Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read! Not only is it extremely educational, it is highly entertaining. I've loaned it to my sister & she has loaned it to all of her friends. I would HIGHLY recommend this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Too Preachy
Review: Boy, did I have high hopes for this novel, and perhaps that was part of the problem. Someone I really respect recommended My Year of Meats as one of her favorite novels and I really looked forward to reading it. What started out strong was ultimately weakened by the overdone preachiness of the novel that just frankly does not work. The novel begins with a promising premise. A young Japanese-American woman is hired by a Japanese company to produce a television series entitled "My American Wife"--which is to feature a new American woman each week, showcasing her favorite red meat recipe, preferably beef. What begins as a wacky amusing premise wears thin as Ozeki turns the novel into an expose of the meat industry and its dangerous use of steroids and other additives in meats. Characters are reduced to plot devices and there are pages and pages where Ozeki just goes on about various evils in the industry. That just doesn't do it for me in a work of fiction. If you want to learn about the evils of meat in America--read Fast Food Nation. Ozeki is clearly a talented writer and I intend to read her next novel--but I cannot really recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
Review: This book was entertaining, informative, fun and original....what more could you want!Read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: such a great beginning, only to deteriorate into ground beef
Review: It is quite rare for me to be so completely enthralled and delighted by the 17th page of a book, and one from a debut novelist to boot. Which is why my disappointment at the appallingly bad last half of the book is so acute.First, if I had to rate the first half on creativity, humor, style, etc. I would surely give this book FIVE stars. Ozeki is a beautiful writer, the phrases and descriptions are exquisite and delightful.The humor sharp, acerbic. In particular, the depiction of cultural clashes between the Japanese crew in America was extremely funny and well-done. Much insight, real honesty and real verisimilitude. And the segments on American families--beautiful, glorious, heartwarming. But what happened?! As I moved toward the end, my grief was palpable: I cringed. I wailed. I wanted desparately to go back to the beginning. For me, everything went downhill after the silly relationship with Sloane. The main character Jane, who WAS so brash, funny and aggressive, starts to become wimpy, wishy-washy and clueless in the arms of Sloane. Should she have the baby or not? Should she commit to this guy or not? It became a case study of post-feminist angst and it tired pretty quickly. Secondly, what happened to all those three-dimensional characters? While I agree with the author's views on the beef industry, the characters came off as fake, superficial and cliche. Evil cattle rancher. Busty, young stripper-wife of cattle rancher. Evil wife-beating Japanese man. Timid Japanese housewife. She pits heroic, "good" stock characters against the "bad" cardboard villains of the beef industry. For e.g., the quiet. principled truck driver Dave who points out all the evils of the slaughterhouse seemed less like a solid character and more like a convenient plot device to get the anti-beef lecturing across. Akiko and John start off as delightful characters who also disintegrate into a syrupy soap opera cliche. Ultimately, Ozeki insults our intelligence by not letting us make our own decisions and does an injustice to the characters she originally created; the effect is as jarring and disturbing as a cattle prod. That was the main problem of this novel. It started off as cynical and witty, but couldn't escape from sentimentality and a need for self-righteous closure. Bunny, Rose, the lesbian couple, etc. all cram themselves in to fit into a plotline that is more ideological rant than art. Ozeki backs off from her challenging narrative to give us a nice, fake bow at the end--somuch like TV! Despite the "hard-hitting documentary" style she professes, Jane (and Ozeki) are really just ... for the "happy ending." That means constructing a villain (the beef industry) at the expense of a good story. Even the graphic violence and bloodiness of the beef industry she tried to gruesomely convey, is all just conveniently part of a sugary-syrupy plot in the end. After Jane loses her baby, reunites with her lover, comesto terms with her Japanese mother, I felt like throwing this book into the offal and refuse of the cows she was describing--BUT not because it was bad! In fact, the first half could be described as 'brilliant'. But because this book let me down so much. That is an even bigger betrayal to me than to have written a bad book from the start. What could have been a promising debut has deteriorated into the plot of a soap opera with an ultimately dissatisfying ending.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: The only thing I can say about this book is that it is horribly disappointing. It begins so promisingly, a great premise of a Japanese-American documentarian slowly coming to realize the industry and company she represents is corrupt. Then it disintegrates into two dimensional caricatures of racial and cultural stereotypes. Plus a happy ending that even a Hollywood scriptwriter would be too embarrassed to try. The book fails as a novel, it is amatuerish and uncredible. As for its ideological messages, I am sympathetic to much of it. Yes, factory farming is a disgusting outrage. Yes, Japananese husbands can be terribly abusive. Yes, the documentary business is unscrupulous and abuses people's trust. However, the book fails to make any coherent statement about these. Is the answer to all the world's problems to go to America and eat fried chicken? Isn't fried chicken a serious health risk? Is vegetarianism actually healthier than a balanced diet of meat and vegetables? This book is not really a novel, but a very crude ideological rant. There's nothing wrong with arguing for ideological positions, but this book is unfoccused and contradictory. My feeling is that Ms. Ozeki has some personal frustrations with Japan and with the documentary business and this is an attempt to get them off her chest. I can sympathise with that, I live in Japan and work as a consultant. Sometimes I don't like what my clients do. Sometimes Japan drives me nuts. However, the important thing is to retain some balance. This book is fails that and is a crude, racist, stereotypical failure. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed and cried my eyes out
Review: I am not hyping this book up when I say this is the best book I have read this year. It's a vibrant book with a lot of detail focusing on the intertwining lives of all the characters all over the world. I also enjoyed it because being a very strongminded teenager who refuses to eat red meat, this is the answer to all the people around me who ridicule me for not eating red meat. The combination of science, romance, revival, and culture are a beautiful symphony. The ending will definitely surprise you.
Rating:
Summary: My Month of THE Book
Review: I have just recently finished reading this book, and it appealed to me like no other.
The story is well organized, filled with touching stories, which almost come to life (and who's to say they are not?).
This book made me cry, but also made me laugh and the jokes were not the kind that are made just to make people laugh. I felt like there was more to them. They were "real."
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read!
Review: This book may not be the best book I have read, but it was one of my top choices. I loved the characters and the "documentary" reality about it -- an authentic yet fictional style. I also liked the topic of factory farms, something that I feel strongly against. It was great to find this novel while browsing through my hometown library and to see that it had a strong political message, too, not just an emotional one. I enjoyed the way the author tied together all the characters, topics, and emotions. This is a read for anyone who wants something of a slightly different flavor.
Rating:
Summary: Part novel, part political treatise
Review: This started out as a good read about what it takes to make a documentary but turned into a piece on the evils of meat-eating and the meat industry. If you have a weak stomach, this isn't the book for you. If you are an animal-rights activist, you'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: annoying self-indulgent preaching
Review: This is one of those books that is a real page-turner... it was like being unable to look away from a gruesome car crash. I heard a review of this on NPR a while back and was looking forward to reading this book. As Asian-American female "foodie" with an interest in Japanese pop culture, I expected to enjoy it. I was profoundly disappointed, probably because I had not been warned... this book contains some heavy-handed, didactic bashing of the meat industry. It also has a serious dose of self-indulgent "sour-grapes" man-bashing... that is, until the Asian-American (to be fair, half-Asian) female protagonist finally realizes the depth of her love for an older white man. Where have we heard this theme before? How about every pop hit about Asian-American women (Joy Luck Club, Snow Falling on Cedars)? While it does point out some serious problems with the beef industry, the book left me with a really bad taste in my mouth, and it wasn't just the beef. Feminist vegetarians looking for a hearty pat on the back might enjoy this book more than I did.
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