The Thick and The Lean
Chana Porter
Hardcover / Ebook
ISBN: 9781668000199
Gallery/Saga Press, April 2023, 384 pages

Greetings, readers, and welcome back to another book review. I’m going to be upfront with you right off the bat—I try to recommend good books, some of which are great books, but this month’s book, The Thick and the Lean, by Chana Porter, is phenomenal.

Ostensibly the story of two seemingly unconnected women, Beatrice and Reiko (along with a third character, Ijo, who plays a flashback/supporting role), The Thick and the Lean takes place in a fictional world ravaged by the violent weather patterns and tides of its two moons, where humanity survives above the waves on a small island and its towering futuristic city. Beatrice is a member of a pastoral religious sect that appears to be a utopia on its surface, while Reiko is a member of the supplanted native inhabitants of the island, eager to pursue her university scholarship offer in the big city, but the thread linking both of them is that they don’t quite belong where they currently are, and aren’t sure what to do about it.

Okay, descriptions out of the way, let me tell you why I thought this book was so fantastic. First off, it is an incredibly subversive piece of literature. Beatrice’s religion is an identifiable mélange of several real religions (primarily Christianity), but with one tiny alteration—eating food is considered the great sin, while sex is considered a natural part of everyday life, and I cannot tell you how cleverly Porter manages to pull this off. It’s like staring at a familiar picture where everything seems normal except for one tiny detail, and as you start focusing in on it, you realize you’re actually standing upside down and now the sky is green, but everything still makes perfect sense. For that feat alone I would recommend the book, but Porter doesn’t stop there, because this work is so much more than a one-trick pony.

The other main character, Reiko, has a storyline that, on the surface, is a mixture of the supplanted indigenous/immigrant experience coupled with some biting thoughts on the modern higher education system, but it also delves into socio-economic class dynamics, racial discrimination, and the ethics of accumulating power. Both Reiko and Beatrice are complicated people, who make complicated choices, but here’s the clever bit.

The Thick and the Lean could have easily been a heavy-handed lecture delivered by a Sociology 101 student, but the way Porter writes, the word choices and style she uses, makes this book an absolute delight to read. It flows smoothly from thought to thought in an effortless way that is almost impossible to pull off successfully, and its heavier motifs are initially unobtrusive, lingering on the palate like a complex sauce that demands you eventually pay attention to it.

Did I also mention this is a book centered around food?

In fact, my only complaint about The Thick and the Lean is due to how well Porter sets the culinary atmosphere, I wanted more recipes. Food—the acquiring of, eating of, disposing of, and its relationship with oneself—is a central motif of the book, and there were multiple times Porter’s descriptions made me legitimately hungry, but they were always delivered in just the right amount (looking at you Tolkien and your interminable fifteen pages of hobbit dinners). Like the perfect pairing of appetizer and entree, Porter keeps the subject of food front and center without letting it overwhelm anything else she wants to say.

Overall, I really hope I’ve sold you on checking out The Thick and the Lean, because it is that good. This is the type of book that quite a few schools will be using in their curriculum years from now, and quite a few other schools will have banned. It is a celebration of defiance, delivered not with fiery rhetoric and indignant outrage, but presented with humble confidence, like a generational family recipe—a perfectly seasoned fish stew built off a three-day base and years of hard work mastering the small details.

Seriously. You do not want to miss this book. My compliments to the chef.

Read if: You’ve ever felt like a square peg surrounded by round holes; you appreciate sex positivity; sometimes you just want to burn it all down.