Flesh by David Szalay

This book made the shortlist for the Booker prize 2025 and I admit, that is partly why I read it. I'm glad I did because it was a trip. It lingered long after I finished it. I'll probably continue to think about it for some time.

Despite the clue in the title, I was un-prepared for how much sex there would be in the book. In part, the story explores what it's like to inhabit a male body. When István is 15, he is groomed by his next door neighbour, a woman in her forties. This is where the story begins. István is simultaneously repulsed and titillated and it's very discomfitting reading it. In addition to this ambivalence, swirls adolescent confusion, intense emotions and an inability to control his bodily reactions. Then things get more complicated.

Remarkable things happen in István's life. In addition to the grooming, István experiences war, PTSD, more discomfitting sex, emigration from Hungary to London where he rises from low paid work to a jet set lifestyle, the stuff of life: births, deaths, marriages, and all of it with such emotional repression, that it had a muting effect on my own reactions to his plight.

The writing style is at a remove to depict how detachedly István goes through life. Like István, we jetski on the surface of his emotions which run deep, never once diving under, to explore the wreck. It's probably the only way István is able to cope with the traumatic experiences he goes through, always at a remove, making choices about his life by letting events take their course. One of the characters says about him that he exemplifies "a primitive form of masculinity." He says himself that he doesn't think he's a nice man.

It was an interesting and very quick read which I finished in two sittings. It might be worth a re-read.

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