Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs

by Jamie Loftus

Overview

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 travelog 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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250847744
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	32,533
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

JAMIE LOFTUS is a comedian, Emmy-nominated TV writer, and podcaster. She’s worked as a staff writer on Teenage Euthanasia, Robot Chicken, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, and wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central. She writes and hosts popular limited-run podcasts—“My Year In Mensa” (2019), “Lolita Podcast” (2020), “Aack Cast” (2021), and “Ghost Church” (2022)—and cohosts, with screenwriter Caitlin Durante, a podcast on the How Stuff Works Network called “the Bechdel Cast.” She has her baby teeth bronzed and loaded into a slingshot.

Editorial Reviews

Part gonzo travelogue in which Loftus and a boyfriend spend the summer of 2021 traversing the country to sample its dogs; part cultural analysis of the tube meat as American icon; part takedown of the factory farming system; part memoir about a crumbling relationship straining under the weight of cheap motel rooms and indigestion” —New York Times

"A wonderfully weird and wild mashup of history, social commentary, personal revelation and food journalism." —BookPage

"Laugh a minute." —Kirkus Review

"You will never read a funnier book about taking a hot-dog-themed road trip across America than Raw Dog." —Glamour (Best of 2023)

"Somewhere between a send-up and a takedown of America’s favorite sausage." —Bon Appétit

"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." —Library Journal

"Raw Dog will leave you nourished." —BuzzFeed

“Jamie Loftus is a wise and funny storyteller, and her enthusiasm is inspiring. There’s so much about hot dogs that you need to know, and Jamie is here to teach you!” —ANDY RICHTER, actor and writer

“A moving, gorgeously written and lovingly researched dive into the world of hot dogs, American nationalism, in-group scandal, and delicate human relationships. This gonzo yet vulnerable trek is meaty, fun, critical, and evocative all at once. Jamie Loftus is the hot dog generation's Joan Didion.” —GABE DUNN, New York Times bestselling coauthor of I Hate Everyone But You

“Jamie deftly interweaves the absurdity of the ubiquitous hot dog with the chaos of an American culture trying to suss out its post(?)-pandemic identity. Her eye for detail, sly wit, and whip-smart way with words makes her one of the freshest and most insightful new comedic voices of this decade.” —LINDSAY ELLIS, New York Times bestselling author of Axiom’s End

“Who but Jamie Loftus could’ve given us the hot dog Moby-Dick? This book is like getting shot in the chest and waking up three hours later, stronger and wiser.” —BRANSON REESE, New York Times medium selling author of Hell Was Full, creator of FX’s Swan Boy

“Raw Dog is a wild ride. I cannot prepare you for it, and I wouldn’t want to. Enjoy the surprise.” —ROBERT EVANS, host of the podcast Behind the Bastards

“Jamie Loftus is the best travel companion a reader could ask for, and in Raw Dog she takes us on a revealing, funny, sad, horny, and insatiably curious journey across America, and into the truth of what it means to be human.” —SARAH MARSHALL, host of the podcast You’re Wrong About

“Jamie Loftus is the most deeply incisive and hilariously honest artist in podcasting, and her singular comedic voice rings as crystal clear on page as it does on mic. With Raw Dog, she continues to find the subject you didn’t know you wanted to spend hours learning about, and leave you wanting more. Loftus writes with the laugh-a-minute cadence of a Fey, the twisting, somersaulting vitality of a young Eggers.” —JACK O’BRIEN, cofounder of Cracked.com and head of comedy at iHeartPodcast Network

“Growing up, I never thought I would want to read an entire book about hot dogs. But that was before Jamie Loftus decided to write one.” —ALLISON RASKIN, New York Times bestselling author of Overthinking About You: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD and/or Depression

Praise for Jamie Loftus:

"One of the most interesting voices in podcasting . . . It is Loftus’s probing curiosity that is her greatest asset." —The New Yorker

"Unexpectedly gripping explorations of niche subjects, infused with her biting comedic delivery." —The New York Times

“Thoroughly entertaining.” —Vulture

“Diving headfirst into a minefield of impossible yet crucial questions.” —Mashable

From the Publisher

05/01/2023

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

Library Journal

2023-06-15
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.

Kirkus Reviews

Author Jamie Loftus is right at home as the narrator of her first book. Loftus traveled across the U.S. in the summer of 2021 with her pets and boyfriend, sampling the various hot dogs at each location. Beyond giving a snappy description of the different flavors and dressings each dog contains, Loftus also dives into their history and relays some social commentary surrounding these "meat tubes." The heart of this journey is Loftus's return to her father's home to help him recover from surgery following lung cancer. Loftus delivers her material with the same sarcasm and plucky spirit no matter what she is detailing--be it the specs of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (now called the The Frankmobile) or how COVID affected the hot dog industry. S.K.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

Author Jamie Loftus is right at home as the narrator of her first book. Loftus traveled across the U.S. in the summer of 2021 with her pets and boyfriend, sampling the various hot dogs at each location. Beyond giving a snappy description of the different flavors and dressings each dog contains, Loftus also dives into their history and relays some social commentary surrounding these "meat tubes." The heart of this journey is Loftus's return to her father's home to help him recover from surgery following lung cancer. Loftus delivers her material with the same sarcasm and plucky spirit no matter what she is detailing--be it the specs of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (now called the The Frankmobile) or how COVID affected the hot dog industry. S.K.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile