RAW DOG is a fun little (but too long) trip into America's hot dog joints, think of it as a literary Drivers, Diners, and Dives. However this book wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a lot more research about hot dogs and American culture and how these things intersect and less jokey travelogue. I think there was too much silly for my taste and I wanted more of an in depth look into hot dogs. There were chapters that really worked (LA, some of the hot dog contest stuff, DC, meat packing) but a lot wasn't for me.

I read this book because I heard Jamie Loftus on a podcast and after listening to how hilarious she is and knowing she wrote a book about a hot dog odyssey, I couldn't wait to read it. Since starting it, I've told a few people about it and they all can't wait to read it either. This book is a funny little hot dog travel log that also contains a whole lot about the second pandemic summer, the cultural issues our society has been dealing with from capitalism to racism to the Ketchup or Never Ketchup debate. It has all the good, bad, and ugly about hot dog culture throughout the country. It is hilarious and crude and sad and alarming all at once, and I loved it.

I’m coming to this review as an avid Bechdel Cast listener (team dry scabs). Jamie Loftus is, in my opinion, a very funny stand-up comedian and podcaster. Her past projects have proven to be insightful and intelligent while simultaneously sprinkled with clever ass jokes. That being said…I think audio is her best medium. Hearing a joke and reading a joke are not quite the same. She nails podcasting humor perfectly and this could have been a great series of episodes. Her writing is good but I’m certain the audiobook is the way to go for this one.

In terms of content, this book sprawls and meanders. Beginning with chapters on hot dog origin story and gnarly How It’s Made/factory farming animal abuse chapters interspersed in Loftus driving cross country to taste upwards of five hot dog establishments per day (doesn’t include how she compiled her list) in a cynical, COVID-exhausted portrait of 2021 Americana. Concludes with thoughts on the annual Fourth of July Coney Island Nathans Hot Dog Eating Contest and the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. I especially enjoyed Loftus’s overlay of personal frustrations with capitalism, road trip logistics, and asshole strangers.

Also be prepared to read the word diarrhea frequently.

Delighted to highlight this new release in “Food for Thought,” a round-up of new and notable epicurean cultural history and food-related titles in the Books section of Zoomer magazine for April. (see column and mini-review at link)

I went into Raw Dog with high expectations because I really enjoyed Jamie's Lolita podcast and have been a Bechdel Cast listener for several years so knew I enjoyed Jamie's humor. I liked how sprawling the book was and how a book about Hot Dogs was also about so much more. There was a lot of interesting research about different hot dog restaurants and cultures in different cities. There were certain aspects that I wish had been even further explored while others that were explored felt tangential. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Tony Packo's mustard and relish labels. I do wish that some of the personal aspects that were mentioned in the book were further explored. There was a lot of mention and build up of the breakup with her boyfriend but then when it happened it didn't actually happen in the book. I can understand if the author didn't want to go into too much personal detail but then it would have worked better had the lead up to the breakup not be so prominent. Even as a fan of Jamie's humor, there was maybe a bit too much bathroom humor. I know you can't eat that many hotdogs without some mention of diarrhea, but there were also just sentence about peeing that felt like they added nothing to book. I did feel like the writing felt more like a person writing something to be spoken aloud than read, as some sentence structures and prose did not make sense unless spoken. I think if I had listened to the audiobook I may have given the overall book a higher rating. Overall I enjoyed Raw Dog and love the phrase "Hot dog Summer"!

This is a very entertaining read that I would recommend for individual students looking for independent reading. The book is definitely engaging and humorous and might work for students who think they don't like reading, or who enjoy comedy writing. There are some engaging theses and ideas here, but I don't think it is really suited for curriculum adoption, though I will recommend it to my librarian for one or two copies.

Raw Dog is exactly the book you’d expect from Jamie Loftus (if you’re familiar with her work). The book’s humor, history, and candidness creates a fun read. I personally found the history of the meat packing industry as well as the back stories of local hot dog establishments very informative. Overall, this was a great break from the usual nonfiction I read.

Synopsis:
*************

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.

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 chilli 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 in.

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.

