Starred Review.

The latest from novelist Foer is a surprising but characteristically brilliant memoir-investigation, boasting an exhaustively-argued account of one man-child's decade-long struggle with vegetarianism. On the eve of becoming a father, Foer takes all the arguments for and against vegetarianism a neurotic step beyond and, to decide how to feed his coming baby, investigates everything from the intelligence level of our most popular meat providers-cattle, pigs, and poultry-to the specious self-justifications (his own included) for eating some meat products and not others. Foer offers a lighthearted counterpoint to his investigation in doting portraits of his loving grandmother, and her meat-and-potatoes comfort food, leaving him to wrestle with the comparative weight of food's socio-cultural significance and its economic-moral-political meaning. Without pulling any punches-factory farming is given the full expose treatment-Foer combines an array of facts, astutely-written anecdotes, and his furious, inward-spinning energy to make a personal, highly entertaining take on an increasingly visible (and book-selling) moral question; call it, perhaps, An Omnivore's Dilemma.
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Celebrated novelist Foer (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, 2005, etc.) examines the ethics and practical realities of eating things with faces. The author's first book-length work of nonfiction opens with a reminiscence of a grandmother who scraped for food to stay alive during the dark years of the Holocaust, yet refused to violate kashrut law to eat a proffered piece of pork, saying, "If nothing matters, there's nothing to save." Against that time of want and the food insecurity his grandmother expressed for the rest of her life, Foer examines this time of too-muchness, of cupboards full of luxuries and days full of meaty meals made possible by an elaborate system of factories, stockyards and slaughterhouses. "Eating animals," he writes, "is one of those topics, like abortion, where it is impossible to definitively know some of the most important details . . . and that cuts right to one's deepest discomforts, often provoking defensiveness or aggression." To his credit, the author is not shy of exploring his own discomforts while engaging in near-Talmudic analyses of the finer points of being a carnivore: If a pig is as smart as, if not smarter, than a dog and just as fond of playing with toys, then why aren't they allowed to curl up next to the fire with us? Of course, Foer allows, there are cultures where eating dogs is considered a good thing, though none that come to mind where having pigs as pets is common. Given the environmental costs of eating meat-"for every ten tuna, sharks, and other large predatory fish that were in our oceans fifty to a hundred years ago, only one is left"-and the looming sense that a time of scarcity is again in the offing, Foer's case for ethicalvegetarianism is wholly compelling. A blend of solid-and discomforting-reportage with fierce advocacy that will make committed carnivores squeal.

"Stirring...compelling, earnest....Foer brings an invigorating moral clarity to the topic."—Entertainment Weekly

"Eating Animals isn't just an anti-meat screed, or an impassioned case for vegetarianism. Instead, Foer tells a story that is part memoir and part investigative report....It's a book that takes America's meat-dominated diet to task."—NPR, All Things Considered

"Eating Animals carefully, deliberately, takes you through every relevant dimension of factory farming....One sees it from the inside, the outside, the moral high ground, the dithering consumer level, through Foer's family stories, from slaughterhouse workers, animal behaviorists, even from defenders of the system....Foer's aim is not to make your choice, but to inform it. He has done us all a great service, and we, and the animals, owe him our thanks."—Andrew Weil, MD

"Foer's case for ethical vegetarianism is wholly compelling....A blend of solid—and discomforting—reportage with fierce advocacy that will make committed carnivores squeal."—Kirkus Reviews

"A work of moral philosophy....The fact that Foer makes me wonder whether I'm being, at best, a hypocrite every time I eat a piece of beef suggests he's completely successful in at least one ambition." —Geoff Nicholson, San Francisco Chronicle

"Extraordinarily thoughtful and intelligent." —Holly Silva, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Foer's book raises critical ethical questions we all need to face....We shouldn't be polluting the planet to satisfy our appetites."—Huffington Post

"Eating Animals stands as a pop-cultural landmark, destined to be the starting point for a lot of overdue conversations." —Philadelphia Daily News

"For a hot young writer to train his sights on a subject as unpalatable as meat production and consumption takes raw nerve. What makes Eating Animals so unusual is vegetarian Foer's empathy for human meat eaters, his willingness to let both factory farmers and food reform activists speak for themselves, and his talent for using humor to sweeten a sour argument."—O, The Oprah Magazine

"A postmodern version of Peter Singer's 1975 manifesto Animal Liberation.... Foer is the latest in a long line of distinguished literary vegetarians."—Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times Book Review

"The latest from novelist Foer is a surprising but characteristically brilliant memoir-investigation, boasting an exhaustively-argued account of one man-child's decade-long struggle with vegetarianism... Without pulling any punches—factory farming is given the full expose treatment—Foer combines an array of facts, astutely-written anecdotes, and his furious, inward-spinning energy to make a personal, highly entertaining take on an increasingly visible...moral question; call it, perhaps, An Omnivore's Dilemma."—Publishers Weekly

