My Year of Meats
Encyclopedia
My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
was written as somewhat of a documentary. The book takes advantage of the differences between Japanese and American culture to comment on both.
Parallel to Jane's story is the life of Akiko Ueno, a former manga artist
who specialized in horror scenes and is reluctantly married to a man working for Beef-Ex. Her husband cares only that Akiko has a baby and forces her to watch "My American Wife" and cook the recipes, believing that it will allow her to conceive. However, as Akiko's independence and sense of self grows from watching the show and cooking for her husband, her complacent life and relationship with her husband becomes volatile.
Ruth Ozeki
Ruth Ozeki is a Canadian-American novelist, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. She worked in commercial television and media production for over a decade and made several independent films before turning to writing fiction.-Life:...
was written as somewhat of a documentary. The book takes advantage of the differences between Japanese and American culture to comment on both.
Overview
Jane Takagi-Little is a Japanese American journalist who is hired to work for a Japanese production company. The company works with Beef-Ex to promote the use of American beef in Japan by creating a Japanese television show called "My American Wife". Jane works as the host and creative producer and every week an American wife is shown living "her life" and cooking meat. The novel goes on to show just how manipulative the production company and meat industry are.Parallel to Jane's story is the life of Akiko Ueno, a former manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
who specialized in horror scenes and is reluctantly married to a man working for Beef-Ex. Her husband cares only that Akiko has a baby and forces her to watch "My American Wife" and cook the recipes, believing that it will allow her to conceive. However, as Akiko's independence and sense of self grows from watching the show and cooking for her husband, her complacent life and relationship with her husband becomes volatile.