Customer Reviews

The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

So this is a book about our protagonist, a lifelong vegetarian ordered by her doctor to start eating meat. Right? Well... no. Despite her genuine health issues, it was her accupuncturist, not a medical doctor, who told her to start eating meat. And he didn't tell her to start eating meat so much as he gave her herbs that needed to be steeped in chicken broth. And she's not a lifelong vegetarian so much as person with habitual vegetarian tendencies. Though raised in a strictly vegetarian household, even as a child she regularly ate meat when visiting friends, and as an adult admits to ordering meat dishes at restaurants. So, really, she's only a strict vegetarian when her own kitchen is involved.

Aside from being measurably different in substance than in summary, the writing also makes it glaringly clear that the author is a blogger. There's a style to blog-writing, a familiar tone and a parcelized accounting of events, that is strongly evident in this book. It's hard to sit and read for more than ten minutes because in that ten minutes you've completed one blog-entry-unit, and it takes a little push to roll yourself into the next one.

As a vegetarian by choice (my parents did not support that decision ten years ago in my teens, and they're still not happy with it now), my main interest in this book was reading, well, what the book claimed to be. I wanted to read the story of a true, lifelong vegetarian exploring meat somewhat against her will. What i got instead was more of a culinary exploration than a cultural or personal one. The author has never cooked meat, so it's mostly the cooking that's novel. Interesting, but not what i'd expected.

When I saw this book I was really excited to read it because from the description, it dealt with what I am going through right now (Vegetarian 10 years questioning my choice for medical reasons). I was curious to learn more about what medical issues she was facing and the advice from the doctor. Things you learn while reading it is that while she was raised by a vegetarian mother, she wasn't always vegetarian and would eat meat when at restaurants and at friends. Also, it wasn't an actual doctor that first said eat meat, it was an acupuncturist, which is worlds away. It started to slip away from the described premise of the book there for me. The bulk of the book is about meat exploration, too much focus on that for me. Long bits about how to cook the meat, different kinds of meat. That wasn't what I was looking for, they have books for that, it's called a cookbook.
What this really felt like was an identity crisis and her feeling lost as a person because she didn't know what group to identify with. She wants to fit in and be one of the guys, one of mainstream America on one hand, yet she likes the feeling of being unique and the label of vegetarian. She kind of wants to be in both worlds and it felt like she was using the disguise of my doctor said to do it to explore both worlds. The way she wraps up the book really leads you to believe that is what was going on with the book also. You won't find any answers in the book if you are on a similar search. She is all over the place on the issue in the book and on one page she'll be describing her love of meat and the very next her dislike of it. Her dislike of it felt really forced. She wasn't an actual vegetarian, so the meat is so alien to me approach didn't feel authentic to me.
She does cover the different kinds of farming well and there were some interesting takes on that.
There was not a conclusion on if her body did better on a meat diet or without it and in the end she's headed in a different direction all together which makes you question the whole purpose of the book in the first place.
If you are searching for answers on health, meat vs. vegetarian, you will not find them here. It's a chick lit kind of take on one person's decision on what to eat. But really do be prepared for a lot of talk on meat, cooking it, selecting it, preparing it.

As a committed carnivore who is coincidentally married to a vegeterian, I wasn't sure I would be able to get into this book. However, it was surprisingly well-written as well as entertaining. The premise of this book is that the life-long vegetarian author had been experiencing a grinding fatigue and weight problem since her early teens. The problem persists through years of doctors visits and tests. In a 'what the heck' moment, the author turns to asian medicine and her doctor hands her a bag of herbs to be cooked with chicken to create a wonder broth. An encounter at the butcher counter starts her on a journey to sample/cook a wide array of meat with varying levels of results. Throughout this journey of carnivore discovery, the author interfaces with a wide variety of people/characters who all seem to have an opinion regarding meat/no meat. She also picks up quite an education re: how animals are raised for eventual slaughter and the options that are available for we committed carnivores. Add to this recipe romance and you have this book.
What I particularly found amusing was the culture clash when the author threw herself into meat eating. Since I have always enjoyed meat in moderation, the concept of someone being born into vegetarianism in our culture was pretty interesting and made me look at things a bit differently as I progressed through this memoir. In another respect, this book reminded me of JULIE AND JULIA in regard to the author's journey into the world of meat.

