81. Innovation - The History of England Volume VI, Peter Ackroyd (2014)
A prolific writer on England, especially London, this was a good read, bringing back memories of our time in UK and the political and social events and movements of the 20th century. A last sentence to remember - 'It may be that as the millennium progresses, the English will recover what was once their glory in that most precious and fugitive of instincts: a capacity for awe.' (p.462).
82. Under the Skin, Michael Faber (2000)
An extremely well written, unsettling book.
The novel follows Isserley, a strange, solitary woman who drives around the Scottish Highlands picking up male hitchhikers. She appears to be an attractive young woman but it's quickly clear that something is off. Isserley is extremely focused on the physical build of the men she picks up - she selects only muscular, solitary indivduals.
Over time, the truth unfolds: Isserley is an alien from a planet where humans ("vodsels") are considered livestock. She has been surgically altered to appear human and is part of a sinister operation on Earth. The men she abducts are taken to a hidden farm, where they're fattened, mutilated (including being made mute), and eventually slaughtered for meat, which is then sent back to her home planet as a delicacy.
Despite her dedication to the job, Isserley begins to struggle with guilt and alienation. She reflects on her own body, on the class structure of her home world (she was surgically changed because she was poor and expendable), and starts to see humans less as animals and more as fellow beings with feelings, dreams, and inner lives.
A turning point comes when Amlis Vess, the son of a powerful elite from her planet, visits the farm and voices his disgust with the practice of eating humans. His compassion for the captives deeply unsettles Isserley, awakening a moral crisis within her."
Themes: alienation, mechanization, ethics of meat consumption, bodily identity, social class and societal cruelty.
The book was made into a movie, starring Scarlett Johansson, in 2013.