Hubby IMMEDIATELY said "raw dogging is a book?" the had to tell me what it meant, kink-wise...so I had to get the book to read and review ASAP based on the title alone. I laughed so hard at this book - it was so funny and earth-shatteringly truthful about the pandemic that I ordered a copy of this book for myself shortly after I started reading it .. it was that good.

Do I eat hot dogs? Only kosher ones, preferably chicken, and I try not to think about the ingredients as they are a rare and not-healthy treat that I try not to indulge in very often. THis is not a cookbook, for sure, and it is almost hard to describe aside from it being a treatise on life in the USA as it is now. (You know, that country where the citizens of San Francisco want $5M reparations each, a $100 living wage. $1 houses AND all of their personal debt wiped out!)

Not sure if I will get this for our library, but it will certainly be recommended.

Jaime Loftus’ Raw Dog manages to be one of the most refreshing books I’ve read in recent memory. It is at times both sickeningly funny and maddening, serving to frame the simple hot dog and its surrounding culture as a microcosm for all the joys and pains of life in America in the current day. People looking for a rote comprehensive history of tubed meat may be disappointed—-but I don’t think that is ever the aim of the book. It is partly that sure, but it is also part travelogue, part social critique, part journal of questionable decision making. Normally I hate when ostensibly non-fiction book authors writing about a specific topic self insert parts of their life into their work, but that specific thing is what makes this book work so well. We see how the sausage (this book) is made, and the collateral damage that comes along with it. Highly recommended.

Pros:
-A breeze to read, probably obvious given the author's other works, but feels like a cozy podcast.
-Makes me want a hot dog (positive)

Cons
-I would imagine that there are people out there that will bounce off Jamie’s sense of humor real quick. That is very much not me, but I think you’ll know within the first few chapters if you don’t already.
-Weirdos expecting an academic treatise on hot dogs will probably get mad but I’m pretty sure the title should have clued you in there.
-Makes me want a hot dog (negative)

RIYL:
-Sarah Vowell or Bill Bryson if they made more dick jokes.

When a hot dog place opens, it never closes. I don’t know what to do with this information, but I’m unable to stop thinking about it. Most of them opened like 95 years ago, and they’re all still going, Loftus writes.

We both know you’re not going to get to a point in life where you’re thinking, "I should read a book about hot dogs," so that’s why I’m here to definitively tell you: You want to read this book about hot dogs.

Loftus, a writer, perennial comedy podcast guest, and host of The Bechdel Cast and the My Year in MENSA podcast miniseries, has written a brilliant food/road trip memoir hybrid, traveling the US and eating an unthinkable number of dogs, from one covered in SpaghettiOs in Albuquerque to one wrapped in deep-fried bologna in Baltimore to the street vendors' bacon-wrapped wieners in LA.

Goes without saying, but anyone who’s able to persuade a book publisher to run with a filthy title like this one must be a very convincing writer. And she is! Put another way: I wasn't vegan when I started reading this. The chapter titled “Here Is How You Make a Hot Dog” was upsetting enough to make me recalibrate my diet altogether. There’s a lot to digest here, and Raw Dog will leave you nourished. Loftus gives more than just her thoughts about the various frankfurters she eats, she provides historical context for restaurants (like how MLK mused on the March on Washington at Ben's Chili Bowl), even a power ranking of her favorite mainstream dogs, a breakdown of ballpark fare, from Fenway Franks to Dodger Dogs, and the scoop on the Costco hot dog lore. Thanks to Tor for sharing NetGalley access.

Comedian and writer Jamie Loftus graced the world with Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, and an avid wiener enthusiast like me couldn’t pass it up. I know we’re a sci-fi and fantasy site, but I had to sing the praises of this excellent book because munching hog has always been my deepest fantasy, one I live often and thoroughly. Hot dogs are steeped in mystery and lore, and their history is mired by oppression and socioeconomic trends. Loftus covers all of this as she chronicles her cross-country road trip, trying every notable dog she can get her hands on.

Raw Dog’s plot centers on Loftus as she embarks on a lengthy sojourn around the country with her boyfriend, her dog, and her cat. Loftus juggles her angles well: the overall history of hot dogs (including a harrowing section about how they are made), explorations of the hot dog’s place in American history, the socioeconomic conditions that made hot dogs so popular, the storied past of the hot dog joints she visits, and of course, the actual dogs themselves. The result is a creative nonfiction book functioning as a travelogue, pithy history book, and personal magnum opus all in one.

