The Thick and the Lean

Porter (The Seep) lambasts religious extremism, colonialism, sizeism, and corporate capitalism in a parable that listeners will savor for its characters as much as its message. Narrator Kamali Minter gives voice to Beatrice Bolano, born into Seagate, a community where the faithful minimize calories to become “more like angels than animals.” Beatrice must conceal her passion for cooking, for eating is outré everywhere on this planet, except in the lowest settlements. In her narration of Beatrice, Minter supplies a youthful, naive tone that initially matches the sheltered teenager but soon grows unsuitable for her maturing subject. In a second entwined storyline, listeners meet Reiko Rimando, who has fled the climate-endangered life in Low Quake in hopes of achieving an education. Narrator Suehyla El-Attar Young expresses authentic emotion and shock when Reiko’s university terminates her scholarship and, with it, her escape from poverty. Both Beatrice and Reiko take inspiration from The Kitchen Girl, a banned historical cookbook. Excerpts of the cookbook are read by the incomparable Deepti Gupta, who steals the show and makes this embedded story a main course to the two sides.