Rating: 
Summary: Funny, satirical and deeply important
Review: This book is one of the funniest and best books (its a 4 1/2 not a 5) I have read in a long time. I laughed so much that one of my friends and neighbors asked me why I was laughing so much. She borrowed it from me and liked it and her boyfriend is reading it now. There are to few funny books, I will soon write a list over my favorites on my amazon home page, and share those I have found.The humor reminds me a lot of Mark Twains funny stories or Heinrich Bølls short stories. My year of meat clearly belongs to a long tradition of satirical books like Gullivers travels, The princes bride, Flowers to Algernoon, Calocain, Animal farm, 1984 etc. etc. Where reality is mixed in such a way that we sees things in a new way. Under or behind all the humor there is a serious message: That the meat industry needs to shape up (and governments need to control the cowboys who think the way of the west is still the rule), and men should understand how this effect their own health and also that male chauvinism is as outdates as the use of DES or human hormones in animal husbandry. Having been quite often to USA and even more in Japan ( I have good friends in both countries) I feel entitled to say that the satirical tone of this book discus some of the worst negative excesses of those two cultures. The blatant hunt for the $ in the USA and the japanese male chauvinism. I like Japan very much and I respect the japanese culture and people, but the old fashioned male chauvinism that often seems to govern the elder generation and that states that women are second rate compared to men amazes me. While in (most of) the western world a woman without a husband or without children is respected, this does not seem to be the case in Japan. Ozeki has taken that part of japanese culture and made it public, and she deserves a lot of thanks for that. The beef industries hormone and feeding practices does also need to be stopped. Mad cow disease clearly shows a blatant disrespect for animals and for biology and for humans. We do not want to be a part of such practices and industry that does not understand that will not survive. Reading the reviews also gave me a lot of good laughs: the guy who felt that all the male characters were painted black cannot live in the same world as myself. I am a man, and I have my whole life meet a lot of men like those male chauvinist (pigs in this context seems a great injustice to the animals) in the book. There are also lots of nice men in the book, but because they are not described in a sexual context that probably makes them unimportant as men for the reviewer, who saw this as an attack on all manhood? That says a lot. Ruth L. Ozeki, I very much hope you will write more. I have also lived in BC for a time and once thought I was going to move there. I hope I will get a chance to see your two price winning films: Body of correspondence and halving the Bones. Thank you for giving us such a funny and smart first novel. The danish write Suzanne Brøgger has been quotes as saying that "the tragedy of the world is that men loves women, women loves children and children loves hamsters." I on my side love My Year of Meat!
Rating: 
Summary: Funny! But ultimately too self-indulgent.
Review: I stayed up late to finish this book, and have heartily recommended it to friends. But I do have to give a mixed review. First and foremost, it was one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. At one point, I started laughing out loud (to my horror -- I was reading on the subway and no doubt looked like an idiot). I also thought the literary device of uniting the Japanese and U.S. portions of the story through those great faxed memos was clever. The whole thing just felt fresh and creative. Simply put, I really enjoyed reading this. On the other hand, however, by the end of the book the development of the story and the characters had pretty much given way to heavy-handed moralizing about the meat industry, or at least the author's perception of the industry, which I suspect may be a bit exaggerated. Perhaps exaggeration is the primary flaw here. The characters were exaggerated to an extent that caused me to distrust the author and discount her perspective. And did we really have to be bludgeoned quite so hard with the Wal-Mart as Evil Empire theme? Finally, I thought that the way all the diverse characters and episodes tied together into a big happy ending was unduly contrived. Despite these points, my final impression is that it was a gripping, worthwhile, and memorable read, and I will be watching for Ms. Ozeki's next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Memorable but only marginally entertaining
Review: I'm glad that I read the book, and I have recommended it to others, but with a few reservations: (1) Jane's self-righteousness and "Janecentricness" does not make her a particularly sympathetic or likable character. And (2) the story, while edifying, has a cold, clinical feel to it. The book is not particularly entertaining (in the more usual sense), and the novelistic conceit for the anti-beef propaganda seems forced throughout. And yet (as I say) I am glad that I read it.
Rating:
Summary: A complex book about fertility, among many other things
Review: I've just read the previous 71 reader reviews, and they make a lot of good points. The book is PC, yet funny and hard to put down. Some of the characters are two-dimensional, yet others are so believable that I wish I could sit down to lunch with them. The picture of Japanese society is narrow and basically negative, yet the picture of American society shows lots of variety, love, ignorance, intelligence, warts and all. Etc. One theme nobody seems to have brought out yet is the leitmotif of fertility. The two central female characters have fertility problems for complementary reasons; many of the "American Families" have physical, moral, or political issues related to reproduction; Ueno needs offspring to prove his manhood; a pre-school girl and a middle-aged man are both well on the way to womanhood with a little help from the meat industry; and of course the industry itself has a critical interest in the fertility of its animals, and spends enormous sums on ways to control it. Indeed, most of these examples are about an impersonal, mechanical consumer culture controlling (or trying to) the deeply personal, organic life impulse. A PC message, perhaps, but told in such a wonderfully engaging way that I didn't mind at all.