My guess is you read the title of this review and immediately decided whether Raw Dog is for you. That’s perfectly fine! Hot dogs aren’t for everyone (more for me)! I still love them even after the more cringe-worthy descriptions of their origins in Loftus’ book, and I’m hankering to try many of the best dogs she describes in the book—even if I’m sad she chided my hometown Chicago-style hot dog for its veritable garden of toppings. If by some chance you’re on the fence about reading Raw Dog, go for it. Loftus packs the book full of wit, and there’s no shortage of potty humor, as befitting a hot dog book. I didn’t count, but the word diarrhea appears quite a few times. Make of that what you will (I’m here for it).

A hot dog requires balance. The toppings must complement the meat within, and the bun must be sturdy enough to support the dreams of the meal’s maker. By extension, a book about hot dogs must do the same, and here Loftus succeeds beyond measure. Trust me, I broke out my ruler. Just when one section—perhaps a description of a specific dog or a story about a spat she had with her boyfriend—reached its climax, she would shift into something new, driving me along, as though I was demolishing the book like a footlong, bite by bite. Loftus has a talent for the balance required of a hot dog chef, and I appreciated the swiftness of her writing paired with her keen eye for when to transition from one section to the next.

Raw Dog will fill the hot-dog-book-shaped gap in your life. Jamie Loftus handles her subject matter with great care, deftly balancing her personal flair with a sharp, well-researched take on one of America’s greatest foods. Hot diggity dog, it’s so good.

Rating: Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs – 9.0/10

The funniest and best book about hot dogs that I've ever read! I'm familiar with and a fan of Jamie Loftus through podcasts and Twitter. Her personality and humor absolutely shines in this book. I also love hot dogs, so I knew I wanted to read this book. A whole book on hot dogs?? Yes! But it's also part memoir and social commentary. Loftus takes us to hot dog sellers across the country, but she also tells her story along the way. She gives us the history of hot dogs. Explains the social and economic implications of the meat industry. How the factory workers were so negatively affected by Covid. It's so much more than a book just about hot dogs.

(From Goodreads)
I’m a big Jamie Loftus fan. I love her comedy and her podcast miniseries. This book is the perfect project for her.
A lot of the time it reminded me of Assassination Vacation, another book where the author can’t drive and takes a road trip using a niche subject (hot dogs/presidential assassinations) to explore American history. This was funny and insightful and spent a lot of time with very strange arcana, which is Loftus’s bread and butter. I loved how often hot dog stands burned down *at some point*, and the multiple branded hot dog products designed to tell a horny story about condiments.
The part of this book that worked less well for me was the personal. There are details about Loftus’s life throughout that give the book added texture but a lot of them end up getting glossed over; the book ultimately gives short shrift to her relationship with her boyfriend, her family, her landlord, and Covid-19. The last handful of chapters also provide very workable endings, but then the book doesn’t end. I would have been happy to forgo strict chronology to end with her family in Boston, or back home dealing with her apartment in LA getting sold out from under her, or the breakup that’s endlessly foreshadowed. Not enough of an arc overall I think.
But truly full of interesting information told in a very funny way!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

Though I am a lifelong vegetarian, this book’s title and premise piqued my interest. Hot dogs are, as Loftus herself attests, a disgusting and thoroughly American invention. The premise of *Raw Dog* is simple: Loftus, a lifelong hot dog enthusiast, spends the summer of 2021 with her boyfriend on a pandemic road trip to taste-test hot dogs from around the country. Part history book, part memoir, Loftus humorously shows us the thesis of her work in chapter after chapter: there is nothing more American than the hot dog, in both good ways and bad. America is a country of self-mythologizing, and we can look at the ridiculousness and insistence of regional hot dog styles and the bloated, self-important histories hot dog establishments create for themselves as some prime examples of this notion.

This book made me laugh out loud many times. Loftus does a good job of weaving together the less-than-savory politics surrounding both the meat industry and the local histories of hot dog establishments (you’d be surprised at how similar they are), alongside hilarious asides and sharp social commentary. The book has a socialist/leftist leaning lens, which some readers may not enjoy, but I found her arguments to be rather well-made. I enjoyed her uncensored and honest descriptions of the meat industry as well as the atrocities committed by meat factories during the pandemic, as well as the chapters dedicated to the surprisingly fascinating world of competitive eating. My only critiques are the numerous awkward sentence structures throughout and the book’s sometimes repetitive feel.

Which Van Holten Pickle-in-a-Pouch family member are you?

In Raw Dog, comedian Jamie Loftus spends the summer of 2021 (or as she calls it, Hot Dog Summer) on a road trip across the United States in an effort to find the Best Hot Dog in America.

From the annual 4th of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest to what it takes to be a Hotdogger with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles, this book is part travel journal, part cultural commentary, and part hot dog history, where you'll learn more about America's favorite meat tube than you ever thought necessary.

While there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout her journey, Jamie did a great job of also including some of the darker, less talked about aspects including organized labor, factory farming, and how the meatpacking industry was impacted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,

Overall, Raw Dog is an informative yet incredibly entertaining read. I'm excited to check out a final copy and see Jamie's additional drawing throughout the book.

I considered rating this book anywhere from 2-5 stars. Ultimately I decided on 5 stars because even though parts of it were exhausting, as a whole, it was a very good book. I enjoyed it in different ways than I had expected.

I thought this would be a little travelogue type of book with some hot dog reviews, and that book is in here. The book taken as a whole though is way more than that. There are frequent asides where the author goes on rants about the state of American capitalism or other leftist political issues. Be prepared for a huge dollop of politics next to the mustard. There were times where I had to put the book down and take a break because I was more in the mood for reading about meat than about covid regulations. There's nothing wrong with these sections exactly, it's just more than expected.

It sorta reads like a long, well done blog post. The author is very funny and there were times I laughed out loud. It made me hungry and I've eaten more hot dogs in the last week than in the last year. It's interesting at parts too. It makes me want to hit the road again. It makes me want to overthrow the government. And it makes me want to read something COMPLETELY different for my next book.

Raw Dog is a fun book that is part road trip diary, part hot dog appreciation. At times the book reads like an off-the-cuff chat with your best friend about your favorite picnic treat. Hot dogs as a whole are explored covering every topic under the sun. Loftus goes to many hot dog locales around the country and shares the array of ways hot dogs are served. It's a fun read for any hot dog lover. Highly recommended!!

I was so excited to read this I stopped what I was doing to read. What a disappointment. I like the author when she is a guest on podcasts and have even listened to one of her own podcasts but this was not it. I love hot dogs. I love books about food and travel.

Back in the heyday of blogging this would have made a good single topic blog. Instead it’s s weird mishmash of a book that rambles on and on and isn’t very funny or informative or cohesive. It’s like reading someone’s slightly drunk diary. Such a great idea but wow.

And who doesn’t like mustard??

I enjoyed Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus, but I'd call it more of a memoir of the Summer of Hot Dogs than a book about hot dogs. I did find my self making a list of places to visit on my quest for great dogs, so I do thank her for that!

At the core of "Raw Dog" is the summer 2021 journal that author Jamie Loftus took across the United States from coast to coast to explore and sample what to me at least was a surprising, if not almost startling array of regional varieties of hot dog. Besides the detailed, and unflinchingly honest descriptions of the various dogs themselves, Loftus takes care to devote a great deal of words to the backgrounds and various economic and cultural contexts that led to those various franks and wieners.

It definitely proved to be quite the unique educational experience, but it also proved to be far from the book’s only offering. Loftus spends many pages tackling a large variety of other hot dog-relevant topics, and gets deep into the dark details into subjects such as the legally sanctioned exploitation of meatpackers during the roughest stretch of the pandemic to the wild world of Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Like the casing that holds together the various parts of a dog, Loftus packages these forays together with the record of her trip together in a unique writing voice. It’s a tone that’s not only quite funny in its blunt honesty, but also utterly unapologetic in its lack of hesitation for anything, whether it’s blunt musings about herself, frequent connections tied to the hot dog and some of the darkest elements of American society, or laying down crude, innuendo-packed descriptors (though given the title, that last one should be of no surprise).

Overall, an entertainingly informative read. Be prepared to learn and reflect more upon the seemingly humble hot dog than you thought was ever feasibly possible.