This was an interesting read, but not necessarily what I expected from the title and book description. Here's what surprised me versus those:

- Tara's a good writer and has an interesting journey to share. But, I wouldn't necessarily call it a "romp", and there's definitely not any romantic romping that's implied by the book cover and title. Mostly there's just a lot of of talk of meat-eating being manly, and a few people that she comes across as she explores meat-eating that happen to be men.

- For a vegetarian going carnivore on a search to improve her energy and help her feel better - she goes about it in a really odd way.

An acupuncturist tells her to add meat to her diet with chicken stock. Ultimately, instead she decides to try to work her way through everything from fixing gourmet meat meals to eating pounds of bacon, barbecue, hamburgers and steaks accompanied by rich sauces, cheeses and fatty sides. Not sure that's what either he or the other doctors that recommended meat-eating to her had in mind. But, imagine it does make for a more entertaining and interesting tale.

In addition, one can almost imagine her friends continually asking each other - "What can't Tara eat this week?". Because along the way, she tries a variety of other eating styles (e.g. gluten-free, dairy free, etc.) while still in pursuit of her meat-eating ambitions.

- It does explore the "moral choice" part thoroughly without being overly preachy and judgemental about others choices.
Visits to more earth and animal-friendly farms are actually an entertaining, informative highlight. And, will (as I think was intended) get you thinking about where what you're eating is coming from.

Bottom Line: A mostly well-written interesting personal journey to share with her that will get you thinking about what you eat.

Tara Austen Weaver's chronicles her unique experience from being a vegetarian to eating meat in her book which is perfectly titled THE BUTCHER AND THE VEGETARIAN: ONE WOMAN'S ROMP THROUGH A WORLD OF MEN, MEAT, AND MORAL CRISIS. One cannot imagine the complex and indecisive process that she experiences as she makes her transition as well as conversion into the time consuming tentative selection of food that she has never eaten in her life for the sake of her health. For those who have gone through the change, indeed, it appears to be a tedious process that involves an itinerary of investigative inquiry of the who, what, where, and when of ingredients, e.g. where did that come from references and the almost politically correct choices that need to be made in order to buy a piece of meat that is also accompanied with guilt and denial.

THE BUTCHER AND THE VEGETARIAN is by no means a critical memoir but rather a humorous account. Weaver's comical narrative lures the reader into her quirky dialogue where she describes her heady encounters, such as choosing the right beef burger, carrying a box filled with fresh pig flesh, and her acquaintance with the Food Network as her cooking tutorials a la Paula Deen and Martha Stewart. But as Weaver goes through the motions of including meat into her diet, there is not a day where she does not continue to mention what has been near and dear to her heart, her love for a less time consuming preparation of lentil soup or a salad over a steak dinner.

After reading Weaver's account of her extremely contemplative personal narrative about her first-ever experience eating any meat products, a few eye opening and pondering thoughts may arise. But for the most part, Weaver shows the complexity of changing her food diet and the sense of humor that she is able to provide despite her on again off again and unrelenting struggle to embrace meat. And as a footnote, she summarizes her journey and the symbolic meaning of food that relates to categorization and community.

It's refreshing to meet a person who has gone from vegetarian to carnivore. It's usually the other way around, and there's a lot of tiresome moralizing in the transition.

Tara Austen Weaver dipped her toe in the au jus because of a health crisis. A doctor recommended she steep herbs in chicken stock and the author decides to go whole hog and make it herself. That creates the occasion for her first of many trips to a butcher shop.

