Raw Dog - Jamie Loftus

This is one of those books that I impulsively added to my reading list because why not. When it comes to my library visits I like to keep an even balance of non-fiction and fiction, staying both informed and entertained. That being said, I had originally planned for Book Talk to only cover fiction. I felt that by covering non-fiction I wouldn't be doing much better than just regurgitating the facts I learned from a 200-300 page exposé of corporate abuses or medical malpractice. This particular book is what made me rethink my stance on covering non-fiction.

Raw Dog is about the author Jamie Loftus going on a long road trip with her then-boyfriend to various establishments across the country trying as many different types of hot dogs as they can during the summer of 2021, a quest known as Hot Dog Summer. When I added this book to my list months ago, the tagline had me assume that this was going to be a more sausage-focused version of Fast Food Nation, the 2001 book by Eric Schlosser. What I got was more like a memoir with some elements of Fast Food Nation with a writing style that feels like it came from Penelope Scott.

Half the time it feels more like a book about COVID than hot dogs, considering the time it was being written. The anxiety and political turmoil of the peak pandemic years affects every event Loftus wrote about, from encounters with strangers to the failing relationship between her and her boyfriend. Like I said before, it's more of a memoir than straight-up documentation, and she delves pretty deep into the connections she's made with people during this road trip, as well as comparing the history of these hot dog establishments to what they became in 2021.

Even though it was an awful year (and arguably has not gotten better since), I did get nostalgic reading through this. Not for 2021, god no, but for the general vibes of being on a big road trip. Encountering things you'd never find in your home state, trying foods you'll only ever have once and then yearn for until you die, culture shock from being in an area with a very different political atmosphere, so on and so forth. Is it weird to be nostalgic for that last one? I do live in a blue-ish area in a blue state, and ever since I've started transitioning I've gotten weird looks from most everyone in more conservative areas. It's rare to find any media about road trips that captures the same sort of bittersweetness of the road trip reality.

I did personally enjoy Loftus's writing style. The Penelope Scott comment was not meant as a jab, I really like her music. It's incredibly descriptive in the most suspiciously specific way, with a jaded and semi-ironic tone. However, I can definitely see others hating the style. I don't know if I would recommend this book to everyone because of that, there's no way the style has universal appeal. It does stick with me though, and it makes me want to find other works written with a similar energy.