“Eating Animals,” by Jonathan Safran Foer

I have never done this before. I love to read, and usually think of every book as a masterpiece in its own way. I usually think that every author should have a chance to share his story in its entirety, be it fiction or non, and I force myself to read even the least enjoyable books through to the end.

This time, though, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

Have you ever been to a movie that was so bad – so gory, perhaps, or so badly cast and performed – that you cannot bear to sit through the whole thing? Have you ever walked out on a movie like that in the theater?

No? Me, either. I have been to movie that made me want to walk out, but I didn’t because, frankly, I had paid for it and couldn’t justify basically flushing that money down the toilet. I toughed it out and (barely) survived. Had I run across the same movie on TV at home, I never would have made it to the end. The channel would have been changed before the next commercial break.

That actually has a lot to do with this book review.

I got this book from the library, and I’m so thankful that I didn’t buy it. I had really looked forward to reading it, and nearly bought it a couple of times. Because I got it from the library, though, I felt free to stop reading…so I did. I’m so thankful for

For awhile now, I’ve felt convicted about the “meat” industry – the process of raising and slaughtering and packing meat for human consumption. I’ve heard different things and seen different things that struck a chord in my heart and really brought me to a place of having to make a choice for my life; I have been borderline vegetarian for awhile now. I felt that I needed more information about all of it, though, and because of that, I checked out Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer. There has been a lot of hype about this particular book, which chronicles the author’s journey as he researched the industry. I’m sure that what he experienced and writes about is real, and I do intend to do some more research on this subject. His account, though, was not helpful to me. I needed something objective to help me make my decision, and that is not what I found in this book. I was prepared for gory details and vivid descriptions; what I didn’t bargain on, though, was a heaping dose of cynicism. His writing style was, to me, hard to follow, and I felt like I was being berated for not having made up my mind totally in favor of vegetarianism. To me, it’s people like the author of this book that give vegetarians a bad name.

In a nutshell, I was looking for something particular in this book, and I didn’t find it. So yes, I’m disappointed, and yes, I’m returning it to the library without having finished it…but no, I make no apologies for that.