| Mark Caponigro |
| | 11/15/09 at 06:28 AM | Reply with quote | #1 |
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Young Brooklyn novelist Jonathan Safran Foer's latest, "Eating Animals," is terrific. It is vivid, and detailed, on the subject of factory farms -- which has been explored by other writers before now, of course, but this charming writer gives a powerful new presentation. He is beautiful, on the ethical considerations of going vegetarian, involving his relationships with his old grandmother and his young son; eating is about being with people whom you love, he rightly argues, so we all need to decide: Do we want to be sociable, and continue acquiescing in carnivory?, or, Do we want to do something good for society, and take a stand against meat-eating practises?
Especially welcome for me is his up-front inclusion of fish amongst animals victimized by the meat industry. "Although one can realistically expect that at least some percentage of cows and pigs are slaughtered with speed and care," JSF writes, "no fish gets a good death. Not a single one. You never have to wonder if the fish on your plate had to suffer. It did."
I do not know if there was ever a writer whom I have more wanted to meet.
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