Rating:
Summary: Being Vegetarian Never Felt Better
Review: Ruth Ozeki will make you very thankful that you have sworn off meat if you have adopted a vegetarian lifestyle. Personally, I have done this, and if I felt I was not missing meat at all before I read this delightful book, now I know that I definitely am not missing it! Apart from these items, the book deserves a lot of praise for the interesting way it brings together the stories of two women, one Japanese, one Japanese-American.
Rating:
Summary: Hamburger, anyone?
Review: Did you ever read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair when you were in high school? I did, and for about a week afterwards my entire high school class were vegetarians. The descriptions of the meat packing industry at the turn of the century completely disgusted the majority of us, but eventually we went back to hamburgers on the assumption that "it was 90 years ago, it's much better now!" I think I may start buying organic meats again, because this book gave me the same reaction. Like the main character, Jane, discovering the practices of the 20th century meat industry -- even with the FDA in charge -- has made me think again about what I'm eating. Jane gets a job -- a dream job as she has no other and needs money -- to film a weekly series for Japanese television called "My American Wife." The show is to showcase different beef-based recipes in order to promote beef consumption in Japan. Jane meets many interesting families (think vegetarian lesbians -- these two were actually my favorite characters), eats some rather inspired beef-based dishes (beef fudge, for instance), and learns that there is more to the cow than just the cow. What Jane ends up discovering is that not much has changed since Sinclair wrote The Jungle. Chemicals (such as DES, which really did cause a lot of health problems for mothers and infants in the 50s) and inhumane practices (you'll never believe what some of these cows are fed for dinner each night) are still in effect, and these result in meat that may not be as good for you as the FDA would like you to believe. The meat industry is still a market where more is better, no matter how you have to get it. Is it any wonder that people are getting sick? Vegetarians will love this book. They will point to it and say, "Yes! This proves my point!" Japanese will nod knowingly and take another bite of sushi. Cowherders will cry out "But that's not the way we do it!" And the media will say, "We only show what the public wants to see." This book opens your eyes and makes you wonder exactly how much of this is true and how much is from the imagination of Ruth Ozeki. You will also be unable to watch the evening newscast without wondering what they aren't telling you. I think I'll stick to salad for a while.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling cross-cultural novel
Review: The only thing I knew about this book before I read it for my book group was that it had to do with the meat industry. Being a vegetarian (simply for health reasons), I was open to reading it. I found that there was so much more to the storyline than I had imagined. The main character's search for answers while directing documentary-like television shows that depict "authentic" (to whom?) American culture to Japanese audiences pushed forth an interesting message about the power of media and of the government in holding back "the truth" from citizens. Ozeki created parallel characters on opposite sides of the world in Jane and Akiko; I was compelled to keep reading to find out what would come of both of them, and of the peripheral characters. My Year of Meats gave me a lot to think about socially/politically, but it is also a great novel about real people and the lives that they live. The story isn't perfect; I found that the ending came together a little too easily; but I was very pleased overall with this debut (... I believe) novel, and will recommend it to many friends.
Rating:
Summary: Sincerely written with a lot of charm
Review: For some reason this was a featured book in railway bookshops in England a couple of years ago! I bought the book to learn a little more about Japan and the United States and was charmed by it. The "My American Wife!" TV-series device is very clever (and very funny) but it was the story of Akiko that I found especially affecting. The novel provides both a celebration of Western society (in its opportunities for self-expression and personal fulfilment) and a critique (the venal world of international corporatism). The book also led me to other books with a Japanese theme, including The Pillow Book. Thank you Ruth L. Ozeki for widening my world view and for writing such a readable book. ps. I also now know why I have been a vegetarian for the last ten years!
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed thoroughly
Review: This book may not be for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author is very creative with the story. There is a lot more going on in this book than just making a weekly TV show. I haven't read a book as good as this in a long time. And I will certainly hesitate before eating meat again.
Rating: 
Summary: Patronizing and anti-male to say the least
Review: This book was difficult to finish reading. The most interesting parts of the book were the parts intended to disgust. I found the main character to be self-righteous and extremely unsympathetic to Asians. Instead, every line of the book seemed to scream, "I am cooler and better than you, you uneducated mysogynists. Listen to my wisdom because I live in the USA and you don't know any better." I am sorry that I have to give this book even one star because I found no redeeming characteristics with this work. I wish I could get a refund...for the money I paid to buy this drivel.
| 
