Zita Gloria INEZA TETA, Grade 12
UWCEA Moshi Campus
Have you ever thought about controversial topics such as environmentalism, consumerism, social identity, and infertility all in the same place? Well, My Year of Meats might be the best book for you to read.
Written in 1998 by Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats portrays the diversity of American culture while also shedding light on some serious problems in the society through the lens of Akiko and Jane. Two characters who, despite living on opposite sides of the world, share personal connections through a TV show known as “My American wife”.
Ruth Ozeki is well known for integrating personal narrative and social issues in her Novels. They deal with themes relating to science, technology, environmental politics, race, religion, war and global popular culture (Pollan & Ozeki, n.d.). Her novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and received various awards such as 2022 women’s prize for fiction for “the book of form and emptiness” and the Los Angeles times book prize for “a tale for the time being”. My Year of Meats has also received multiple awards such as the 1998 Kiriyama Prize and the 1998 Imus/Barnes & Noble American Book Award.
As a multicultural woman in the United states, her personality and background shines through all her novels and documentaries. In my Year of Meats'', for instance, Ozeki is represented by Jane, a documentarian who is half Japanese and half American strives to show the diversity of American culture and expose the atrocities of the meat industry. This is also seen in her documentary, Halving the Bones, where she talks about her relationship with her mother, racial identity and her multiperspectivalism as an ecofeminist.
In ``My Year of Meats”, Ozeki talks about infertility and tries to include everyone on my “american wife” despite being told that it should be authentic, representing the “typical” american wife. She instead goes on to include lesbian couples, immigrants, and a family with 10 asian kids. She defies the image instilled by the society of what a “typical” American culture should look like. She also goes on to discover that her infertility is caused by the drugs injected in cows, revealing several other secrets of the meat industry. What I like most about the book is that Jane decides to tell the truth and in the end Akiko, gets inspired by Jane’s documentary to quit her abusive marriage and go to the United States; something that might have meant liberty and freedom.
Another important theme discussed in the novel is Ignorance. In her last chapter she talks about how knowing all these bad things about the meat industry was overwhelming and that at some point, “knowledge becomes bad knowledge- a symbol of disempowerment” (Ozeki, 2003, 294) and that is when people decide to play ignorant. She also says that “ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence.” (Ozeki, 2003, 294) This really touched me because it made me realize how I often decide to stay quiet even when I see that what is being done is not right. It made me realize that I should be more proactive and not stay silent about wrong things because I have a more obligation to do so.
Ruth Ozeki is now an English professor at Smith college and never ceases to address issues of the world through her novels. She has written and directed several novels and documentaries respectively, and she continues to shine especially with her award-winning novel recently published, “the book of form and emptiness”. The only place you can get inspired to act about different world issues while also enjoying breathtaking stories, is through these amazing novels. My Year of Meats, for sure, is a great start. Have fun reading!
References
Ozeki, R. L. (2003). My Year of Meat. Picador.
Pollan, M., & Ozeki, R. (n.d.). Ruth Ozeki. Wikipedia. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ozeki
Image Courtesy: https://www.kyotojournal.org/fiction-poetry/my-year-of-meats/
Written in 1998 by Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats portrays the diversity of American culture while also shedding light on some serious problems in the society through the lens of Akiko and Jane. Two characters who, despite living on opposite sides of the world, share personal connections through a TV show known as “My American wife”.
Ruth Ozeki is well known for integrating personal narrative and social issues in her Novels. They deal with themes relating to science, technology, environmental politics, race, religion, war and global popular culture (Pollan & Ozeki, n.d.). Her novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and received various awards such as 2022 women’s prize for fiction for “the book of form and emptiness” and the Los Angeles times book prize for “a tale for the time being”. My Year of Meats has also received multiple awards such as the 1998 Kiriyama Prize and the 1998 Imus/Barnes & Noble American Book Award.
As a multicultural woman in the United states, her personality and background shines through all her novels and documentaries. In my Year of Meats'', for instance, Ozeki is represented by Jane, a documentarian who is half Japanese and half American strives to show the diversity of American culture and expose the atrocities of the meat industry. This is also seen in her documentary, Halving the Bones, where she talks about her relationship with her mother, racial identity and her multiperspectivalism as an ecofeminist.
In ``My Year of Meats”, Ozeki talks about infertility and tries to include everyone on my “american wife” despite being told that it should be authentic, representing the “typical” american wife. She instead goes on to include lesbian couples, immigrants, and a family with 10 asian kids. She defies the image instilled by the society of what a “typical” American culture should look like. She also goes on to discover that her infertility is caused by the drugs injected in cows, revealing several other secrets of the meat industry. What I like most about the book is that Jane decides to tell the truth and in the end Akiko, gets inspired by Jane’s documentary to quit her abusive marriage and go to the United States; something that might have meant liberty and freedom.
Another important theme discussed in the novel is Ignorance. In her last chapter she talks about how knowing all these bad things about the meat industry was overwhelming and that at some point, “knowledge becomes bad knowledge- a symbol of disempowerment” (Ozeki, 2003, 294) and that is when people decide to play ignorant. She also says that “ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence.” (Ozeki, 2003, 294) This really touched me because it made me realize how I often decide to stay quiet even when I see that what is being done is not right. It made me realize that I should be more proactive and not stay silent about wrong things because I have a more obligation to do so.
Ruth Ozeki is now an English professor at Smith college and never ceases to address issues of the world through her novels. She has written and directed several novels and documentaries respectively, and she continues to shine especially with her award-winning novel recently published, “the book of form and emptiness”. The only place you can get inspired to act about different world issues while also enjoying breathtaking stories, is through these amazing novels. My Year of Meats, for sure, is a great start. Have fun reading!
References
Ozeki, R. L. (2003). My Year of Meat. Picador.
Pollan, M., & Ozeki, R. (n.d.). Ruth Ozeki. Wikipedia. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ozeki
Image Courtesy: https://www.kyotojournal.org/fiction-poetry/my-year-of-meats/
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