I'll probably read Fat Girl, because the genre is still small enough that I read most everything I hear of that comes out about being fat (except diet books) sooner or later. Plus the sheer power of it. That woman can write.
But her "why I wrote this" essay bugs me, because much as the excerpt rings with gut-grabbing detail? It's not the truth about being fat. It's only her truth about being fat. She's not the only writer who's telling a truth about what it's like to be fat. Camryn Manheim did, and so did Mo'nique, and so did Susan Stinson, and I'm sure other people did too.
No book I ever wrote about being fat would sound anything like what Moore's talking about, because while some of it is familar, in some pretty important ways that never was my life. And in even more ways it isn't now, when I'm fatter than ever.
It bugs me to hear somebody say "they don't tell you the truth" as if the rest of us must be hiding in shame or denial instead of just having truths of our own.
(This may be an over-reaction to her choice of words. I've got a really sensitive early detection system for people who think theirs is the only experience that's real, legacy of growing up with a narcissist father. And I'm reluctant to read an entire book by someone who feels that way.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-02-18 09:44 pm (UTC)But her "why I wrote this" essay bugs me, because much as the excerpt rings with gut-grabbing detail? It's not the truth about being fat. It's only her truth about being fat. She's not the only writer who's telling a truth about what it's like to be fat. Camryn Manheim did, and so did Mo'nique, and so did Susan Stinson, and I'm sure other people did too.
No book I ever wrote about being fat would sound anything like what Moore's talking about, because while some of it is familar, in some pretty important ways that never was my life. And in even more ways it isn't now, when I'm fatter than ever.
It bugs me to hear somebody say "they don't tell you the truth" as if the rest of us must be hiding in shame or denial instead of just having truths of our own.
(This may be an over-reaction to her choice of words. I've got a really sensitive early detection system for people who think theirs is the only experience that's real, legacy of growing up with a narcissist father. And I'm reluctant to read an entire book by someone who feels that way.)