Discussion: My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki

Meeting held: Monday 10th November

Location: Mosman

Thankfully, none of the meat products from the book were offered! We were on a vegetarian diet...

About the Author:

From her website:

Ozeki was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, by an American father and a Japanese mother. She studied English and Asian Studies at Smith College and traveled extensively in Asia. She received a Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship to do graduate work in classical Japanese literature at Nara University. During her years in Japan, she worked in Kyoto's entertainment or "water" district as a bar hostess, studied flower arrangement as well as Noh drama and mask carving, founded a language school, and taught in the English Department at Kyoto Sangyo University. Ozeki returned to New York in 1985 and began a film career as an art director, designing sets and props for low budget horror movies. She switched to television production, and after several years directing documentary-style programs for a Japanese company, she started making her own films.

Synopsis:

Japanese-American documentary filmmaker works for meat export company to make a TV show for Japanese audiences which highlights the lives of American wives, with each show culminating with the wife cooking a meat dish. So ensues a journey which changes the lives of many women and highlights the less savoury aspects of the American meat industry.

What we talked about:

• Authenticity as a concept is questioned in the book. We discussed what is authenticity?
• The cinematic style of the novel and the influence of the author's documentary-maker background on this.
• Experiences of mixed-nationality marriages in our own lives and the extent to which they face the same issues as those in the book.
• That the enjoyment of a particular book depends on the context of your life at the time of reading.
• That some stereotypes were challenged in the book - particularly that of the Texan Mama.
• The incidence of precocious puberty and whether anyone we knew had a child who has been through this.

We also chatted about:

• Trying a pre-rating system like the No1MelbourneLadiesBookclub. We did it and no-one altered their rating before and after the discussion.
• Buying meat in Australia. Whether or not poultry is our danger meat.
• Buying meat in the US.
• Walmart
• The printer now available in one Sydney shop that lets you print off out of print copies of books.
• The location of our Christmas dinner.
• One husband has suggested setting up a bookgroup for the other husbands: Blokes at the Oaks. We agree it would be great but they can't meet on the same night as us!

Ratings

"Loved the first half. Give it a 9 for the first half but didn't laugh in the last few chapters. Should've stuck to the story about making the TV show [and not digressed]. 7/10"

"Loved it. Laughed. Cried. Liked the Characters. 8/10"

"I thought it was going to be different than this, but I enjoyed it. 7/10"

"This was my second try at reading this. This time I enjoyed it. 8/10"

"A page-turner. It jammed so much in in relation to Japanese culture. A bit too neat at the end. 8 1/2 out of 10"

"Loved the humour. Was quirky. Wasn't sure what it was going to be about. A little chaotic. Needs a tighter edit. 7 1/2 out of 10"

"Read before. Scored it higher last time. Starts more coherently than it finishes. Perhaps too many characters? 8/10"

Average score: 7.7/10