It's time for another book review. I read a lot of books (I finished those damn library books- all 10 of them- in the required 3 weeks!) but rarely do I feel compelled to tell others about them. Of course, you've all heard me ramble on and on about Haruki Murakami's books, and rightfully so, but not often do I feel the need to share what I'm reading with others. Recently though a book ended up on my bed stand (and by bed stand I mean the box that my sewing machine came in) that literally moved me to tears. And now, because I care about you dear readers, I feel driven to share.
While perusing the library bookshelves I stumbled across the book "My Year of Meats" by Ruth L. Ozeki. It is the tale of a documentarian who is half Japanese half American and always somewhere half way between here and there. Her mother was born in Japan and moved to a small farming town in middle America when she married her husband, a botanist. Not too shortly there after, Jane is born. Jane is taller than your average American and when she moves to Tokyo in college she finds that she is taller than everyone in Japan. Her height and her "half" breeding makes her an outcast in the tight knit society. Not one to take life sitting down, Jane cuts her hair into a typical man's style and insists on using "men's Japanese" instead of the usually femininely demure language used by women.
The book opens up with Jane, now back in the US after having finished up a job in Tokyo, receiving a phone call in the middle of the night. Her former boss in Japan is offering her a job as a production assistant for a new television show that will be filmed in America and shown weekly in Japan titled "My American Wife!" The corporate sponsors behind the show are American meat manufacturer's Meat-Ex. Each show will feature an American housewife, her wholesome lifestyle and her happy husband and healthy children, finally culminating in the real star of the show: the meat. Meat-Ex intends to reintroduce American meat to the Japanese people by showing them how wonderful life with meat can be. Jane, living in tenement squalor, takes the job eagerly and eventually ends up directing the episodes.
On the other side of the world lives Akiko, the Japanese wife of the show's producer. Akiko is so thin that her bones hurt. She and her husband have been trying to get pregnant without success. Because of Akiko's low weight, she eventually stops menstruating and her husband decides that the answer to Akiko's health problems is meat! He gives Akiko the task of watching the weekly episodes of "My American Wife!" and then preparing the meat dishes presented in each show.
The story line alternates between Jane's adventures in filming and Akiko's battle with an eating disorder. As Jane digs deeper into the inner workings of the meat industry she finds that perhaps meat isn't so healthy after all. After a particular incident with her boss, Akiko's husband, she decides to sabotage the show by revealing the meat industries dangerous underbelly. What she finds out is shocking.
I won't reveal too much more of the story line because I really want everyone to go out and read this book. When I picked it up I had no idea that it dealt with infertility. I cried through most of the book, and laughed at the rest, because this story spoke to me in such a beautiful and eloquent way. The most shocking thing about this book is that it made me feel good about the job that I have. The reality of America's meat industry is terrifying and I felt the need to do something about it when I was finished with the book. Then I realized that I already am doing something by writing the articles that I do. And that made me want to keep writing them, to get the truth out there so that people can make informed decisions about what they put into their bodies.
I highly recommend this book to everyone! It is a strange tale and I am hard pressed to find another book that I can compare it to.
Does this mean Burger King is out? ;)
Posted by: IrishGoddess | February 06, 2006 at 08:48 PM
I stopped eating meat for many reasons, the meat industry being one of them. evil. i can't wait to read this.
Posted by: emily | February 06, 2006 at 11:21 PM