Amazon.com
At first glance, a novel that promises to expose the unethical practices of the American meat industry may not be at the top of your reading list, but Ruth Ozeki's debut, My Year of Meats is well worth a second look. Like the author, the novel's protagonist, Jane Takagi-Little, is a Japanese-American documentary filmmaker; like Ozeki, who was once commissioned by a beef lobbying group to make television shows for the Japanese market, Jane is invited to work on a Japanese television show meant to encourage beef consumption via the not-so-subliminal suggestion that prime rib equals a perfect family:
TO: AMERICAN RESEARCH STAFF
FROM: Tokyo Office
DATE: January 5, 1991
RE: My American Wife!...
Here is list of IMPORTANT THINGS for My American Wife!
DESIRABLE THINGS:
1. Attractiveness, wholesomeness, warm personality
2. Delicious meat recipe (NOTE: Pork and other meats is second class meats, so please remember this easy motto: "Pork is Possible, but Beef is Best!")
3. Attractive, docile husband
4. Attractive, obedient children
5. Attractive, wholesome lifestyle
6. Attractive, clean house...
UNDESIRABLE THINGS:
1. Physical imperfections
2. Obesity
3. Squalor
4. Second class peoples
The series, My American Wife!, initally seems like a dream come true for Jane as she criss-crosses the United States filming a different American family each week for her Japanese audience. Naturally, the emphasis is on meat, and Ozeki has fun with out-there recipes such as rump roast in coke and beef fudge; but as Jane becomes more familiar with her subject, she becomes increasingly aware of the beef industry's widespread practice of using synthetic estrogens on their cattle and determines to sabotage the program.
Cut to Tokyo where Akiko Ueno struggles through the dull misery of life with her brutish husband, who happens to be in charge of the show's advertising. After seeing one of Jane's subversive episodes about a vegetarian lesbian couple, Akiko gets in touch and the two women plot to expose the meat industry's hazardous practices. Romance, humor, intrigue, and even a message--My Year of Meats has it all. This is a book that even a vegetarian would love.
Book Description
Veteran filmaker Ruth Ozeki's novel has been hailed as "one of the heartiest and yes, meatiest debuts in years" (Glamour). It tells the story of a year in the lives of two ordinary women on opposite ends of the earth, brought together by a convergence of extraordinary circumstances. Jane, a struggling filmmaker in New York, is given her big break--a chance to travel through the U.S. to produce a Japanese television program sponsored by an American meat exporting business. But along the way, she discovers some unsavory truths about love, honor, and a particularly damaging hormone called DES that wreaks havoc with her uterus. Meanwhile, Akiko, a painfully thin Japanese woman struggling with bulimia, is being pressured by her child-craving husband to put some meat on her bones--literally. How Jane's and Akiko's lives intersect taps into some of the deepest concerns of our time--how the past informs the present and how we live and love in an ever-shrinking world.
A cross-cultural, tragi-comic romp through America and Japan that is "wonderfully wild and bracing . . . a feast that leaves you hungry for whatever Ozeki cooks up next" (Newsweek).
"Ozeki masks a deeper purpose with a light tone. . . . A comical-satirical-farcical-epical-tragical-romantical novel." -Jane Smiley, Chicago Tribune Book Review (front page)
Customer Reviews:
A Sure Thing.......2007-09-15
There are very few sure things in life, but one of them is "My Year in Meats" by Ruth Ozeki. This story has it all a great protaganist, a mystery to unravel and a fast paced story built around interesting business and societal issues making this book a satisfying read for readers of every shape and size.
A great gift I hit a home run when I gave it to my mother, my wife, a cousin (in her 20's) and my 19 year old daughter.
Good, but still a rough draft.......2007-08-03
What starts off as an exploration of personal identity--about a half-Japanese, half-Caucasian woman who is connected to both cultures through her family and job but feels she belongs to neither--well established in the first chapter, is unfortunately dropped and barely mentioned again. This technique occurs throughout the novel, touching on the meat industry, family values, cultural differences, and sexual discovery, but never explores any of them very deeply. Even the writing itself is often stark, I often had no clear picture of what people or places looked like, and farms, apartments, offices all lacked the details to help me see where I was.
Overall, the novel reads as though the author wasn't sure what she wanted the story to be about (which she admits in the notes section), and just wandered around until she stumbled upon something that felt right. The ending is confident, makes assertions about meat and marriage using the two protagonists, then wraps everything up far too quickly and cleanly. This is fine in the drafting stages, but once the book is finished it really is the author's job to go back and create a unified whole. It's OK that the characters are confused and try to figure things out, but the narrative should be focused and aware. When the characters begin to discuss the perils of eating meat, it reads as someone who has read one book on the subject would speak about it, knowing a lot of chilling facts, but not understanding how it all works or being able to present it with a clear argument. This is not a bad story, I just believe the author should have spent more time with it.
Four legs good, two legs bad.......2007-06-20
Actually, the first half of this book was good, the second half not so good. The first half has some splendid satire; it is funny, biting, and engaging. Ozeki manages to poke a lot of holes in American and Japanese materialistic culture and consumeristic values while throwing in a few thinly-sliced jabs at the meat and marketing industries. The story had "meat," but it was still amusing. Then Ozeki dropped her story on the slaughterhouse floor, so to speak, and from that point on it was a dreary, painful, strident, depressing, bloody mess. There's some redemption and happy-endings at the end, but I think I would have liked it better if she had stuck with the original tone and style. I was getting the message even before Ozeki started using the sledgehammers. The first half is good fiction with a message; the second half is an emotional mockumentary at the expense of story. Still, I will give her second book a try, All Over Creation.
Must read book for Bookgroups !.......2007-06-10
This book really stands out as a thought provoking novel on many levels. The authors previous work in documentary film comes through in her writing style.
I was hooked after a few pages. Every once & a while it happens that you get fully engaged right away- that's what happened for me with this one. Oddly enough, without any easy explanation, I was in...though I had little in common with the main character of the book & had no idea why our bookgroup chose it or what it was about. Honestly, when I saw the title, I thought it would be a choice from the group that I never finished. Wrong! Try it! Might just end up being my favorite read of the year.
A good book, give it a try.......2007-06-01
I picked up this book by accident, I was bored and it was at my parents' house. It started as an easy read, I skipped all the Japanese poetry (I don't "get" poetry) and read just the content of the story. I did enjoy the book, and even learned a thing or two.
The book reads like a bunch of short stories which are collected together, with the main character moving through them.
Average customer rating:
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My Year of Meat
Ruth L. Ozeki
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
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ASIN: 0330490443 |
Average customer rating:
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MY YEAR OF MEAT.
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Similar Items:
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Water for Elephants: A Novel
ASIN: 0330370065 |
Average customer rating:
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My Year of Meats
Ruth L. Ozeki
Manufacturer: New York: Viking Press, 1998
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXON5C |
Average customer rating:
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My Year of Meats
Ruth L Ozeki
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
General
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ASIN: 0786124784 |
Average customer rating:
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My Year of Meats: Library Edition
Ruth L. Ozeki
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: MP3 CD
Contemporary
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ASIN: 0786189185 |
Average customer rating:
- Great Style
- Good idea gone wrong
- Excellent!
- An Engaging and Refreshingly New Romance
- Entertaining and engaging
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Mortal Sin
Laurie Breton
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Prey: A Novel
ASIN: 0778320251 |
Book Description
Park Square. Mass Ave. The Combat Zone. All home to Boston's sex trade. Home also to runaways and lost souls, home to high rollers and politicians looking for action they can't find anywhere else. It is home, too, for Father Clancy Donovan, who spends his time here trying to get young girls off the street. Bone weary and frustrated, he has lost the joy in his life and has no idea how to get it back.
Divorced three times and not yet thirty-five, Sarah Connolly is trying hard to make a new start when life throws her a curve. Kit, her fifteen-year-old niece, has run away from home, and Sarah will need every ounce of her stubbornness and determination to track her down. Suspecting Kit has disappeared into the Combat Zone, and with no one else to turn to, Sarah appeals to Clancy for help.
