Reluctant Cannibals

June 15, 2015

Actually, these cannibals are not reluctant so much as restrained. (After all, there are rules about such matters.) They're members of the Shadow Faculty of Gastronomic Science, a dodgy dining society consisting of Oxford University faculty given to seeking out and sharing daring dining experiences. To quote from the comic duo Flanders and Swann's song "The Reluctant Cannibals," they're really "regular anthropophaguys," potentially at least. Their opportunity comes when member Arthur Plantagenet is diagnosed with an iffy ticker and considers what he can do for the group. At his death, and in keeping with the terms of his eccentric will, the bulk of his ashes end up on a friend's mantel while a goodly portion of his salted left leg gets lodged in one of the organ pipes of his college's chapel, being air-dried as nicely as any duck in the window of a Chinese restaurant. Before it's all over, a splendid time (and a bottle of very nice Nuits St. Georges) is had by all. VERDICT If you have ever enjoyed a cricket sandwich (or even considered it), thought of throwing brickbats at men in top hats, or simply savored a deliciously dark academic comedy that unfolds at the leisurely pace of the Isis through Oxford, this one's for you. [This debut novel was short listed for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and won the Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Award.--Ed.]--Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO

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