Rating: 
Summary: Fresh voice in Asian American writing
Review: I really enjoyed reading My Year of Meats. I got it as a gift from a friend and at first I thought, "Great, not another Asian novel about immigration, respect or growing up displaced." It wasn't anything like I thought. It's a modern, quirky novel about the evil meat industry, with wonderful, quirky Japanese and American characters. The two main characters of the book, one a Japanese-American woman from NYC and the other a traditional Japanese housewife play off each other really well and are each very well developed. Ozeki uses "actual" faxes, letters, memos to move the plot along, which I thought was really creative (in a good way). I learned a lot about the meat industry from reading this book, she did extensive research on the topic and she weaves the facts in cleverly into the novel so it doesn't feel like a big lecture. All in all, the book was really entertaining, and I hope Ozeki will write more books in the future, I really enjoyed her fresh voice.
Rating: 
Summary: Much more than just meat
Review: I, too, greatly enjoyed My Year of Meats. Though the "meat" side of the novel was impossible to miss -- it is, obviously, crucial to the plot -- I found that it had very little to do with what made the book so enjoyable. I'd seen the book around in bookstores for years, but never bought it because I thought that I had the meat industry covered, having read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Don't make the same mistake I made! My Year of Meats is SO much more. Jane Takagi-Little is a documentarian who accepts an offer to make a series of half-hour shows for Japanese television entitled "My American Wife!" and sponsored by the American beef industry. She takes the opportunity to do more than simply showcase beef, repeatedly breaking orders from Japan and filming the most unusual and intriguing "American Wives" she can find -- a couple in Louisiana who have adopted Asian children, and even vegeterian lesbians! In the process, Jane learns a lot about the beef industry, and begins to plan to subversively expose the shocking details meat-eaters would rather not know. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't find this part of the novel to be excessively preachy; it fit in with the plot nicely. Along the way, the reader also learns about Jane's private life and what makes her tick, fleshing out her character nicely.On the other side of the globe we have Akiko Ueno, the wife of one of Jane's bosses. Through her eyes the reader is able to learn much about the Japanese culture. Akiko is abused by her husband, who she was set up with by her boss and married out of obedience. Eventually the lives of Jane and Akiko intertwine with fascinating end to the novel. Set to exquisite sections of The Pillow Book, My Year of Meats is a captivating read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best books I've ever read.
Review: My Year of Meats is by far one of the best books I've ever read. It made me cry and laugh, filled my heart with joy and sorrow, and confirmed my decision to eat only free-range meat. It was a beautiful story, beautifully told. It was recommended to me by a friend who raved about it, saying she couldn't put it down. Now, I am the friend raving about it, who couldn't put it down. It took my 3 days to read it. I read the last 200 pages in one day, because I couldn't stop. It's a must read!
Rating:
Summary: You won't eat meat after this book!
Review: Yep. Read this book and you are never going to want to see a hamburger again. A dual story of two women working through their lives and fighting amazing battles. This book will scare you and open your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: My Year of Meats
Review: This book had me laughing, thinking, unable to put it down and dreading the end of the ride. My Year of Meats is easily one of the best books I've read. Ozeki creates 3 dimensional characters that live, breathe, and grow. I have recommended this book to many people and each one raves about it. This is a special book.
Rating: 
Summary: Politically Correct/Narrow Focus
Review: My Year of Meats is an interesting book but has as narrow a focus as the average investigative television news segment. A reporter uncovers terrible things about the meat industry. But then, when is anything "good" discovered by investigative reporting? Well, hey, I have news for readers of this book and the author -- human beings have been genetically tampering with both plants and animals, as well as themselves, for thousands of years. Try looking at the site maintained by Colorado State on transgenic plants, what they are, where they came from, plus risks and concerns regarding health for those who eat them (all of us). Vegetables are only a little safer than meat (maybe). Sometimes the outcome of tampering with nature is good and sometimes it's not, though you can bet our manipulation is always for mankind's own selfish purposes: more money, more power for societies and individuals, longer life for those who can afford it. I am not saying that is bad. That is just the truth of our species. Therefore, I think this book's calculated message should be kept in perspective. Yes, there are some terrible things being added to meat these days and that should be stopped. However, there are also terrible things being done to the animals from which the meat comes. I would rather choose not to eat meat (I haven't decided that as yet) because of what is done to animals, rather than how unhealthy the meat may be. Now, by this time, you'll think I hate this book. Not so. Like I said, it is very interesting and raises many issues to discuss. However, be aware this novel is no heart-warmer. It's not that funny, it's not romantic, and it certainly isn't a blazing light of "wow, I didn't know that" to this reader. The author focuses on so many weird, offbeat people, you wonder if Japanese audiences (for whom the lead character in the book is making television shows) prefer the bizarre. This book only portrays some Americans, not all, and certainly not the majority. It also reflects our national love affair with investigative journalism. Our culture needs such journalism, especially in politics, but sometimes it gets very tiresome. Good writing. Multi-cultural. Interesting. Preachy.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it better than it strictly deserves.