The unlikely pair team up to find Kit, but in the process find something else -- something powerful, something unexpected and something that will shake them to their core.
Customer Reviews:
Great Style.......2006-08-31
I enjoyed this book the most out of all of Ms. Breton's (though I still haven't read Criminal Intent.) She has a great balance of romance and suspense with a subtle style. Her characters are believable and likable. I empathized with the Priest's inner struggles and his character was not weakened in any way by this turmoil. Give her books a try - you won't be disappointed.
Good idea gone wrong.......2004-05-04
The story is good, and the heroine plucky, but I could not get over the idea of a priest as the romantic hero. Father Clancy was a great character, but the breaking of his vows, in the light of all recent news events, was difficult to swallow. I far prefer Final Exit, her first work.
Excellent!.......2004-03-29
In Kit's eyes, her Aunt Sarah rivals Snow White and Cinderella's wicked stepmothers for the Queen of Mean. When Sarah says "no" once too often for her liking, the teen ager takes off, heading to the big city and "fame." Sarah, however, is not the wicked witch of the north, but a kind woman who loves her niece and has done her best for her. Fearing the worst, she sets out to find Kit, but runs into brickwall after brickwall. Her only hope lies in the help of a priest whose life work is to save girls from the streets. Clancy Donovan is no gentle oldster, but a handsome, troubled young man. The attraction between Sarah and Clancy is quick to light, but they must ignore it. Kit takes priority, and Clancy may be a rebel, but intends to keep his vows, no matter the temptation to love.
Finding a pretty teen age girl in a city the size of Boston when she doesn't want to be found is like finding a needle in a hay field, add in thugs who want to keep her lost, and the problem is compounded. Despite beatings and threats, Clancy and Sarah are not deterred, even if the price is terribly high.
***** Clancy Donovan is a hero that will win your heart in a page or two. He is more appealing and sexy than Father Ralph de Briquasa of Thorn Birds fame, admitting his weaknesses and dealing with them rather than self righteously denying that they exist. Yet, you can not begrudge Sarah his love, for she is a kind soul, though troubled. The action never lets up, nor does the sexual tension, which is most expertly handled, revealing very little, and creating anticipation. This stays on the keeper shelf. *****
An Engaging and Refreshingly New Romance.......2004-03-22
With in-depth plotting and characterization, Laurie Breton is sure to pull you into her stories, and MORTAL SIN is no exception.
Sarah Connolly's fifteen-year-old niece, Kit, has run away from home, and Sarah is desperate to find her. Park Square is home to all kinds of nefarious activity that'll suck a young, innocent teen right to the core of it. Sarah had moved to the cold north to start her life anew without the added complication of a relationship. So how dangerous could it be to her heart to spend time with a priest while he helps her find Kit?
Father Clancy Donovan is tired down to his soul and frustrated by the leash the Catholic Church keeps on him with their archaic rules. The only solace he finds these days is prowling the streets looking to save young, desperate girls from drugs, prostitution, and unscrupulous men. Until, that is, Sarah walks into his office asking him to help find her niece.
I love the way Ms. Breton handled Father Donovan's character. He questions his place in God's plans, but never questions his faith in God.
MORTAL SIN is a well thought out story with colorful characters and an intrinsic plot. This new author of suspense is going places on the best selling lists, and I plan to follow her career from novel to novel. Don't miss her!
Entertaining and engaging.......2004-03-16
Thoroughly engaging and hard to put down. The characters of Mortal Sin are more human than typically found in romance-oriented novels, which I find are often too predictable. Our female lead Sarah has a secret that isn't even alluded to until late in the book, so it's a fresh surprise that keeps the story building past the initial conflicts. Her chemistry with Clancy is described just as that human chemistry really is - you enjoy the suspense in that, as well as in watching her niece Kit as she gets farther and farther into her entanglement with the dark side. Kit is throughly believable as the stubborn teen who, in spite of her longing to be treated as an adult, realizes that her integrity is being compromised and realizes she has a home to return to, if only she can escape. I can't wait to see if Laurie Breton's other stories are this engaging.
Average customer rating:
- "All Life Is Six To Five Against."
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Mortal Sin
Paul Levine
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Levine, Paul | ( L ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0380721619 |
Customer Reviews:
"All Life Is Six To Five Against.".......2005-07-24
MORTAL SIN is Paul Levine's fourth Jake Lassiter novel. Having learned the lessons about excess represented by FALSE DAWN, Levine has written a superbly crafted and finely focused thriller. MORTAL SIN is well deserving of its John D. MacDonald Award, and certainly lives up to its dedication page to MacDonald and its strong debt to Travis McGee.
Entirely a South Florida story, MORTAL SIN is a tale of corruption, payola and murder with excellent pacing and a completely plausible premise and characters. Levine never lets go of the reins. MORTAL SIN is a fine showcase for his talents as a writer.
Jake Lassiter, the ex-Miami Dolphins linebacker, ex-Public Defender, ex-a lot of things, sets out to defend real estate developer Nicky Florio in a wrongful death suit brought by Melinda Tupton, the widow of crusading environmentalist Peter Tupton who froze to death on the hottest day of the year at Florio's pool party.
Complications arise. Jake is having what lawyers quaintly term a 'meretricious relationship' with Florio's wife Gina, formerly Star Hampton, retired Dolphin Doll and Jake's old live-in girlfriend. And on the last day of trial, Jake uncovers evidence that the 'wrongful death' he has just successfully defended may in fact be murder.
A chance remark to Nicky Florio---and Jake finds himself embroiled in a vast cover-up, running for his life through the dusty courthouses of Miami, the trendy clubs of South Beach, the retirement hotels of North Beach, the golf courses that dot Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and finally, the vast 'River of Grass,' otherwise known as the environmentally sensitive Everglades, targeted and encroached upon by men like Florio.
A single sitting enjoyable read with some laugh-out-loud humor, wistful nostalgia, and respect for the natural world of its setting, MORTAL SIN is one of the best entries in the Jake Lassiter series, and comes very highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- Everything but boring and poorly written!
- Anything BUT boring and poorly written...
- Can you say Kate Chopin?
- Great Read
- Wow
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Mortal Sins
Penn Williamson
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 044652154X |
Amazon.com
A stunning thriller with a rich cast of characters and one of the most complex, intriguing protagonists since James Lee Burke introduced Dave Robicheaux to readers, Mortal Sins stakes out a piece of the same territory. New Orleans is the setting, and the atmosphere in the city that care forgot is sexy, rich, and sultry, not unlike movie goddess Remy Lelourie. Lelourie once loved and left a young man who grew up to be homicide cop Daman Rourke, a brooding hero who's never forgotten Remy or forgiven her for betraying him. He hasn't seen her since she married Charles St. Claire, the present owner of the Lelourie ancestral mansion, which is haunted by a century-old crime as shocking as the brutal stabbing of St. Claire with which Remy is now charged. And only Daman knows she's capable of murder; after all, he's seen her do it before, and kept silent when she arranged that death to look like a suicide. Tortured by the memory of their affair, her betrayal, and his abiding passion for her, he nonetheless sets out to prove Remy's innocence, and is drawn into a web of family secrets, tangled ancestry, and southern (in)justice.
Williamson seasons a thick Louisiana gumbo with all of the above-mentioned ingredients for success, as well as bootleggers, the blues, absinthe, and cocaine. Set in the Roaring '20s, this standout debut has a decidedly contemporary attitude as well as enough sex, sin, and mystery to keep the reader enthralled long after the last page is regretfully turned. --Jane Adams
Book Description
" The year is 1927, a time for bootleg gin, hot jazz, and sudden death. The place is a city that inters its dead above ground but keeps its secrets darkly buried. Here native son and seasoned homicide cop Daman Rourke, a haunted widower also mourning the death of a fellow cop and close friend, walks into a scene of appalling bloodshed.
