Review: As Meat Loves Salt

Maria McCann, As Meat Loves Salt (Harvest Books 2003)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271487.As_Meat_Loves_Salt

Jacob Cullen and his brothers dredge the pond on a Royalist estate to discover the body of a man, Christopher Walshe, who had not even been missed. Jacob is to be married, but his behaviour on the wedding day is something he can’t live down and his bride Caro can’t forgive.
In disgrace, he joins with Christopher Ferris, recruited into the New Model Army as a pikeman. He learns pikemanship and competes with another soldier for Ferris’ attentions. He yearns to find out what happened to his brothers and his wife and hides from Ferris his secret shame.
After the devastating battle of Basing House, Ferris deserts, and, takes Jacob with him. They go to London and happily live with his aunt in Cheapside. Jacob suffers from ‘pangs’ of love for Ferris. They finally become lovers, and, though less enthusiastic than Ferris, Jacob follows him to found a colony of Diggers. He dreads the hard labour and privation, and worries that he’ll not find privacy with Ferris away from judgemental religious eyes.
Jacob is a big man, and his fierce love leads to behaviour perceived as ‘brutish’ by Ferris and the idealistic Diggers. Don’t expect a happy ending.
The portrayal of the hardships, the endless waiting around, the periodic terrifying battles, the cold, wet and filth of army life is extremely evocative. The battle scenes are exceptionally gory.
The tale is told in the first person, with exceptional attention to period-accurate language, resulting in a strong voice from the past. Yet, sometimes the language is so antique that the meaning is too oblique to modern eyes. It’s long and slow, as life probably was back then, but it’s worth the effort.