THE CANNIBAL - graphic novel
When the patriarch of this Inuit family hunts, day after day and the animals he relies on for food for himself and his family have disappeared. Day after day the hunt produces nothing, and the family is going hungry. He knows where there is meat, though, and after another fruitless day, he he kills, skins, and boils the meat off the bones of the family pets.
When that meat is gone, the man attacks his fellow villagers, providing a good stockpile of meat. But still the animals don't return and the man does the unthinkable, killing and eating his own children. His wife, heart-broken, refuses to eat her own children and settles for what few plants she can forage.
But now the woman knows that her husband will stop at nothing to fill his stomach and there's only one source of meat left and it's only a matter of time - his next failed hunting day - and he'll look to kill and eat her as well. So she hides when he goes out and when he comes back, prepared to kill her, he flies into a rage and runs off looking for her. She runs then, surviving on the plants she's used to finding, until she comes to another community who welcome her.
When the man finally comes to the same community, the people, who know the woman's story, have a special surprise for the man.
I've been fascinated by Inuit stories for a number of years now, so it was the fact that this was both a graphic novel and an Inuit tale that drew me to this book. I was shocked and disgusted by the graphic nature of this story. I read a lot of horror and splatter-punk, so it's not easy to disgust me. In part this comes because I wasn't finding a moral or even a purpose to this tale. I'm still not at all sure what I'm supposed to be taking away from this.
Even the ending strikes me as strange and a let-down. It comes about quite suddenly and we miss the woman's growth in her new community and we miss what has driven and kept the man alive during the time the woman has been gone.
The artwork is good, but again, graphic. And graphic without cause.
Looking for a good book? The Cannibal is an Inuit tale, told in graphic novel form by Louise Flaherty, Solomon Awa, and artist Raphael Ter-Stephanov. It is dark, disgusting, and could be interesting, but it's missing the climax.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
2-1/2 stars
* * * * * *
The Cannibal
author: Louise Flaherty, Solomon Awa
artist: Raphael Ter-Stephanov
publisher: Inhabit Media
ISBN: 9781772274813
hardcover, 44 pages
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