Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Published 2001 · 362 pages · 105,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Journalism & Reportage, Nonfiction, Politics & Society, Travel & Food

How hard is Fast Food Nation to read?

Fast Food Nation scores 19 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 25 out of 100
Industry terminology. Very accessible.
Sentence structure: 25 out of 100
Abstraction: 25 out of 100
Concrete reporting with systemic analysis.
Information density: 50 out of 100
Dense with investigative detail and statistics.
Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
Supply-chain structure. Direct and linear.
Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
The burger as symbol of American capitalism.
Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
Controlled outrage beneath journalistic surface.
Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
Problems diagnosed clearly. Solutions implied.
Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
Two parts following the supply chain from consumer to source.

How Fast Food Nation is regarded

Fast Food Nation holds a literary regard score of 48 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Eric Schlosser