Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream

Sure, this book is about eating, but it's also a satisfying quest, like a good road movie. Jason Fagone takes us around the world to see best and the worst of this offbeat activity -- the worst is truly, deeply upsetting -- and to search for meaning in all those HDBs (hot dogs and buns). Often funny, sometimes profane, never boring, this book is a thoughtful work of serious journalism and great storytelling.

Just as it takes a particular kind of ambition to stare down a plate of cow's brains and eat them at furious speed, so does it take a particular ambition to write about competitive eating as something more than junk culture. Jason Fagone, a writer of considerable heart and talent, does just that. This book is more about the "American dream" of the subtitle than anything else. Transcendent? Yeah, kinda. Fagone manages to bulldog past the cartoon facade of his subjects and see deep into their hearts, and to answer the real question about speed eating: Why would anyone do it? The answer is more likely to break your heart than bust your gut.

This is one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a while. Competitive eating is crazy and surreal and big and seemingly unredeeming, all of which makes for hilarious reading, and Jason Fagone is a memorable stylist who does justice to his material. But what is most remarkable about this book is that Fagone manages to find, not impose, profundity in the food-shoveling obsessives who are his subjects. Reading this book actually made me see America's place in the world more clearly.

I picked this book up because I enjoyed Fagone's profiles and articles for Philadelphia magazine and, let's be frank, that cover is just too enticing to put down. This book is essentially a collection of profiles of the sport's top eaters. I say sport because these competitors tend to take eating seriously. Fagone spends a year on the competetive eating circuit, getting to know eating's biggest stomachs and more importantly, finding the back story that explains why (why oh why?) someone would shovel food down their throats as fast as they can. There's definitely some money in this for a few of the best eaters, but most of the odd characters in the book are in it for something else. That's the big mystery. In anyone else's hands, competetive eating would come across as a crass carnival where gluttons get fatter and even a person's death can seem humorous, like some news of the weird clip. But Fagone puts a very human face on the sport through his extensive travels with Dave "Coondog" O'Karma, and through interviews with the likes of Sonya "the black widow" Thomas. But he also gets at something much bigger -- what the exponential rise of this sport says about our country and its nickname as the land of plenty. He fishes out the hypocroses among the officials that run the contests and never loses sight of the bigger truth that these contests are usually marketing events for food producers. Overall, brace yourself for some brilliant reporting, a fast-paced, interesting narrative, and some colorful people who may just be your neighbors. An in a completely unexpected turn, this book is the first I've ever read while riding a stationary bike at the gym. Best motivation ever.

This book is really an interesting look at how we now live in the subculture of no subculture. Because of the lightning quickness of computers through satellites and cable, any new thought or movement is just waiting its turn to become a temporary reality show. Fagone is a great writer.... I think once people get past the niche-iness of the subject matter, and give it a read, they'll find it a thoughtful look at today's "reality tv" society.