BookWeazle
Under the skin by Michael Faber
Amazon description: In the opening pages of Under the Skin, a lone female is scouting the Scottish Highlands in search of well-proportioned men: “Isserley always drove straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her.” At this point, the reader might be forgiven for anticipating some run-of-the-mill psychosexual drama. But commonplace expectation is no help when it comes to Michel Faber’s strange and unsettling first novel; small details, then major clues, suggest that something deeply bizarre is afoot. What are the reasons for Isserley’s extensive surgical scarring, her thick glasses, her excruciating backache? Who are the solitary few who work on the farm where her cottage is located? And why are they all nervous about the arrival of someone called Amlis Vess?The ensuing narrative is of such cumulative, compelling strangeness that it almost defies description. The one thing that can be said with certainty is that Under the Skin is unlike anything else you have ever read. Faber’s control of his medium is nearly flawless. Applying the rules of psychological realism to a fictional world that is both terrifying and unearthly, he nonetheless compels the reader’s absolute identification with Isserley .
**My review: It gets under the skin.
This is a strange story in that it doesn’t fit any particular genre, but rather many genres. Issley spends her days in her vehicle trolling the roadways for hitchhikers. Some are kept and some are thrown back. But for what purpose are they kept? Slowly the story unfolds and we find out just why some are kept. This story makes you think about animals that are kept as food in a whole other light. I will ever look at a hamburger or a piece of chicken quite the same way again. In fact, I may just forgo meat altogether. At times a bit unnerving, this story keeps you riveted because of the questions it raises.
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