Fat Girl: A True Story

by Judith Moore

ONE LINE SUMMARY: Moore, an editor at the San Diego Reader, relates her childhood memories and thoughts on being fat.

It’s hard to know what to say about this memoir. On the one hand, it is painfully honest and unflinching. On the other hand, as a book, it rambles for the first 40 pages about fat without heading anywhere. Once Moore gets into a more chronological pattern, I found myself engrossed in her horrible childhood and how awful her parents were. But then she abruptly ends the book, covering her college/married years with quick passages.

I would have liked the book to be longer, but it’s also difficult to criticize a book as honest as this. As the author says, she’s written this not out of self-pity or to explain anything, and there is no “triumphant note” that it concludes on.

This is a sad book.

Posted by: Supersonic Jane | August 30, 2005 | 3:33 pm
Posted in: Books | Essay/Memoir