I enjoyed the author's forays into the meat-eating world, at first tentative and increasingly more bold, although gradually I got tired of hearing about how perfect her recipes turned out -- steaks with bone marrow gremolata, crown roast, Syrian kebabs. I've cooked meat all my life and London broil still defeats me!

The narrative is really split into three parts--her personal culinary journey, journalistic reporting trips to big names in the meat world, and some sad stories about her sexual abuse. It didn't all gel for me. I was shocked out of the culinary journey by the abuse stories, and bored by the earnest reportage (except I am dying to taste Biggles's barbequed bacon!). The constant dithering about what to eat began to wear on me, and the reliance on websites for material and interviews will quickly date the book, I fear.

But I am glad that in the end the author finds a way to eat that gives her energy and restores her health. I envy anyone who has energy! And her non-judgmental and humorous tone is a welcome relief. Hers is an enjoyable journey between two often antagonistic worlds split by the question of what to eat. Dig in!

Tara Weaver is a vegetarian in a million. She writes, "I certainly don't think myself morally superior for my vegetable consumption."

But she's just as confused and uninformed as all those sanctimonious and obnoxious vegetarians who do.

Semi-vegetarian in her case, since although the premise is that she grew up in a meatless household, it turns out she ate out from time to time. In her '30s, she came down with the blahs. She seems resentful that after presenting these undifferentiated "symptoms" to a series of quacks (a lot is left vague, but apparently she consulted only one real doctor), nobody could say exactly what was wrong with her.

I have my own diagnosis, which will come later. However, one suggested she should eat some meat.

"The Butcher & the Vegetarian" is her account of how she set out to learn to cook meat, how it's raised, how it tasted and whether she got well. It's perky. I was once discussing writing with a novelist, and he said, "Don't you just hate perky?" Well, yes, yes I do. Weaver is a pretty good stylist, and her perkiness is not as objectionable as some, but it becomes wearing after a while.

It's better than the moral earnestness we get from most food policemen, though, so perhaps we should be grateful all the same.

Two themes, aside from the goodness or badness of meat, pervade: fear and lust.

On every other page, Weaver tells us she is afraid to ask about meat, frightened to buy it, scared of it when she gets her chop home. At the same time, she is always on the lookout for a cute butcher, cowboy or barbecue chef. My diagnosis of her illness is -- unless this is mere literary conceit -- she should have stopped eating hay and rolled in it.

A tone of insincerity mars the book. All the meat dishes she does eat are sublimely delicious, all the men she meets are cute (though married to someone else already), all the ranchers and cooks are the most expert in their methods, all the women are elegant and accomplished.

From time to time, Weaver pokes a little fun at the habit of Marin Countians to obsess about the political correctness of everything they do, though not without a slight condescension toward the rest of the world for living its unexamined lives. Unfortunately, their examinations are ignorant and paper thin. We learn that Weaver hasn't eaten a banana in years because bananas come from far away.

I suppose she imagines the paper her book is being printed on comes from free-range trees grown sustainably on a vacant lot in Oakland, like the goat meat one of her acquaintances raises, and harvested humanely by lumberjacks from Richmond using axes they forged over their own anvils using charcoal from . . . you get the point.

The perkiness gets in the way of the (non-existent) "moral crisis" of the subtitle, fortunately, so that we hear little about that. What little there is of it demonstrates only that vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists and all the other cranks have no moral sense. Humans did not "make a contract" with animals when domestication began.

For all its airheadedness, this is the least offensive book about vegetarianism I have read, which we can attribute to its perkiness. And it has a surprise ending.

If you loved Michael Pollan's books, you won't want to miss this one! In many ways it is more intriguing, coming from the perspective of a woman who was raised as a vegetarian and indoctrinated in its ideologies. It is also an easier read, though equally fun and thought provoking. The author, Tara, has been ill for some time and her doctor prescribes meat. She had hypothyroidism--I would say because of all the soy she ate. (Soy is a goitrogen).

