The Fatness

Keelan Cavanaugh is fat. That’s why the government put him in prison.

They placed him in a Calorie Reduction Centre (CRC), where trained staff work to help him and many others slim down. Well, that was the intention, anyway. The powers that be had decided chubby citizens must either go there or lose their health care coverage.

When he meets Jacinda Williams, an activist lawyer researching this new system, Keelan is more determined than ever to slim down. But Keelan discovers losing weight is more difficult than it seems, especially when he also has to fight against a ridiculous bureaucracy and policy wonks with hidden agendas. Can he succeed, and will the CRC-crossed lovers ever sit at love’s banquet together?

From award-winning author Mark A. Rayner, The Fatness is a contemporary satire of socialism, capitalism, and the so-called “obesity epidemic”. This is Catch-22 for a new generation, with a distinctly tender undertone, even as it mercilessly spoofs the establishment.

Winner of Two Literary Awards for Humor

IPBA Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Humor (silver), 2018

IndieReader Discovery Award for Best Humor

Praise for Mark A. Rayner

“Mark A. Rayner—an all-Canadian synthesis of Douglas Adams and Ben Elton—understands that the best satire is only five degrees to the left of reality. The Fatness may not be reality (yet), but it’s too close for comfort. Luckily, it’s also funny as heck.” ~Corey Redekop, author of Shelf Monkey and Husk

“I’ve only come across a few writers who are truly funny, and Mark A. Rayner is one of them.” ~Terry Fallis, author of Best Laid Plans

“Mark A. Rayner’s characters possess substance enough, and exist in a world sufficiently vivid, to be able to revolt and liberate themselves in an exhilarating counterrevolutionary struggle.” ~Tom Bradley, author of Useful Despair as Taught to the Hemorrhaging Slave of an Obese Eunuch

“Mark A. Rayner is just a terrific storyteller and one of the most imaginative and original writers you will ever have the pleasure of reading.” ~Ian Ferguson, Author of Village of the Small Houses

“Mark A. Rayner is an author with a fantastical sense of humor and a dangerous imagination.” ~The Next Best Book Club

Like many of the framing ideas for my fabulist satires, this one came to me in a dream, fully formed. I should call it a nightmare, as it was frightening. So, I started writing this book as a way to exorcise it from my mind. It's probably no coincidence I had the dream while I was in the midst of reading The Obesity Myth. 

The Fatness was a real challenge to write. As I mention in the afterword, I've struggled with weight issues most of my life, so I found it quite difficult to write a humorous account of what it would be like to be imprisoned for your weight. In truth, I had to stop writing it for a while. I probably started and stopped this project more than any other piece of writing I've ever tackled. The first idea went down on paper in 2004, and I didn't actually have a working draft until 2013. The title, however, was there from the beginning. 

When I finally had that first draft, I still had questions. Should Ieven put this notion of Calorie Reduction Centres out there? Will some people think it's actually a good idea? Despite these worries, I kept writing. In the end I figured I could trust my readers to see it was satire.