Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs
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A NEW YORK TIMES AND INDIE BESTSELLER!Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.A Best Book of the Year from NPR and Vulture. Featured in: NPR Weekend Edition • Bon Appétit • Oprah Daily • Glamour • NY Mag • Splendid Table • The Wall Street Journal • Eater • Betches • USA Today • Boston Globe • Eater • Slate • The Next Big Idea Club • Buzzfeed and more “Wise and funny” —ANDY RICHTER • “Revealing, funny, sad, horny, and insatiably curious” —SARAH MARSHALL • “A wild ride” —ROBERT EVANS • “Deeply incisive and hilariously honest” —JACK O’BRIEN • “Gonzo yet vulnerable” —GABE DUNN • “Hot dog Moby-Dick” —BRANSON REESE • “One of the freshest and most insightful new comedic voices of this decade.” —LINDSAY ELLIS Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog.Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelogue documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today. From avocado and spice in the West to ass-shattering chili in the East to an entire salad on a slice of meat in Chicago, Loftus, her pets, and her ex eat their way across the country during the strange summer of 2021. It’s a brief window into the year between waves of a plague that the American government has the resources to temper, but not the interest.So grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your local 7-Eleven.The hardcover edition of Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs includes gorgeous endpapers, an illustrated case, as well as illustrations by the author throughout."Raw Dog will leave you nourished." —BuzzFeed"You will certainly never read a funnier book about taking a hot dog-themed road trip across America." —Glamour"A journey both silly and profound." —Vulture, Best Books of 2023
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Published Reviews
Library Journal Review
Comedian Loftus (writer and host of the limited-run podcasts Ghost Church and My Year in Mensa) takes listeners on a wild ride, crisscrossing the country in a hilarious and eye-opening quest to root out the essence of the American hot dog. Narrating her own book with raucous delight, Loftus describes her adventures with her cat, dog, and then-boyfriend during the summer of 2021. Throughout her journey, which sometimes required her to consume upwards of four hot dogs a day, Loftus sampled Spaghetti-O hot dogs in Albuquerque, a deep-fried bologna dog in Baltimore, and cheap but tasty dogs in Home Depot and Costco. Loftus seasons her account with social commentary, historical details, and personal reflections, including unsettling revelations about deep-seated sexism and racism at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, horrifying descriptions of the meatpacking industry, and musings on COVID, capitalism, baseball, and more. Loftus's lively, joyful narration allows listeners to feel her outrage, curiosity, and wonder. While her raunchy humor may not suit all tastes, her enthusiastic delivery is infectious. VERDICT Loftus's dive into all things hot dog, generously spiced with trivia, cultural critique, and travel tips, is hilarious and heartening. A winner for fans of offbeat food writing, regional travelogues, and irreverent humor.--Sarah Hashimoto
Kirkus Book Review
A paean to the frankfurter, that most loved--and, for nutritionists and vegans, most despised--of foods. "Hot dogs are the kind of American [thing] that you know there is something deeply wrong with but still find endearing," writes comedian and TV writer Loftus, in an oddly tangled sentence, at the beginning of her deep dive into the history of hot dogs and how they are made. "The choice not to eat meat is the correct one," she writes, and she offers plenty of trigger warnings in the course of a narrative that takes her around the country. Loftus found one "excellent" dog at a Tucson food truck where the cognoscenti gather, the bun expertly slit at the top alone and not all the way through to let the dog rest on a pillow of white bread, "just like the experimental medical procedure my mom got done so I could be born." Ben's Chili Bowl, the iconic doggery in Washington, D.C., is another must-stop, while New York City gets no love: "Gray's and Nathan's both strike me as hot dogs that taste more like a person's pleasant childhood memory than the best hot dog I've ever tasted." When Loftus lands on a dog that is overrated or downright bad, she says so. Hollywood hipsters will lay on the hate, but her take on a certain LA go-to is just right: "One thing Pink's Hot Dogs does not have is a decent hot dog, and that's just the God's honest truth." Where to find the best dog? Tucked inside this funny, irreverent travelogue is an answer--well, maybe not the best but certainly the best deal: the $1.50 Costco dog. "Around 150 million of these little fuckers are sold every year for about 60 percent less than they should be," she writes. A laugh a minute, barring a few graywater and slaughterhouse moments. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Reviews
Answering to names such as sausage, wiener, frankfurter, kielbasa, and brat, the "American" hot dog is really an immigrant (Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, and Austria) originating from the Paleolithic sausage. In this diary-style travelogue, Loftus (a comedian, TV writer, and host of the podcasts Ghost Church, My Year in Mensa, and Aack Cast) describes a cross-country road trip to investigate the landscape of American hot dogs and critique regional hot dog recipes, all while sharing her observations on love and happiness. Her commentary ranges from specific brands (Nathan's, Hebrew National, Oscar Mayer) to hot dog vendors (Wienerschnitzel, Auntie Anne's, Costco, Home Depot, Clowndog Hot Dog Parlor, JJ's Red Hots, the Varsity). The book also discusses COVID and its effect on the meat-packing industry, Oscar Mayer's Wienermobile, and baseball. The 12-title bibliography does not include every source that's referred to in the book (for example, Loftus refers to an online video about hot dog production but doesn't include the URL in the text or bibliography), and "Recommended Eating" lists only five hot dog businesses. Still, this is a fun nonfiction title. VERDICT Equal parts meat-processing indictment, travelogue, hot dog history, and odd facts, this book is irreverent, hilarious, entertaining, honest, and, at times, gross. Will fascinate readers interested in hot dogs, road trips, and regional recipes.—Laurie Selwyn
Copyright 2023 Library Journal.Reviews from GoodReads
Citations
Loftus, J. (2023). Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs (Unabridged). Macmillan Audio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Loftus, Jamie. 2023. Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs. Macmillan Audio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Loftus, Jamie. Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs Macmillan Audio, 2023.
Harvard Citation (style guide)Loftus, J. (2023). Raw dog: the naked truth about hot dogs. Unabridged Macmillan Audio.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Loftus, Jamie. Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs Unabridged, Macmillan Audio, 2023.
Copy Details
Collection | Owned | Available | Number of Holds |
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Libby | 3 | 1 | 0 |