Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Best for:
People interested in the history of hot dogs in the US, told through a sort of travelogue / memoir hybrid.
In a nutshell:
Author Loftus travels the US to taste all manner of hot dogs, while sharing the stories and history of those who sell them.
Worth quoting:
N/A
Why I chose it:
I adore Loftus’s podcast ‘Sixteenth Minute.’
Review:
I wish I liked this book more than I did. I only became aware of Loftus’s work this year, when her podcast ‘Sixteenth Minute’ was released. The podcast explores what happens to people who have become famous who didn’t really intend to (the title is a reference to 15 minutes of fame, and the theme song is a banger). I admire the way Loftus goes deep into topics others might write off as too fluffy, and she manages to find how something one might have scrolled past on TikTok represents a section of our culture today.
This book definitely shows some of her fantastic reporting – the way she talks about different hot dog institutions, exploring how they are part of their community, is where the book really shines for me.
The parts that don’t really work for me honestly I should have known better. The book is called Raw Dog, which as we all know has another meaning, but I genuinely thought it was just a sort of clever way to get attention for the book. But there is a surprising amount of sex discussion in this book, and I think it feels just so shoehorned in. I know way too much about young Loftus’s sexual history, and I really didn’t want or need to.
I absolutely appreciate that this book is, as many such books are, part memoir. There’s not really a better way of telling these sort of anthropological explorations of pop culture than via travelogue or memoir. I’ve seen it done well loads of times, and just a straight recitation of hot dog history would be an absolute snooze fest. And this book is not! And I’m sure loads of people will enjoy and appreciate the spin Loftus puts on the topic, but I genuinely don’t need to know that much about her sexual past, and I don’t think it works in this book. While writing this review, I thought about whether there was something here about internalized misogyny, where maybe I’m subconsciously judging a woman for being open about her sexuality, but no. I’ve reviewed books where men do this and it skeeves me out then, too.
And I don’t want to mislead potential readers – it isn’t on, like, every page. But I’d bet every chapter has at least one reference, and I just don’t think it was needed, and I don’t think it added anything to the book. It actively took me out of it repeatedly, so much so that it took me a month to read this audiobook, when usually I go through them in about a week.
But still, check out her podcast. It’s fantastic.