Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Or "Only JSF Could Manage To Turn A Non-Fiction, Self-Reflective Evaluation of One's Individual Relationship With The Meat Industry Into a Multi-Narrator Literary Feast."

So I'm gonna be real honest here.

First Truth:

In his introduction, Foer writes "This book is...as objective as any work of journalism can be." I call bullshit. This book is bias bias bias bias, which I wouldn't have minded at all except that he set me up to expect something objective, which was not the case.

Second Truth:

Eating Animals is uber preachy, including but not limited to the use of one of my FAVORITE (and I use that word in a sarcastic and an unsarcastic way, simultaneously) devices, the comparison of one's personal crusade against whatever it is that one is crusading against to Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Third Truth:

Foer relies on a lot of bleeding-heart tactics that don't really fly with me. I mean, I'm as anti-animal clubing as the next guy, but it's gonna take a lot more than talking about hurting a cow's feelings to get me to stop eating steak. I'm much more interested in the ecological and nutritional effects of factory farming/meat eating. Foer definitely explores this aspect as well, and that is where Eating Animals is the most compelling.

Fourth Truth:

I liked Eating Animals more than I liked Everything Is Illuminated.

Fifth Truth:

In spite of all its flaws, Eating Animals definitely does its job. Foer asks all the tough questions, and even though I arrived there via a very different route than he did, I don't eat meat anymore. Thanks a lot, Johnny Boy.