Book Review: My Year of Meats, by Ruth Ozeki

My Year of Meats is the second Ruth Ozeki novel I have read ( the first being A Tale for the Time Being, which I loved and wrote about here :http://thisreadingmummy.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/3-awesome-books-set-in-japan.html ) and I can't recommend it highly enough. The title is eye-catching and unusual and if you are looking for something different this novel does not disappoint. It has a narrative split between 2 women: Jane an American with a Japanese mother and American father, living in the USA and working for a Japanese TV company; and Akiko, the Japanese wife of an executive in the same Japanese TV company who lives in Japan.

Jane is a documentary film maker who lands a job making a TV series filming American families to promote American meat to families in Japan. The production company have a specific idea in mind of a wholesome American wife and family to be portrayed on each show but Jane wants to show her Japanese audience more of the real and diverse America. As the series progresses Jane makes some shocking discoveries about intensive meat production in the USA and becomes intent on exposing this.

Akiko is the unhappy wife of an executive within the production company, who is tasked by her husband with reviewing each episode and cooking the meat dish showcased within it. Her honest reviews cause further deterioration of her already unhappy marriage, but Akiko feels the families shown in the series resonate with her and she is driven to make contact with Jane. Eventually their 2 stories come together.

This book may seem primarily to be a shocking exposure of the flaws of factory farmed meat in the USA (nothing new to me reading in 2018 - still shocking, but not things I didn't know- but I imagine this was totally new to readers when it was published in 1998) but it is so much more than that. It explores the clash of cultures between America and Japan, particularly with regard to food, looks at domestic abuse (some scenes are very hard to read) and how this violence can be condoned and perpetuated by paternalistic societies idealising the submissive wife and is ultimately a shocking, compelling, moving and occasionally funny exploration of love, grief and the experience of growth and finding oneself. Masterfully written, with human and believable characters, this is a novel that stays with you.