I. A Culinary Introduction
Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self explores and revels in decay and degeneration, gushing with bile and blood. The quartet of interconnected short stories focus on the liver, a bodily organ with interconnected lobes.
The liver functions by processing toxins and connects to the gall bladder. People also consume liver as a delicacy. The dish “liver and onions” is a classic in American cuisine. I have eaten deer liver with onions and I enjoy the taste. Prior to preparing it, I divided the sizable organ into four sections. After placing the remainder in the freezer for safekeeping, I washed my fingers, coated in maroon-colored blood. I’ve also had duck liver. It was not foie gras, but still silky and delicious. Unlike the dark deer liver, the duck liver looked taupe, a yellowish ivory hue. Considerably smaller than the deer’s liver, the duck liver only provided for consumption as an appetizer.
Since liver is an organ meat, people have different reactions to it. Some consider it anathema, taboo, or simply gross. To others it is a delicacy to worthy of celebration. Restaurant au Pied de Cochon in Montreal specializes in foie gras dishes, the menu a symphony of culinary excess. Liver as a delicacy created controversy in the United States with cities, including New York City, placing a ban on the consumption of goose liver.
The liver is an organ. What we consider meat is actually an animal’s muscle. Meat, whether it is steak or a chicken drumstick, should be tender and chewy. Liver, including other organs like kidney, possesses a blocky, chalky texture.
For a bodily organ, the liver unleashes bodily, political, and culinary complications. Self mines these complications and creates an interconnected work of addiction, destruction, decay, and violence.
II. Pleasures of the Text
Liver has four stories: “Foie Humaine,” “Leberknödel,” “Prometheus,” and “Birdy Num Num.” The first is a story about alcoholics. The second follows a cancer patient to Zurich for assisted-suicide. The third involves an ad man getting his liver sliced out while he’s alive. The fourth follows a junky into a kaleidoscopic vision of addiction, farce, and disease.
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