Fat Girl: A True Story
by Judith Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Judith MooreEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02-28
ISBN: 0452285852
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Plume
Book Reviews of Fat Girl: A True Story
Book Review: 2/3 of America Needs to Read This --Poignant --Heartbreaking...
Summary: 4 Stars
The chances are if you're American and reading this you TOO are FAT -- here are the stats I found online: Between 1962 and the year 2000, the number of obese Americans grew from 13% to an alarming 31% of the population.-- 63% of Americans are overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) in excess of 25.0.-- 31% are obese with a BMI in excess of 30.0.
-- Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past two decades.-- According to the U.S. Surgeon General report obesity is responsible for 300,000 deaths every year. (Stats are from the National Center for Health -- not from Judith Moore's book). In fact, Judith cites no stats for being fat in America. She takes fat personally -- because it IS....Only if you've been "fat" or 'overweight" or "chubby" or "heavyset" will you truly empathize with her memoir. And even then you want to give her a hug but you have a feeling that she would probably reach to shake your hand instead....a self-taught writer, Judith Moore is an extraordinary non-fiction, magician with words....award-winning -- Guggenheim and NEA --writer. She starts the book by saying "I am Fat...I am not so fat I can't fasten the seat belt on the plane...but I am fat and I wanted to write about what it was and is like for me, being fat" As she notes, she's not a fat activist...she does not blame an eating disorder. She does however reflect about how she was 'eating herself alive" and how she was 'hungry for love' so she's certainly done lots of self-reflection about being fat. She doesn't 'sugar-coat' it (pun-intended) -- she's just fat. In fact in 4th grade I think she says she was 150 lbs or so and wore women's clothes-- she looked like a housewife she explains. Her thin mother who is physically abusive is constantly putting her on a 'reducing diet' of the times-- seems like it was the 60's or so -- melba toast, jello, grapefruit and lettuce kind of starvation regime...her 'fat father' who was thin only once when he married her mother abandons her and then returns later in life--which doesn't seem to resolve any of the wounds...or rather open pit she uses to fill with food and more food. The amazing thing about Judith is she LOVES food...and she writes about it like one might write about a travel experience or even viewing a movie or walking through a garden...colors, flavors, scents and textures...she recognizes all of them and MORE!....she never eats McDonalds-- but she's still fat....she won't say the exact number...and it seems like she would rather die than tell her weight. You feel both sad and appalled by reading her life tale...just when you think you've had enuf of her tale-- she escalates the stakes and tells about how she broke into her minister's house to eat and inhale the essense of what a real family home was...how she ate through her neighbor's kitchen cabinets when she was asked to water the African Violets...it's almost like she vaccumes up the food.....but she savors the flavors along the way...this is not a bulemic or a binge-eater...she seems to eat all of the time...except for several CRASH diets she does-- including one to intrigue a man she's fascinated with -- she says she got thin then...she constantly reminds you that she 'was stuck behind her walls of fat and could not climb over --even when she seems to daydream about 'climbing out of the wide slate windowsell and throw herself down...past one afer another apartment windows down to the concrete where she could spit pen her fat house and her soul would squeeze itslef out of her and float to heaven on white wings where Jesus sat onhis chair and suffered little children....almost evangelical in it's approach...but not proselytizing - she's telling her story....as fascinating and as repulsive as it is...why she didn't commit suicide and how she got to where she is today is cut off at the end of the book where she ends with an almost violent shuttering of info on her life...two husbands,two kids...some interesting friends...and that's it...and so it goes...or as Peggy Lee used to sing-- Is that all there is...reminiscing about her hosue caught fire...except that Judith's house is ALWAYS ON FIRE...!
More facts -- if you think this is an exception -- Obesity in proliferating in the United States: 3.8 million people are over 300 pounds, over 400,000 people (mostly males) carry over 400 pounds and the average adult female weighs an unprecedented 163 pounds!
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