My Year of Meats
On the plane ride over to Japan, I was engrossed in the novel My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki. The title makes it sound like an unlikely choice of reading for a vegetarian, doesn’t it? At least that’s what I thought when Riana first handed it to me. She assured me that I’d love it. It also helped that on the back cover, in small writing, it says “suitable for vegetarians.”
The novel tells the stories of two women on opposite sides of the globe. Jane is an aspiring documentary filmmaker who gets a job making a TV show about American meat recipes for a Japanese audience. Akiko is a Japanese housewife stuck in an unhappy marriage and an unhappy life.
Jane’s TV shows are supposed to promote American beef consumption in Japan. In the process of filming them, the dark underbelly of the American meat industry gradually comes to light, and by the end Jane has gone from promoting meat to exposing it.
If I wasn’t already a vegetarian, I think reading this book might have single-handedly convinced me to become one. Although it’s a work of fiction, much of the information contained in it is based on facts, facts that every meat-eater should be aware of. I recommend this book to vegetarians and meat-eaters alike, and especially to those who are considering becoming vegetarian but aren’t quite convinced yet.
Are there any novels you’ve read that you’d particularly recommend to vegetarians?
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POSTED IN: Becoming Vegetarian, Media, Reviews
2 opinions for My Year of Meats
Isabelle
Oct 31, 2006 at 1:33 pm
“Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser.
Quoted from http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/books/schlosser.html:
This myth-shattering book tells the story of America and the world’s infatuation with fast food, from its origins in 1950s southern California to the global triumph of a handful of burger and fried chicken chains. In a meticulously researched and powerfully argued account, Eric Schlosser visits the labs where scientists re-create the smell and taste of everything - from cooked meat to fresh strawberries; talks to the workers at abattoirs with some of the worst safety records in the world; explains exactly where the meat comes from and just why the fries taste so good; and looks at the way the fast food industry is transforming not only our diet but our landscape, economy, workforce and culture.
Jul
Oct 31, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Isabelle, that book is actually sitting on our bookshelf! I think my husband bought it and read it a long time ago. I’m putting it into my “to read” stack now.
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