceived as threats to his relationship with him. Furthermore, he was a murderer and a rapist. He learned nothing from past mistakes and did nothing to change his life for the better even though he knew the things he'd done were wrong.

Ferris was completely obsessed with forming a farming colony; nothing would stop him from achieving his dream, even though Jacob was unwilling and it meant leaving Aunt, the woman who had raised Ferris since infancy, alone in her old age. He gathered a handful of colonists and set up a farm on a Common, only to be warned that the land belonged to one of the local Lords who would, and did, eventually come to forcibly take the land from them.

There is a battle in the end, but we don't know if Ferris or the colonists survive. What comes of the baby, and whose baby is it? What of Jacob's brother Zeb? What transpired to cause such hostility between them? Had Jacob raped his brother and erased it from his mind? And the brother Izzy--where is he? Did Aunt succumb of the illness she suffered in the final pages? See what I mean? Too many loose ends for my liking.

And Jacob- the least likable and least deserving of the book's characters, runs away- free to make a new life for himself in New England, where he will doubtless make the same mistakes he's made all his life.

Ugh.

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May 21, 2010 Erastes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: gay-historical

Jacob Cullen, a man of hasty temper and with an unstable temperment is forced, for reasons I won’t divulge, to flee the manor where he serves with his wife and his brother. Very soon he falls out with them and they desert him, leaving him to attempt to walk to Bristol. He falls in with The New Model Army (Cromwell’s Army) and joins them for a month or two in which time he becomes obsessed with Christopher Ferris, a troubled but basically good man.

This is a very clever book, in a lot of ways. It’...more

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About Maria McCann

Maria McCann is an English novelist. She was born in Liverpool in 1956 and worked as a lecturer in English at Strode College, Street, Somerset since 1985, until starting work with Arden.

Her first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was released in 2001. The story focuses on the relationship of two men, Jacob Cullen and Christopher Ferris, and is set during the English Civil War. They desert their posts in...more

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Trivia About As Meat Loves Salt

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Quotes from As Meat Loves Salt

“I followed him up the stairs. I was a fornicator, of unnatural appetite, in thrall to an Atheist. I repeated the words in my head and tried to feel the shock of them, but they remained strange and cruel, far removed from Ferris and me. It was simpler to say I was in love.” — 12 people liked it

“I wondered at him, so wise and so foolish, to have lived with me all these months and not know that the worst storms break inside a man.” — 7 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271487.As_Meat_Loves_Salt?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328876367l/271487.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271487.As_Meat_Loves_Salt?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann[/url]

As Meat Loves Salt

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