Of cattle and men, by Ana Paula Maia

I had never stopped to read a blatantly animalistic work. But when I consulted wikipedia to find out about this author, Ana Paula Maya, I thought that at least I would find something different. Influences such as Dostoevsky, Tarantino or Sergio Leone, considered thus, intermingled, announced a plot, at least, different.

And so it is. We begin by meeting Babelia Edgar Wilson, a butcher by profession and condemned to suffer the insurmountable contradiction of his work with his compassionate nature, especially with regard to animals. In this strange terrain of human contradiction we are moving, discovering good old Edgar struggling between strange justifications for continuing to execute cattle and the remote idea of ​​changing everything one day.

And suddenly that day arrives. We do not know for sure what is happening. The slaughterhouse is abuzz with frenzied activity. Several live parts have disappeared from the production chain. The old animal scaffold runs out of lives to run.

Of course, we clearly intuit that Edgar has a lot to do with this disappearance, he may have finally taken action on the matter. The rest of the workers are dedicated to looking for the lost cattle, without explaining very well what could have happened.

Edgar's inscrutable plan points towards the liberation of the animals, their relocation to some heavenly pasture where the animals could lead a dignified life and a natural death. But that is not precisely what happens.

When we discover the truth, lavish in details (the Tarantinian influences were serious) the more reflective side awakens in us (the Dostoevsky influences were also serious) And thus we crossed the borders of the human soul to reach a space of confluence with the soul of animals. The meat production chain, with which to feed so many mouths in the world, lacks any humanity, true. And perhaps the animalists should concentrate their forces on this type of concerted extermination, assumed and in turn necessary.

A story of visceral sensitivity, of emotions between the eschatological and the macabre. Without a doubt a different literary work.

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