Fat Girl: A True Story - Softcover

Judith Moore

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861979959 ISBN 13: 9781861979957

Publisher: PROFILE BOOKS, 2006

Synopsis

Rare book

About this title

Review

Judith Moore's breathtakingly frank memoir, Fat Girl, is not for the faint of heart. It packs more emotional punch in its slight 196 pages than any doorstopper confessional. But the author warns us in her introduction of what's to come, and she consistently delivers. "Narrators of first-person claptrap like this often greet the reader at the door with moist hugs and complaisant kisses," Moore advises us bluntly. "I won't. I will not endear myself. I won't put on airs. I am not that pleasant. The older I get the less pleasant I am. I mistrust real-life stories that conclude on a triumphant note.... This is a story about an unhappy fat girl who became a fat woman who was happy and unhappy." With that, Moore unflinchingly leads us backward into a heartbreaking childhood marked by obesity, parental abuse, sexual assault, and the expected schoolyard bullying. What makes Fat Girl especially harrowing, though, is Moore's obvious self-loathing and her eagerness to share it with us. "I have been taking a hard look at myself in the dressing room's three-way mirror. Who am I kidding? My curly hair forms a corona around my round scarlet face, from the chin of which fat has begun to droop. My swollen feet in their black Mary Janes show from beneath the bottom hem of the ridiculous swaying skirt. The dressing room smells of my beefy stench. I should cry but I don't. I am used to this. I am inured." Moore's audaciousness in describing her apparently awful self ensures that her reader is never hardened to the horrors of food obsession and obesity. And while it is at times excruciatingly difficult bearing witness to Moore's merciless self-portraits, the reader cannot help but be floored by her candor. With Fat Girl, Moore has raised the stakes for autobiography while reminding us that our often thoughtless appraisals of others based on appearances can inflict genuine harm. It's a painful lesson well worth remembering. --Kim Hughes

From the Back Cover

"Frank, often funny—intelligent and entertaining."
—Vick Boughton, People (four out of four stars)

"Moore’s unflinching memoir sets a new standard for literature about women and their bodies. Grade:A."
—Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly (editor’s choice)

"Searingly honest without affectation . . . Moore emerged fromher hellish upbringing as a kind of softer Diane Arbus, wielding pen instead of camera."
—Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, The Seattle Times

"Stark . . . lyrical, and often funny, Judith Moore ambushes you on the very first page, and in short order has lifted you up and broken your heart."
—Peg Tyre, Newsweek

"God, I love this book. It is wise, funny, painful, revealing, and profoundly honest."
—Anne Lamott

"Judith Moore grabs the reader by the collar, and shakes up our notion of life in the fat lane."
—David Sedaris

"A slap-in-the-face of a book—courageous, heartbreaking, fascinating, and darkly funny."
—Augusten Burroughs

Edition details

• Publisher: PROFILE BOOKS
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1861979959
• ISBN 13: 9781861979957
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208