Author: Diana Spechler
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Source: TLC Book Tours*
Soft Cover (trade size): 337 pages + p.s...insights, interviews, & more
my review/summary:
Sometimes I forget that not everybody looks at a book from the same perspective. I see the food. I focus and connect certain events and circumstances to food and eating, and the next person may not look at things that way. I'm not saying that I only read "foodie" novels...far from it, actually. What I am saying is that most people probably wouldn't even look at Skinny
as a foodie novel. I do. Kind of. I mean, come on. The title alone suggests food...or rather, eating. Emotional eating, to be exact. Eating to try to get relief or hide from the pain of guilt, or the death of a loved one, or as a side-effect of being in an unhealthy relationship. Brought up with an overweight father and a tiny, portion-conscious mother, Gray shifts from being a mirror of her mother's habit to constantly craving food and wanting to eat after the death of her father. She's filling the newly-formed hole in her life with eating and food...which in turn leaves little room for anything else. Things she was previously so sure of like her career, her boyfriend, her "direction"...they all become fuzzy in the haze of food that has taken over her life.
When another strange turn leads her to becoming a (highly unqualified) counselor at a (highly questionable) "fat camp" for children, she devotes one last night to food before falling into another hole. (Filled with sex. 'Nuff said?) While seeing young kids all around her battling with their own weight and food, she is mostly content to feel skinny (compared to her current company). When out one night during this "fat camp" period, she's faced with the smell and food of a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant. She's stronger than I would be at that moment in time, because while all she wanted was "to leap off (her) bar stool, scald (her) fingers on the sautéed peppers, bury (her) tongue in the sour cream and pico de gallo..." I don't think I could have resisted that temptation. Even with a sexy specimen of man sitting next to me...thigh to thigh. I mean, hello...pico and warm chips! But, I digress.
What happens when "fat camp" goes up in gigantic, scarey, legal flames? What happens when the sex that filled the hole (no pun intended) is no longer there...does food step back in to claim its rightful spot? Perhaps for a while. For Gray, it does. For a while. Until she is able to forgive herself...forgive her father...forgive her mother...forgive the world. In her final "Dear Fat People" letter (a remnant from camp), I believe Gray is beginning to get it when she writes, "You wonder why we hate you? You are the visible manifestation of the parts of ourselves we hide." Self-realization.
While I do feel sort of crass saying FAT and SKINNY, this book was about extremes. There was one and there was the other. The (main) characters were not quite sure about the "in-betweens". I enjoyed this book, somewhat. Not so much that I have to make it a permanent fixture on my sagging bookshelf...but enough that I will pass it on to others as opposed to dropping it in the nearest Goodwill box and never looking back. It's worth a try, and if nothing else, it is a quick, easy read.
my review/summary:
Sometimes I forget that not everybody looks at a book from the same perspective. I see the food. I focus and connect certain events and circumstances to food and eating, and the next person may not look at things that way. I'm not saying that I only read "foodie" novels...far from it, actually. What I am saying is that most people probably wouldn't even look at Skinny
as a foodie novel. I do. Kind of. I mean, come on. The title alone suggests food...or rather, eating. Emotional eating, to be exact. Eating to try to get relief or hide from the pain of guilt, or the death of a loved one, or as a side-effect of being in an unhealthy relationship. Brought up with an overweight father and a tiny, portion-conscious mother, Gray shifts from being a mirror of her mother's habit to constantly craving food and wanting to eat after the death of her father. She's filling the newly-formed hole in her life with eating and food...which in turn leaves little room for anything else. Things she was previously so sure of like her career, her boyfriend, her "direction"...they all become fuzzy in the haze of food that has taken over her life.When another strange turn leads her to becoming a (highly unqualified) counselor at a (highly questionable) "fat camp" for children, she devotes one last night to food before falling into another hole. (Filled with sex. 'Nuff said?) While seeing young kids all around her battling with their own weight and food, she is mostly content to feel skinny (compared to her current company). When out one night during this "fat camp" period, she's faced with the smell and food of a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant. She's stronger than I would be at that moment in time, because while all she wanted was "to leap off (her) bar stool, scald (her) fingers on the sautéed peppers, bury (her) tongue in the sour cream and pico de gallo..." I don't think I could have resisted that temptation. Even with a sexy specimen of man sitting next to me...thigh to thigh. I mean, hello...pico and warm chips! But, I digress.
What happens when "fat camp" goes up in gigantic, scarey, legal flames? What happens when the sex that filled the hole (no pun intended) is no longer there...does food step back in to claim its rightful spot? Perhaps for a while. For Gray, it does. For a while. Until she is able to forgive herself...forgive her father...forgive her mother...forgive the world. In her final "Dear Fat People" letter (a remnant from camp), I believe Gray is beginning to get it when she writes, "You wonder why we hate you? You are the visible manifestation of the parts of ourselves we hide." Self-realization.
While I do feel sort of crass saying FAT and SKINNY, this book was about extremes. There was one and there was the other. The (main) characters were not quite sure about the "in-betweens". I enjoyed this book, somewhat. Not so much that I have to make it a permanent fixture on my sagging bookshelf...but enough that I will pass it on to others as opposed to dropping it in the nearest Goodwill box and never looking back. It's worth a try, and if nothing else, it is a quick, easy read.
*I received a free copy of this book to read and review as part of the TLC Book Tours. All opinions stated in this post are 100% mine.
follow the tour:
I am also sharing this post with:
I think I am adding this to my "books to read" list!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I feel like I am like that character. I am the extreme to either side. ALWAYS!
ReplyDeleteps
ReplyDeleteStop by because I've got the scoop on a giveaway trip to Holland!
I would like to read the book,extreme are always best according to me.
ReplyDeleteJust finished one foodie novel; time for another and this one sounds intriguing. Great review!
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly an interesting subject for these foodie-laden, obese-crisis, challenges-with-food days.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review--I had wondered about this book--it has an interesting premise. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you - I might not have been able to resist the pico de gallo either! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for being a part of the book tour. I enjoyed your "foodie" perspective on this book!
Another excellent review...sounds like a pretty good book actually. A friend of mine picked it up recently, maybe I should borrow when she is done :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent review. I really enjoy how honest you are about your thoughts about the book.
ReplyDelete