Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs | The StoryGraph

Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs by Jamie Loftus

19 reviews

daniandsn's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted slow-paced

3.0

What does it mean for a leftist to partake in (and enjoy) the classic symbol of American rugged individualism? How does it feel to enjoy the snap of a beef frank when the workers who made them were dying in the midst of a global pandemic? Can hot dogs be political?

This book reflects on the cultural impact of hot dogs. Whether it is hot dog stands gentrifying local neighborhoods, Nate's Hot Dog Eating contest clearly favoring the men's competition, a lot of gendered pickles, or poor working conditions, Jamie analyzes what it means to be American through the eyes (taste?) of the hot dogs made there.

"Look I'm as American as anyone, and I don't know what I mean when I say that, but I know how i feel, and it's insecure with a throbbing need to prove something."

It is at once a memoir and a critique of capitalism. We feel Jamie's discomfort, although it is left unsaid, about frequently being the only one in a room wearing a mask. This book is more of a time-capsule of what America looked like in 2021 than it is about hot dogs.

I think this book fell a bit short for me here though. There was so much potential, but much of the critique felt shallow and unexplored. We were granted peaks into her inner life along the way, but not enough to understand why it connected to the rest of the book. Many crude and often sexual jokes undercut the point that was being made. All together, it was an interesting concept and some chapters really did stand out (who doesn't want to hear about the inner workings of a hot dog eating contest?), however it left me wanting more than what it could give.

The audiobook was a pleasure to listen to. Jamie narrated it herself and gives so much life to each of the interesting people she observed on her journey. Her emphasis and accents made it work in a way that I'm not sure that words on a page could.

Approach this book understanding that it isn't really about hotdogs. It is casual entertainment, and although I was disappointed, I did find myself entertained.

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breadbummer's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

Very funny and very informative! Probably not a book for boomers (my boomer parents, at least) with Loftus' consistent jokes relating to sex and/or diarrhea; I, being raised by the true god of older gen-z, the YouTube Poop, thought these were hilarious. I especially loved how this was all blended with the personal histories of the various hot doggeries and figures related to the food. Big bonus for the content warning section at the beginning, too!

My main critiques come from aspects that I'm not really sure can be helped. For one, a lot of jokes/silly comparisons/what have you are repeated multiple times throughout the book, which made me a bit tired of the "(whoever) wouldn't do (a specific thing) if they had (a specific weapon) to their head" (for now). Along with that, maybe it's just because I'm a midwesterner, but I was kind of appalled at how short the trip to the Midwest was. I mean, c'mon, not counting the chapter on Chicago, just Ohio and Wisconsin...? A huge swath of the country is being missed out on. But at the same time, I get it—Loftus has already been on the road for weeks eating variations of the same grotes ue food just about every day and is also

dealing with a breakup

, so I don't think it would be fair of me to complain all that much.

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raebelanger's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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corriespondent's review against another edition

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funny informative slow-paced

4.0

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sarahyjackson's review against another edition

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funny informative medium-paced

5.0

Part travelogue, part food essay, part capitalist critique - ALL VERY FUNNY.

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slimshaedy92's review

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

Jamie balances history, personal and national, in her exploration of the most American of terrible yet wonderful dishes. There are moments when I lose the plot and literally don’t know what we’re talking about but that’s for maybe a sentence. I was horrified and hungry in varying amounts at various times and I want to follow her journey (sans the emotional and digestive turmoil).

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

I picked up this book because it came highly recommended to me by 2 friends, but I knew absolutely nothing about it until I started reading. Part-travelogue and part-history and contemporary realities of hotdogs, this book was as fascinating as it was absolutely hilarious. I sped through this one in 3 days, and the delivery on audio was excellent, although I wish I had a physical copy to go back and reflect on interesting hotdog facts 🌭

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dorothy_shack's review

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dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

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haileyeh's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

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jonna_doucette's review against another edition

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medium-paced

1.5

Disappointing—It’s giving Tucker Max meets Charlotte Roche, circa mid-2000s. As a fellow devotee of The Dog, I started this book excited to dine vicariously through Loftus’s Triple D-style excursions, celebrating an iconic taste of Americana and its rich history, both culinary and sociocultural, served up with a heaping helping of dog-industry insider information. Instead, I found myself trapped in the backseat (with Loftus’s pets), an unwitting passenger on an interminable road trip in search of a punchline without a destination, forced to endure the author’s violent commitment to ‘the bit,’ and frequent, eye-roll-worthy descriptions of her overactive excretory system.

For its faults, of which there are many (see: Loftus’s a-hole choice to flout lock-down and travel/research this book during the height of the pandemic), this book had the makings of something better that was lost along the roadside of Loftus’s journey. A travelogue? Yeah. A culinary history? Maybe... if you squint. Capitalist critique? Certainly not. Unfortunately, for the small amount of ink Loftus spares for actually interesting, prescient topics, like industrial safety standards for slaughter houses, meatpackers, and the animals we farm for food, or ethnocentrism within competitive eating, she wastes twice as many pages playing at being an insecure girl next door from Bah-ston and hoping we’ll accept her anyways, like so many of the humble, working-class delicacies she’s sampled across our great country.

For anyone interested in actual meat-centered food history/commentary, I suggest the following:
Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat
The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
Sorting the Beef from the Bull: The Science of Food Fraud Forensics
Salted and Cured: Savoring the Culture, Heritage, and Flavor of America's Preserved Meats
Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat

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