Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

My Year of Meats

My Year of Meats by Japanese-American writer and documentary filmmaker Ruth Ozeki is an uneven book that at its best (when describing conditions in a slaughterhouse) is absolutely gripping, and at its worse (when being self-consciously and ingratiatingly clever) is scarcely worth reading.

The book chronicles a year in the life of Jane Takagi-Little, who - surprise - is also a Japanese-American documentary filmmaker. Sitting at home one night in the East Village of New York City in the midst of a blizzard she gets a phone call offering her work coordinating production on a Japanese TV show sponsored by BEEF-X, a US lobby group for the meat industry looking to expand their sales in the Japanese market. The show, called My American Wife!, features carefully selected American housewives cooking their favorite beef recipes, which Japanese homemakers in the target audience are encouraged to emulate in their own kitchens.

Taking over responsibility for producing the show after the departure of the Japanese director, Takagi-Little eventually comes to loggerheads with the conservative Japanese executives controlling the purse strings by ignoring their stereotyped selection criteria for choosing subjects for the telecast, and picking quirky, off-beat, eccentric people whom she finds both more authentic and more interesting. Instead of travelling the Midwest to interview "representative Americans" fitting an Ozzy-and-Harriet stereotype which meet the show's requirements as stated on a "Desirable Things" list she is supposed to work from ("AttractivenessàWholesomenessàExiting hobbiesàDocile husbandàObedient children") she lines up vegetarian Lesbians,

a family of gospel singers, and their ilk.

Although the executive producers are fuming, some of the ladies watching My American Wife! in Japan are intrigued. One of the show's most faithful viewers is Akiko Ueno, the battered wife of Jane's boss John (formerly Joichi) Ueno, whom he h...

Page 1 of 8 Next >

More on My Year of Meats...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
My Year of Meats. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:35, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686846.html