Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #192199 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Released on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Amazon.com
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 Publishers Weekly
In her memoir of growing up fat, Moore, who previously wrote about food in Never Eat Your Heart Out, employs her edgy, refreshingly candid voice to tell the story of a little girl who weighed 112 pounds in second grade; whose father abandoned her to a raging, wicked mother straight out of the Brothers Grimm; whose lifelong dieting endeavors failed as miserably as her childhood attempts to find love at home. As relentless as this catalogue of beatings, humiliation and self-loathing can be, it's tolerable—even inspiring in places—because Moore pulls it off without a glimmer of self-pity. The book does have some high points, especially while Moore is stashed at the home of a kind uncle who harbors his own secrets, but the happiest moments are tinged with dread. Who can help wondering what will become of this tortured and miserable child? Alas, Moore cuts her story short after briefly touching on an unsatisfying reunion with her father and her two failed marriages. The ending feels hurried, but perhaps the publication of this book will give Moore's story the happy ending she deserves.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Moore's memoir focuses on the "curse" of obesity that has plagued her throughout her life. Given a father who overate and deserted her when she was four and a mother who regularly beat her, one finds no surprise when Moore turns to food for comfort and as a way to sublimate other appetites. Of course, as her vivid writing reveals, obsessions with food and angst over excess avoirdupois are too complex to yield a deterministic answer. Moore's characters stick in readers' minds: a talented mother whose own mother never failed to criticize; an absent, food-obsessed father too guilty to contact his daughter till she was married and pregnant; a generous, nonjudgmental upstairs neighbor who let Moore devour her larder while the neighbor went on an extended trip; and a gay music-teacher uncle who gave Moore the most normal, loving home she knew. Moore struggles with her weight and her barren relationships, never coming to terms with her body image. Poignant, deeply felt, remarkably funny, Moore's memoir will resonate with anyone who's ever lived with self-hatred. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Understanding Abuse
This is one of those rare books to help you to understand what abuse can do to the inner workings of the mind. Judith moore shows strength and courage in writing about her life, her self inflicted pain, (just wanting someone to love her through thick and thin)and her fight to rise above it. Excellent book!

For those looking for similar reads, I want to point out-Nightmares Echo, Smashed and The Glass Castle

Eye-opener
This book was popular a while back, and I read it then. Now, evidently more have discovered it. Why more is not made of family dysfuction/abuse and overweight children is beyond me. FAT GIRL is not the happy ending you might expect, but it will open your eyes to why you do the things you do regarding food and relationships. If you're interested in fiction dealing with dysfunctional famlies, I'd suggest the books "I Know This Much is True" and "Bark of the Dogwood," but if you want a great self-help one, try "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise Hay.

effectively blunt in describing the suffering of one child
This is not the first autobiographical memoir written by Moore. -Never Eat Your Heart Out- was a mixture of personal history with food factoids. Except for a few pages on being a fat adult most of -Fat Girl- is about Moore's childhood. Low self esteem ruled her life because of her abusive mother and grandmother. Days that were suppose to be filled with laughter, friends and special moments, were filled with routine torments of pinching, hair pulling and name calling. All supposedly because she was her father's daughter. The only sense of well being young Julia experienced was when she ate.

It's important to note this book is titled 'Fat Girl' not 'Fat Girls'. This is the story of one fat girl and her struggle to find love and is not meant to be a representation of all fat girls. Although any abused child (fat or not) may find glimpses of their life within these pages. Moore insists, "All I will do here is tell my story."

Moore divulges the history of fat amongst the people in her family but mostly her and her father. Many pages are dedicated to her father's love of food and their struggle with "This will be the last. I'll eat no more," syndrome. It's obvious throughout that young Judith is searching for and aches for love. Which she never seems to find.

The first person account is depressing on so many levels. After the first chapter I debated about not reading any further. In fact, numerous times I thought about quitting. There is a lot of self loathing which becomes quickly unnerving. It's interesting, in a voyeuristic kind of way I guess.

Little Judith comes across as neurotic numerous times. When she lived with her grandmother she would sic the dog on the hens and watch them die with "disorienting pleasure". She also committed two break-and-enters by the time she was 12 for the sole purpose of walking around the homes to look through their personal items and most importantly to eat their food. One moment you're thinking she needs therapy and then the next you're reading about her mother screaming and beating her.

I'm sure some will be concerned with further stereotyping of all fat people: they stink, they sweat heavily, and they can't control their eating. More of a concern for me was the negativity around menstruation appearing at various points throughout.

There's been so much negativity about our periods for decades I'd hate for some girl to read this and think anything other than positive thoughts about her menstruation. It's important for readers to know some of the things Moore says may relate to all fat people and some of the things she says are just for her. We are not all the same regardless of how similar. The content is definitely for an adult mind.

-Fat Girl- almost seems incomplete. While Moore briefly mentions marriage and children there is a whole area of her life that seems ignored in this rather short 196 page, memoir. For what there is, it is effectively blunt in describing the suffering of a young fat girl and while the purpose was not meant to be an inspiration, she did survive and go on to have a productive life. But for such a depressing read whose sole purpose seems to be to shock, I'm not moved to recommend someone put out $25 for it. Try the library first or wait for paper back.

Review Originally posted at http://largeandlovely.bellaonline.com