On a hot summer night, inside a slave shack on the St. Claire estate, reckless, womanizing attorney Charles St. Claire has been brutally stabbed to death. A glass of absinthe laced with cocaine is also found on the scene. And in the elegantly appointed big house, a world-celebrated beauty stands covered in her husband's blood, trying to hide the bruises on her face and professing her innocence. She is Remy Lelourie, Hollywood goddess, St. Claire's wife of five months, and the woman who once broke Rourke's heart.
Against all the visible evidence, Rourke embarks on a quest to prove Remy's innocence and finds himself slipping into the dark, hidden crevices of the city he thought he knew. As more people die, he will cross fates with Lucille Durand, a singer who has more than earned the right to sing the blues; Casey Maguire, a bootlegger who grew up poor but knows the price tags of the privileged and powerful; Mamma Rae, the juju master who tells the unwary more than they ever want to know; and Bridey O'Mara, widow of a slain cop, now sharing her bed and trading comfort with a vulnerable Rourke. In New Orleans, where no two events or two human beings are completely unrelated, they will lead Rourke to the truth about not only the St. Claire slaying but the last unscarred corner of his soul.
More than a masterfully crafted novel of suspense, MORTAL SINS is a brilliant tour de force-a deliciously dark portrayal of complex people and a city unlike any other on earth. "
Customer Reviews:
Everything but boring and poorly written!.......2006-02-16
Sour grapes abound on Amazon, so be wary of other authors sabotaging fine work! Penn W has one of the most unique voices out there today. If you're looking to be transported to another place, another time, and be completely absorbed in a story, ANY of her works will do that for you. I've read them all, the "Sin" books first because they are fully ripe with Penn's talent. Her romances, all out of print, are wonderful as well. She'll be one of your favorites.
Anything BUT boring and poorly written..........2005-04-05
This book is fabulous. I thought the writing was tight and colorful. The characters were complex and the mystery compelling. If you like New Orleans fiction and a good "who done it" then give this book a try. I couldn't put it down and have already started the follow up, Wages of Sin.
Can you say Kate Chopin?.......2003-12-10
Class and racial mixtures, open infidelity and hidden affairs are the underplot of what is not really a murder mystery. This is a sociological investigation of the fluctuating web of old families, political power, inheritance -of property and personality- and passions. Of course these themes were touched upon in Chopin's story about racial identity a hundred years ago.with much less wordiness.
If you have the time, it is a tour of dusty mansions, cities of the dead, and places outsiders do not go, but it is a long read. And languid.
Great Read.......2003-06-08
I finished this book in about 3 days. I absolutely couldn't put it down. It practically had me sitting on the edge of my chair. It's not often that a book such as MORTAL SINS really grabs me and keeps me enthralled for 3 to 4 days. I look forward to reading Penn Williamson's THE WAGES OF SIN.
Wow.......2003-04-26
This book was outstanding. I don't say that lightly either, as I can usually find something wrong with everything. Not so, in this case. The story takes place during the flapper era in New Orleans. Ms. Williamson has a deep atmospheric style of writing that is perfect for this setting. Her characters are real and completely three dimensional, with both good and bad characteristics. Sometimes you want to hate them, but other times they're heroic. In other words, they're very real people you'd like to know. It's a great mystery with a surprise ending. I highly recommend it for a hot summer day.
Average customer rating:
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Mortal Sins
Penn Williamson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0007102682 |
Books:
- Narcissus and Goldmund
- Nest: An Artist's Sketchbook
- Nobody's Fool
- Perceiving the Arts: An Introduction to the Humanities (8th Edition)
- Rhetorical Visions: Reading and Writing in a Visual Culture
- Sarah's Sin
- Shadowpact Vol. 1: The Pentacle Plot (Day of Vengeance) (Infinite Crisis)
- Shaping Space
- Sharpe's Enemy (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #15)
- Sharpe's Tiger (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #1)
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