Chapter Three of Jaws contains the first of the novel's three significant meals - the other two being the Brody dinner party, and Ellen's illicit lunch with Hooper in Sag Harbor. Brody himself seems to be an inveterate eater of snacks, rooting around in the refrigerator for leftovers and beer, and is described by his wife as being "chunky." However, he has nothing on Harry Meadows, "an immense man ... and ... the Western world's leading candidate for a huge coronary infarction." He and Brody meet to discuss the shark attack over lunch. Still feeling sensitive from his bout of vomiting in the previous chapter, Brody orders an egg salad sandwich, and a glass of milk to help calm his stomach. Meadows, on the other hand, goes the whole hog:
"...he began to unwrap his own lunch, four separate packages which he opened and spread before himself with the loving care of a jeweler showing off rare gems: a meatball hero, oozing tomato sauce; a plastic carton filled with oily fried potatoes; a dill pickle the size of a small squash; and a quarter of lemon meringue pie. He reached behind his chair and from a small refrigerator withdrew a sixteen-ounce can of beer. 'Delightful,' he said with a smile as he surveyed the feast before him."
Although there are clues a little later in the text, I had no idea what a meatball hero was and imagined it to be some kind of Scotch egg, bleeding ketchup through its pores. Any reference to a product or an item of American cuisine sounded exotic. Even the detail of the beer can size was intriguingly different. Over years of reading popular American fiction (from Stephen King to Elmore Leonard, from Carl Hiaasen to Thomas Harris) I have become familiar with a whole range of US foodstuffs (Twinkies, Hershey bars, key lime pie, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Oreos, buffalo wings, gumbo and grits) without ever trying them. Although I cannot appreciate their full social significance - just as an American reader might be puzzled by a reference to tatties and neeps in an Ian Rankin novel - I can still enjoy the everyday poetry of their names, and imagine what they might taste like.
Meadows manages to scarf down his entire meal in less than a page of text - proving that he is the true meatball hero.