Review: Ruth Ozeki's debut is not a perfect book. The plot Has Everything if you're in any way po-mo--indictments of capitalism with links to sexual politics, racial prejudice, environmental issues and meat-eating: all valid topics for a novel, to be sure, but spliced together in a way that has its utterly precious moments and begs indulgence for them owing to the underlying ethic of protest. Which doesn't go so far as to keep one of the heroines, Jane Takagi-Little, from enjoying all that the po-mo fleshpots of modern cities have to offer, as dished up to her by a lover whom she treats almost as callously as her nemesis, boorish Japanese businessman Joichi "John" Ueno ("Wayn-o") treats his wife. Yadayada. Off-putting though its more cliched moments are, and despite the certainty that they will date the book in some years' time, this is still a very likable book. Beneath the ironic glitter, there is a book with a heart, and a writer with a mind tough enough to avoid escaping into anything so simplistic as a screed in favor of universal vegetarianism (though the presence of two vegetarian lesbians may make a few readers think so). While Ozeki is unsparing about the corruption of the meat business, anti-carnivores will have to contend with the moment in which Akiko Ueno begins to assert herself by consuming the whole dinner of lamb chops she has prepared for her husband, and the parallels between meat and (hetero)sex are exploited with any amount of sensuous delight. The plot turns on the moment when Jane submits to unprotected sex with her lover--about as un-PC an act as one can imagine in these days, and zestfully described in Ozeki's wonderful prose. The problem with this novel, for me, was not so much in its politics as in its actual execution, hinging largely on the character of Jane. She's meant to be sympathetic but too often, she is not a real woman so much as a filter of attitudes and perceptions, lacking the consistency that would allow us to believe deeply in her reporting. She veers from contrived ruthlessness and shallowness to the compassion that Ozeki obviously feels for the many victims of capitalism (and there's a haunting subtext to this novel, in which America, usually the imperialist villain in anti-capitalist writing, becomes itself a vanishing culture as seen through Japanese eyes). Ozeki does a better job with minor characters, especially the Japanese, whom she brings to life with no mercy and a lot of warmth and respect. This is not the best book Ruth Ozeki will ever write, but it's one which readers may well treasure in the future: their first time listening to a major voice of the new milennium. Bon appetit.
Rating:
Summary: Totally Captivating!
Review: I really can't say enough about this book!!! I just finished it and absolutely loved it!!! It was totally engrossing, interesting, and full of the most wonderful characters!! I really didn't want it to end, actually I could have read a continuation of the book for about six months. I loved Jane and Akiko!! And of course all of the people they came across to be on the TV show! My only regret is that I don't have this book in hardcover!!!!!!! It will definitely go on my list of of best books I have read this year! I am very anxiously awaiting the next book by Ruth L. Ozeki!!!!! I am now a big fan. Her writing is excellent. If you want to read book you can't put down, this is it!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Encapsulates Japanese/American tensions through meat
Review: Fabulous cynical fictional look at the world of advertising and food. Protagonist Jane is invited to produce a corporate-sponsored documentary on the use of meat in America for Japanese television. Cross back and forth to Japanese housewife Akiko, whose husband works on the Japanese side of the deal. Hilarious, pretty biting and reasonably unpleasant - honest? - about the meat industry. One of the best food-related books I've seen, and I've seen a lot.
Rating:
Summary: a vege-comedy
Review: From it's bright yellow cover to it's neat little illustrative motifs and snippets of Sei-Shonagon's pillow book, you could be forgiven for thinking My Year of Meat as one big gimmick. It is, in a way, but it is also a harsh indictment of the meat industry, of American main streets and Japanese chauvinism and combined big business globalisation, all leavened with a good dose of humour. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. It's a great read, and it might have converted me to vegetarianism if I hadn't already read and cried over Animal Farm. It loses one star for being a tad-heavy handed at times, although I guess any pseudo-documentry has to be..and Jane isn't exactly a person I would empathise with, but, I thoroughly recommend it for it's biting humour.
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