«Carnum»: would you like another slice?

What if the new world was one of cannibalism? But healthy, consenting cannibalism, via strict surgical removal methods. What would you do? This is Christophe Carpentier's tenth novel, published by Le Diable Vauvert. 

When Jérôme, a CAC 40 boss in the throes of burn-out, is approached by Edwige, an eccentric surgeon, he doesn't expect her to offer to start a bloody business with her. Together, they embark on a flourishing business whose immorality is matched only by its profitability.

When capitalism rhymes with cannibalism

There it is, the crux of the novel: money. So much money, in fact, that it's hard to resist. The poorest start selling themselves to pay the house payments, while the richest spend it to touch the flight of first times, the first prohibitions. 

However, where the former will naturally be limited at a certain point, the latter, like all addicts, will become unstoppable. The author's intriguing idea is that this meat is addictive. But if money en masse can cover any other addiction, what about human meat?

«Money devalues everything. Money makes everything plausible, but without access to the truth of beings. Meditative silence. Where is the revolutionary greatness of cannibalism for money?»

A cold buffet, ice-cold writing

The novel is strangely built almost exclusively around dialogue, like a play. Apart from the presentation of «tableaux» that serve as chapters, the text is based solely on exchanges between the protagonists. The process may seem interesting, even innovative for some, but it's still a smokescreen that takes up the form, but not the substance, of this style.

It's clear that Christophe Carpentier doesn't know how to manage his idea, and therefore avoids many of the questions, outlets and problems that his concept brings with it.

How can we explain, for example, the ease with which all the protagonists presented, and then the whole world, lapse into anthropophagic practices? Of course, the metaphor is there: man is on the edge of a precipice, and all he needs is the impetus. But from a strictly narrative point of view, it doesn't make sense.

Snack meat, a missed opportunity

The novel's humor is what should make it captivating, keeping us on our toes. However, it doesn't know where to start, and finds itself stuck between badly reheated Blier-style dialogue and moments of absurdity that just don't work.

And yet the subject had all the makings of being hilarious and hard-hitting, with the excellent Barbaque by Fabrice Eboué, released last year, which combined a similar concept with a total noir bias. In the present case, once past the surprise of the consent procedures, the novel quickly slips into the classicism of «concept» dystopias and no longer masters its subject.

Read also | Barbaque, some like it rare

It's a shame, when you want to criticize your contemporaries, to fall into the same trap as them, with a story that will be talked about more for its theme than for its quality.

Write to the author: mathieu.vuillerme@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Pixabay

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Christophe Carpentier 
Carnum 
Au Diable Vauvert
2022 
188 pages 

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