My Year of Meats

Jane is the daughter of a Japanese mother and Minnesotan father who dreams of becoming a documentary filmmaker. She is self-described as “polysexual, polyracial, perverse” (9). She is abnormally tall for a Japanese female and often dyes her hair green and dresses in eye-catching clothes. At the opening of the novel, she is divorced, barren, and unsatisfied with her life.

Through her growing role in My American Wife and her growing relationship with a saxophonist named Sloan, Jane starts to find the satisfaction she has been craving. Once she is promoted to director, she crafts heart-wrenching meaningful episodes instead of empty advertisements, she gets to know all the wives on an intimate level, and she does her best to provide her viewers with the closest approximation to the truth possible. In short, she is an excellent director, researcher, and friend.

Unfortunately, she is less adept at being a romantic partner and mother. She often lets her pride get in the way of her falling in love with Sloan and often refuses to apologize even when she is wrong. When she gets pregnant, she mulls over aborting the child, then even though she decides to keep the child, still makes decisions which endanger its health.