Jason Fagone's Horsemen of the Esophagus traces competitive eating's modern roots from its beginnings as a satire on sport to its current iteration as the X Games of digestion. Portraying competitive eating events as equal parts vaudeville, performance art, and orgy, Fagone goes gonzo across the worldwide circuit — flying to Japan to learn Takeru "53-Hot-Dogs-in-12-Minutes" Kobayashi's secrets and appearing in a pizza-eating face-off on a Cleveland television program. The bulk of the book concerns three specific eaters: doughnut man Coondog O'Karma, wing specialist Bill "El Wingador" Simmons, and utility eater Tim "Eater X" Janus. The three share more than preternaturally limp esophagi — each eats to fill an existential void. "I mean, if I had a career that was really demanding, or a family or something, I wouldn't be doing this," says Janus, a day trader who sees a certain nobility in competitive eating that doesn't exist in his everyday life. "In gorging, truth," writes Fagone.

Horsemen has moments of real clarity and insight, and although Fagone's central observation — competitive eating as a metaphor for modern American trash culture — is an obvious one, that doesn't make it any less apt. He nails competitive eating's vaguely depressing subtext — the eaters take the pastime dead seriously even as the rest of the world sees nothing but sideshow — and, most important, he doesn't patronize or condescend to his subjects. It would have been easy to turn the book into a snarkfest, but Fagone realizes that, eccentricities aside, all the eaters want is validation that their lives have meaning. Even if that sentiment manifests itself as eight pounds of mayonnaise, people shouldn't find it all that hard to swallow.

-Justin Peters