BOOK REVIEW: ‘Raw Dog’ a hilarious mess (4/5)
Eating wieners all day every day exhausts author’s last wits
By Forrest J.H.
Trying to uncover “the naked truth” about hot dogs, she bit off a little more than she could chew.
That is exactly what makes Raw Dog a fun read.
Published in 2023, Raw Dog follows author and comedian Jamie Loftus as she travels the United States trying to understand the country’s most storied food; the hot dog. From Los Angeles to New England and many unlikely stops in between, Loftus chronicles variants of hot dogs and variants of coronavirus with cat, dog, boyfriend and deep American truths in tow.
Raw Dog is part memoir, part history, part social critique and so, so funny from start finish. To be fair, this book is a bit of a mess, but so are hot dogs, and that’s why we love them. Readers are likely to feel some gentle whiplash as Loftus sways from retelling the saga of her “Hot Dog Summer,” to how hot dogs became what they are today, to the labor conditions Costco imposes to maintain its mythic $1.50 dog deal, and then back to personal histories revolving around hot dogs.
This may come across jarring to those unfamiliar with Loftus’ work, but the flow of the book is easy enough settle into if the reader is willing to cut loose a little. Someone looking for a serious history book will likely close the back cover unsatisfied, but there are serious histories told very well in Raw Dog. They just sit between silly stories and frankly disgusting descriptions of some of the country’s most accursed hot dog accoutrements.
Readers who like that kind of thing will laugh throughout most of the book and take away important perspectives on what exactly is a hot dog, how it became an American icon and where it fits into discussions on labor, food inequality and ethnic identity.
The anxious summer of 2021 provides a perfect canvas for these ideas to take shape as Loftus paints a portrait of a country sorely injured by disease and sociopolitical strife, much similar to the United States that embraced the hot dog roughly a century ago.
On the whole, this book is a bit of disaster buttoned up in a polished hard cover with a semi-credible title. In that way, it embodies the hot dog exactly as Loftus describes it. This book is funny and informative. The author is obviously not trying to win a Pulitzer, but the lack of professionalism is worth noting for those who think that kind of thing might be important in a book about meat tubes.
Loftus
Finishing Raw Dog left me with a feeling a lot like what I feel after finishing a hot dog. That tasted good enough, it was easy to eat, it counted as a meal, but I would be deeply unwell if this is all I ever ate. As unwell as Loftus was upon returning home, dozens – maybe hundreds – of dogs later, gripping a cold Mike’s Hard she left in the fridge before setting out, trying to ground her present self with the past self who thought any of this was a good idea to begin with.
So what did she learn?
“I think the most American things about hot dogs are that it's a result of a pretty disingenuous marketing campaign, and it relies on a lot of labor exploitation,” Loftus said in an interview with NPR. “And we can still have hot dogs and not have that be true.”
Read this book. Relax and have a laugh, you will know when to take it seriously, but that is relatively rare. Eat a hot dog. Think about what it means to you. Think about how it got to your table. Think about how a better future can include something as grotesque as a hot dog.
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