The first chapters start out a bit slow: OK, so she has never fixed meat before and learns how to do it. Tara probably does not realize that for many of us raised as omnivores, our idea of fixing meat was to stick the Costco frozen chicken cutlet in the microwave--we never learned to make crown roast either. She ends up learning much more about meat than most omnivores, and certainly eating varieties we have never heard of.

But then Tara takes us on an amazing journey through carnivore country, visiting eco-friendly ranches which are labors of love and the farmers are thankful if they break even; a butcher place owned by women; a slaughterhouse which is as sensitive and conscious as slaughterhouses can possibly be; a woman who raises her own meat in her back yard; steak houses and barbeque specialties, and much more. Throughout, we learn little tidbits such as which book is the meat bible/tome, and that if you own a share of a cow you can be sure it is more properly raised and more sensitively slaughtered. I always wondered why cows are not just shot--it's because they must be alive (though are stunned to unconsciousness) so the heart can pump out the blood. Tara also discusses the male attachment for meat, though women are also coming out about their love for it.

The book is riddled with smiling humor and wit, and sometimes the laugh out loud kind, as when we find out that when Tara was 13, Martha Stewart was her guru. She grew up with a hippy mom, and "a generation of hippies had fled the constraints of their traditional upbringing to create an environment where there were no boundaries, only possibility. Having grown up in such possibility, all I wanted was structure....I didn't want to follow my bliss." Her teenage idea of rebellion was finally fulfilled while writing this book--she made Martha Stewart's crown roast!

We also get to experience vicariously as Tara eats various forms of meat for the first time. She considers bacon "the gateway drug," wondering if she will be "mainlining lard" and said of barbecued bacon that it "made my head spin as if I were falling in love." But she also adored Syrian meatballs, flank steak and chimichurri. Her description of eating meat, though having been vegetarian, is surprisingly primal. She is also amazed at the big hoopla over serving meat at gatherings. "No one oohs and aahs over vegetarian food--certainly no one ever claps... I will tell you this: Nothing I've ever cooked has elicited as much excitement from my guests as a piece of meat has. Which is funny because my vegetarian dishes are generally much tastier." Her theory is that we are gathering around the meat much as our ancestors gathered around the kill from the hunt, the meat that may have lasted through the winter and sustained their lives.

Meat in the end, however, was not the magic health bullet she had been looking for. What brought back her health was the raw food diet (no surprise to me as a the author of a raw food book!). I would just caution her to be on top of nutrients not found easily in plant foods (true A, DHA, B12, K2) and supplement with cod liver oil, among other things. I am left with curiosity: Will Tara discover raw eggs from healthy chickens, and raw (or lightly seared/steamed) meat? Will she enter the world of sushi, ceviche and steak tartar? Doesn't she realize that the toxicity of meat lies in the way it is factory farmed and cooked at high temperatures?

I normally don't read every book cover to cover, but I finished this one in two days. It is very thought-stimulating throughout, showing the various reasons people are vegetarians as well why people eat meat. What I love about it is that Tara is so open-minded and nonjudgmental, willing to explore all possibilities. Delightful reading!

The cover doesn't really match the insides of this book. It looks like it's a book about a vegetarian girl who falls in love with a butcher, but that's not the case :) It's billed as a memoir, but it's really more of a food book that touches on health, environmentalism, and animal cruelty issues. And there's no romance at all, although the author does get a little swoony over bacon. Definitely worth the read.

This book is more a memoir and moral exploration than anything else. Weaver is witty and charming, and I often had a hard time putting this book down.

I expected more exploration on the repercussions of Weaver's eating or abstaining from meat, and although Tara wonders about this too, we don't really reach any conclusions. What we spend more time exploring, are the moral ramifications of being meat eaters, something that seems to be a hot button issue right now. If you found The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals thought provoking, then you will likely enjoy this book.