Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (P.S.) (Paperback)

~ Eric Schlosser (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more. In a perky, reportorial voice, Adamson tells of the history, economics, day-to-day dealings and broad and often negative cultural implications of franchised burger joints and pizza factories, delivering impressive snippets of information (e.g., two-thirds of America's fast-food restaurant employees are teenagers; Willard Scott posed as the first Ronald McDonald until higher-ups decided Scott was too round to represent a healthy restaurant like McDonald's). According to Schlosser, most visits to fast-food restaurants are the culinary equivalent of "impulse buys," i.e., someone is driving by and pulls over for a Big Mac. But anyone listening to this audiobook on a car trip and realizing that the Chicken McNugget turned "a bird that once had to be carved at a table" into "a manufactured, value-added product" will think twice about stopping for a snack at the highway rest stop. Based on the Houghton Mifflin hardcover.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review

Praise for FAST FOOD NATION:

"...a fine piece of muckracking, alarming without being alarmist. . .Schlosser is a serious and deligent reporter." - The New York Times Book Review

"FAST FOOD NATION should be another wake-up call, a super-size serving of common sense..." - Atlanta Journal Constitution

"Schlosser is part essayist, part investigative journalist. His eye is sharp, his profiles perceptive, his prose thoughtful but spare; this is John McPhee behind the counter..." - The Washington Post -- Review --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061838683
• ISBN-13: 978-0061838682
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,025 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The wrong narrator for this material, June 24, 2002

By	Rick Broida (Commerce Township, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Audio Cassette)

The subject matter is absolutely fascinating, but the audiobook version is almost laughably bad. That's because it's narrated by a guy who sounds like he should be doing motivational tapes. Just the wrong voice, the wrong inflective approach, for this material. Read the book--skip the audio version.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stay Away From Audio Version!, March 27, 2002

By	S. Hungsberg (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Audio Cassette)

First off -- the content of the book is great. The statistics are presented in a somewhat biased fashion though. For example, the author mentions how the real value of minimum wage has actually decreased over the years. But when he mentions that it only cost $950 to become one of the first McDonald's franchisees (to illustrate how much it has increased over time), he neglects to present what that value would be in today's dollars. It seems that an apples-to-apples consistency in his writings would detract from his arguments.

But that's just a small quibble. The real problem with this is in the audio version. The narrator is horrendous! Where the heck did they get this man?!? I've never heard someone speak with the inflections this fellow does. Somehow he manages to stress every third word, trying to make it sound like some amazing fact: "the store was LOCATED near the EXIT ramp of the I-25 INTERstate." Augh! He gave me a headache just listening to him. Stick with the hard copy book for "Fast Food Nation".

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mislead, November 9, 2009

By	Mary D. Ames (Proctor, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I thought that this book was a sequel to "Fast Food Nation" since it was titled P.S.. Instead, I got the old book in a new package. I feel deceived. I have already read this book and was hoping to get new information, updated. If I had wanted to buy the original book, published back in 2002, I would have bought one for one cent on the secondary market.