My Year of Meats is the debut novel from Ruth Ozeki (who also wrote the wonderful A Tale for the Time Being). It's labelled as being Suitable for Vegetarians and may well turn some meat eaters off from eating meat in the future (or at the very least into becoming more conscious about where their meat comes from).
The story revolves around Jane, a Japanese American documentary maker, funded by the US Beef industry to make a documentary series 'My American Wife' which features various families and their favourite beef recipes, a programme designed for the Japanese market (with the ultimate intention of increasing sales of US beef in Japan). The other main character is Akiko, the submissive wife of Jane's overbearing Japanese boss. The novel follows Jane's journey into realising the dangers that large scale beef production pose to animal and human health and Akiko's journey into finding her own independence.
I found this a really enjoyable read, with the politics around beef production integrated well into the narrative, though I can understand why some readers feel that the politics is treated in a heavy handed manner.
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, published by Viking (1998)
No comments:
Post a Comment