Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

This is a real Marmite book… it seems, you either love it or hate it!  I would like to explore why that might be and try to get to the bottom of why there is such a divide.

The subject matter could be a sticking point for some readers.  The blurb goes like this…

Fifteen-year-old Liga, emotionally and physically battered from bearing two children, one begot through incest, the other through rape, is magically granted her own heaven, a gentle patient version of the rough world she once knew.  Here there are no brutal fathers, no leering village boys; there is only a beautiful little cottage in the middle of a wood.  Here she brings up her two daughters, fair Branza and dark Urdda, in perfect peace.  But the membrane between Liga’s heaven and the real world has grown thin over the years, allowing some who are not as pure-hearted as Liga and her daughters to enter.  And likewise, the girls discover they can pass through into the real world of Liga’s tortured past.

Now, a book for teens with such a sensitive subject matter could be a sticking point for some readers and for their parents.  Anyone approaching Tender Morsels without prior knowledge might think it was a bit heavy or depressing or even nasty.  But they’d be wrong.  There are a few moments where things skirt close to all of these but overall this is handled so sensitively and with such huge emotion that it sweeps you up and focuses you on Liga’s inner turmoil rather than dwelling on her actual experience.  And this is a theme throughout Tender Morsels. There is emotion etched into every page which gave me more of a psychological experience than any book has for a very long time. I think people call it, being touched, but I would say this book does a whole lot more – it makes you see things differently.

I always like to comment on the writing and for me, Tender Morsels is in a class of its own.  I think this may be one of the reasons some people aren’t so keen on it.  It’s both lyrical and filled with stunning imagery and I think some teens especially may find some of it inaccessible.   However, if they stuck with it for a while they would see that the way this book is written has a very distinct function.  The story is based on the Grimm’s fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red and the writing matches perfectly to that age old spinning of tales round the fire.  It takes you deeper into the story rather than pushing you away.  I had to stop marking my favourite parts because there was pretty much nothing left over.  So here’s a passage to give you a taster…

‘Joseph!’ she whispered in fright. ‘Master Lathe!’

And his eyes were all kindness again. ‘Miss?’ he said.

‘My name is Liga,’ she said.

‘Yes.’ His hand lay warm in hers.  It seemed to Liga that he looked upon her much as he had been looking at the bowl as it came into being against the lathe.

‘What was that?’ She was hot with fear. ‘What happened to you just now?  To your eyes?’

‘You asked too much of me, Liga.’ He lowered his eyes, but she had seen the sky rushing in them again. ‘I was not made for it.’

‘For what?’ She hardly wanted to ask.

‘To… to feel anything for myself.  Lonely or no.’

Liga was stiff with terror.  The wind, the frost,and worst of all the vast emptiness she had seen behind his eyes translated itself into his voice.  If she could see them now, they would be blank as the moon.  But he had just used her name, Liga. He had known her better than Joseph the Lathe ought to, better then Ada Keller or Wife Taylor or anyone in the town or country did, better maybe even than she knew herself.  To her very depths, with all her secrets, she was known by everyone here, by everything.

Joseph kept his gaze of their hands , but the light form his eyes stuttered in her lap. The world was flimsy around her; it rippled like embroidery on a curtain, and beyond the curtain was chaos, and a light that might blind her.

Tender Morsels is a book to be savoured, to be appreciated and to become lost in.  It almost seems like a Classic in the best sense of the word… as though it was written longhand with a quill by the golden glow of candlelight.  While reading you get the impression that this book was written to stand the test of time, like a piece of fine furniture or intricately painted masterpiece.

By now, you’ll be well aware that I’m in the love-it camp!  Although I do understand that there may be certain aspects of Tender Morsels that some people find less appealing, for anyone sitting on the fence out there, wondering which camp they would join I would advise you to read it and decide for yourself.  If you don’t you may well be missing one of reading’s greatest experiences.