Time for a book update! I finished Chocolat. I hated the ending of the book. It's so similar in so many ways to the movie, but so different in all the wrong ways. Very disappointed. Let's just say, when my friend told me she wasn't into romantic books, I told her Chocolat the book might suit her just fine. Otherwise, I liked it.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is still irritating me sometimes. I really love the parts when she's actually talking about her farm, but it's when she gets into politics and trying to be persuasive that I get irritated. It pains me to say this because she's such a skilled writer, and Poisonwood Bible is one of my three favorite books of all time, but she just shoots herself in the foot needlessly. Here's the most recent example. She's talking about commerical organic produce farming, and how there's a non profit that helps farmers sell their organic produce (there are all kinds of rules). She says, "In 2005, ten years after the program began, participating family farms collectively sold $236,000 worth of organic produce to regional retailers and supermarkets, which those markets, in turn, sold to consumers for nearly $0.3 million." Ok. First of all, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of this fact. In the context, she doesn't really help her reader know if this is a large number or a small number, or what. She seemed to think this was a good idea, but on the other hand, if you've got more than say five farmers, I bet $236K doesn't split up to be a large enough amount to cover their costs (which she says are substantial for organic farmers) AND make a living, and I'm guessing that we're talking about more then five farmers.
Secondly, I'm not a math person, but $236,000 and nearly $0.3 million sound really close to being the same number to me. Why change the format? Why not tell us the exact number? I can only assume that either this is an editing error on the part of the publisher, or she wrote this to make the second amount seem much larger and more impressive. I don't like being manipulated by fancy slight of hand if this is the case. However, again, the context doesn't tell me if we want the profit for the grocery store to be big or not. Is it good that the market is big, or is it bad because the grocery stores are making more of a profit from the produce? (Although, grocery stores traditionally have low profit margin, I'm told by a certain economist.)
This is really difficult for me. I really want to like this book, and I do like a lot of it and am very inspired to do some of the things she does in the book. But I can't help feeling like she's trying to manipulate the readers by not presenting all the facts and skewing the ones she does present. This is disappointing, especially considering her early career was in journalism (although, this may be why she's no longer in journalism). Sigh! Just looking at the critical reviews on Amazon, I don't seem to be the only one who feels this way, but most people by far gave it 5 stars.
I also just started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. I like it so far. It's told through the eyes of an autistic boy who's trying to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog.
3 comments:
Katie, Enjoyed the book review. I have been struggling with Chocolat too for the longest time. I have had it on my bedside table forever & everytime I start it I can't get past the beginning. I loved the movie and wanted the book to be the same. Anyway after seeing it on your list I have been meaning to begin once again. I had extra inspiration recently when I learned that Joanne Harris has written a sequel called The Girl with No Shadow. This one continues 5 years later. Vianne now has a second daughter unbeknownst to Roux and she and the girls are living in Paris and running a new chocolate shop.
I have been reading The Pillars of the Earth and have rather enjoyed it. Thought you might too. Will bring it over when we visit on Saturday. It's the ups and downs of everyday life in the middle ages as a family struggles to build a cathedral.
Reading your review on the organic book lead me to add my 2 cents about the veterinary side of organic farming. When most people think about "organic" meat, they think about happy cows in California and carefree chickens living free-range with no needless chemicals and extra antibiotics that cause drug-resistent bacteria and mutant animals. What most people don't know (including myself until I learned differently) is that these animals are for the most part living in the same over-crowded, disease-ridden conditions that the other animals are, but without the benefit of ANY medications. In fact, since it is more expensive to the farmer to raise organic meat, they are packed in tighter with less $ for vet care. That's right, if Bessy develops a horribly painful abscess, the farmer will wait longer to call the vet, and she cannot get any synthetically-produced chemicals, including: #1 pain medication, or #2 antibiotics. What she CAN get are only medications that are found naturally. For instance, instead of an antibiotic, she would receive strichnine (!), because if given at a lower dose, it won't kill her, but it will kill the bacteria. And it's natural, which = organic. Since there aren't many inexpensive naturally occurring pain meds out there, well, she's going to have to suck it up until the strichnine kicks in. And PS- we don't really know how much of that strichnine or arsenic or cyanide is in the meat, milk, eggs, etc so that's something special to be passed on to the consumer.
So if anyone out there is thinking about organic meat, think again!
Excellent point, Bethie! Kingsolver does address the problem of organic meat, but she didn't bring up those points, which she should have because those are important, too.
She's a proponent of grass-fed pasture finished beef, which means that the cow doesn't only live it's calfhood outside (which I guess she said most do), but they live their entire lives on a pasture. And I think she added that the only way to know if the cow is actually able to roam free (not just stuck in a pen with a door open waaay on the other side of 500 tightly packed cows) is if you know the rancher because he lives nearby. Not realistic for everyone.
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