"The everyday horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both."—J.M. Coetzee

"Some of our finest journalists (Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser) and animal rights activists (Peter Singer, Temple Grandin)—not to mention Gandhi, Jesus, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke and Immanuel Kant (and so many others)—have hurled themselves against the question of eating meat and the moral issues inherent in killing animals for food. Foer, 32, in this, his first work of nonfiction, intrepidly joins their ranks....It is the kind of wisdom that, in all its humanity and clarity, deserves a place at the table with our greatest philosophers."—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

"Should be compulsory reading...A genuine masterwork."—TimeOut

"[Eating Animals] is extraordinarily thoughtful and intelligent, and reads more like philosophy than journalism."

"A work of moral philosophy...After reading this book, it's hard to disagree [with Foer]."

"Some of our finest journalists (Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser) and animal rights activists (Peter Singer, Temple Grandin)-not to mention Gandhi, Jesus, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke and Immanuel Kant (and so many others)-have hurled themselves against the question of eating meat and the moral issues inherent in killing animals for food. Foer, 32, in this, his first work of nonfiction, intrepidly joins their ranks...It is the kind of wisdom that, in all its humanity and clarity, deserves a place at the table with our greatest philosophers."

"[Eating Animals] is a postmodern version of Peter Singer's 1975 manifesto Animal Liberation...Foer is the latest in a long line of distinguished literary vegetarians."

"Eating Animals carefully, deliberately, takes you through every relevant dimension of factory farming...One sees it from the inside, the outside, the moral high ground, the dithering consumer level, through Foer's family stories, from slaughterhouse workers, animal behaviorists, even from defenders of the system... Foer's aim is not to make your choice, but to inform it. He has done us all a great service, and we, and the animals, owe him our thanks."

"Stirring....compelling, earnest...Foer brings an invigorating moral clarity to the topic."

"The everyday horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both."

PRAISE FOR EATING ANIMALS:

"For a hot young writer to train his sights on a subject as unpalatable as meat production and consumption takes raw nerve. What makes Eating Animals so unusual is vegetarian Foer's empathy for human meat eaters, his willingness to let both factory farmers and food reform activists speak for themselves, and his talent for using humor to sweeten a sour argument."

"Foer's aim is not to make your choice, but to inform it. He has done us all a great service, and we, and the animals, owe him our thanks."

"Eating Animals stands as a pop-cultural landmark, destined to be the starting point for a lot of overdue conversations."

"Eating Animals isn't just an anti-meat screed, or an impassioned case for vegetarianism. Instead, Foer tells a story that is part memoir and part investigative report....It's a book that takes America's meat-dominated diet to task."

[Eating Animals] is extraordinarily thoughtful and intelligent, and reads more like philosophy than journalism.
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A work of moral philosophy...After reading this book, it's hard to disagree [with Foer].
— San Francisco Chronicle

Some of our finest journalists (Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser) and animal rights activists (Peter Singer, Temple Grandin)-not to mention Gandhi, Jesus, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke and Immanuel Kant (and so many others)-have hurled themselves against the question of eating meat and the moral issues inherent in killing animals for food. Foer, 32, in this, his first work of nonfiction, intrepidly joins their ranks...It is the kind of wisdom that, in all its humanity and clarity, deserves a place at the table with our greatest philosophers.
— Los Angeles Times

[Eating Animals] is a postmodern version of Peter Singer's 1975 manifesto Animal Liberation...Foer is the latest in a long line of distinguished literary vegetarians.
— New York Times Book Review

Eating Animals carefully, deliberately, takes you through every relevant dimension of factory farming...One sees it from the inside, the outside, the moral high ground, the dithering consumer level, through Foer's family stories, from slaughterhouse workers, animal behaviorists, even from defenders of the system... Foer's aim is not to make your choice, but to inform it. He has done us all a great service, and we, and the animals, owe him our thanks.
— The Huffington Post

Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote the novel EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE, published in 2005, offers a smartly written nonfiction look at eating creatures that provide us with meat—from pork and beef to poultry and fish. Listeners may find the tone of his argument smug, even irritating, as he makes his well-researched, emotional plea for "ethical vegetarianism." Sometimes downright Swiftian in his suggestions, Foer says, "When we eat factory-farmed meat, we live, literally, on tortured flesh." Jonathan Ross narrates Foer's data, stories, and anecdotes intelligently. Ross neatly handles concerns about the environmental impact of meat-eating, including food-borne illnesses and the rivers of animal fecal matter contaminating our waterways, as well as augments his case with horrific descriptions of inhumane industrial slaughterhouses. Foer’s chilling treatise will leave the carnivores among us chewing on this gastronomical dilemma. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine