The Gist: Good evening VegNews Book Clubbers! It is the second week of reading My Year of Meats, a novel by Ruth L. Ozeki. We read a good chunk of the book for this week, and both Jane and Akiko, the two main characters, have further developed. Jane has been able to direct several of the My American Wife! episodes, allowing her to make more authentic choices for the show, including a Mexican family, a large family through adoption, and Polish family with a handicapped daughter. Jane has also started to learn more about the meat industry, finding out about the antibiotics in meat after the previous director, Oda, had a seizure after eating some veal that a featured wife for the show had made, due to the fact that he was allergic to antibiotics. Jane also is learning more about the hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), an artificial growth stimulant for farm animals.Akiko is having problems of her own—she is unable to keep down food which is making her infertile, and her husband, John, is becoming more and more abusive. She is definitely unhappy, but due to her culture, she feels trapped in the marriage, which was arranged by her boss and John's boss.
The Discussion: I hope you're enjoying the book as much as myself. Here are two discussion points to help get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing from you!
1. As you may have noticed, each chapter opens with an excerpt from Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book. Do you feel that this interjection from another work enriches the novel? How so? If not, why?
2. Do you think that either Jane or Akiko will eventually become vegetarian? Why?
The Assignment: Please read chapters 7 to 9 for our discussion on Monday, November 15.
~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig
Had a hard time getting through the reading this week but I made it finally! Still enjoying the book, was just trying to save it for closer to posting time and then time got away from me.
ReplyDeleteSo as for the excerpts from The Pillow Book, I do not really like them. I usually skip over things like that mostly because I am so excited to read the "real story". I have been reading them though in this book, I think because there was something in the book club intro about it.
I do think Jane will become a vegetarian after she does some more research. She seems like a smart lady and after her researcg I think it will be a logical conclusion for her. Akiko never seemed to like meat so I would have choosen her first about 1 chapter ago but then she seemed to REALLY enjoy the lamb chop this week....or maybe that was the whiskey.
I know this was not a question but I have to say her husband John seems like a real jerk and I hope he has a change of heart or something before this story is over!
I need spell check for these posts!
ReplyDeleteHi everyone! Thanks for your comment, Kim. I find the included excerpts a good complement to the story, because I think that both Jane and Akiko embody the personality of Sei Shonagon in some way. I also definitely think that Jane will become a vegetarian—I haven't made up my mind about Akiko yet. I look forward to reading more comments. Happy reading!
ReplyDelete~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig