Rating: 
Summary: Culture of Meat
Review: This review from NadaMucho.com, which features book reviews focusing on contemporary fiction..."Red Meat Cures Cancer" tackles the world of fast food corporate culture - although not quite the way we'd expect - with the story of Schuyler "Sky" Thorne, a sort of everyman executive hoping to coast through his last year of work so that he can collect retirement. A threat from his grossly obese, good ol' boy boss to raise market share "or else" triggers a series of outrageous events that threaten Sky's chances of finishing off his career in peace. As Senior V.P. of Tailburger, an underdog burger chain whose target audience is convicts and other assorted lowlifes, Sky's life takes a turn from bad to worse as he realizes his morals are slipping away in a wash of increasingly desperate marketing ploys, most of which have gone horribly awry. The books shines in this aspect - by presenting the story from an intimate, first person point of view, "RMCC" puts a personal spin on the otherwise terribly inhumane world of corporations. Additionally, this angle allows O'Dwyer to tackle the many gray areas and personal conflicts that are all part of survival for people in positions of power. Successfully balancing an insane boss, political alliances that shift with the daily news, and a personal life gone terribly awry, Sky becomes an improbably sympathetic character. It's refreshing to read about an executive-type who is portrayed as much more human than the stock, heartless "The Man" (read: aging white guy) character, which would be the obvious choice for a story such as this. This is O'Dwyer's greatest strength. He understands that competent satire requires a blend of absurdity and subtlety, and that the obvious choice (which in this case would've been a McDonald's executive) is not always the funniest. He deftly walks the fine line between archetype and stereotype, delicately balancing an outrageous cast of familiar characters that might have come across as stale in lesser hands. A penchant for silly names (a Texas beef council member named Traylor Hitch, for example) and superfluous characters, a tendency to throw in a few too many absurd and unnecessary situations, and an all-too-abrupt and poorly conceived ending are the few missteps in an otherwise purely American satire. Super mad props to the author for self-publishing the hardcopy edition before Vintage picked it up for larger distribution in paperback. It may not be the benchmark for contemporary corporate satire, but "RMCC" is a double bacon burger with extra cheese: delicious and enough to satisfy.
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