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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
I could only read half of this and I hate to not finish books. I loved The Post-Birthday World but just can't get into these characters or the fact that the whooole book is about dealing with weight issues. I was bored.
One of the other reviewers here wrote that this was a bunch of the author's own feelings about fat people disguised as a novel. I couldn't agree more. The main character, while admitting that she herself has an extra thirty pounds to lose, doesn't hold back on the criticism of her fellow Americans, whom she accuses of forgetting how to eat and gorging themselves while blissfully ignorant of their expanding middles, but the worst treatment is reserved for Edison, the morbidly obese character, who is little more than a caricature of every cruel stereotype of an obese person (lazy and busy stuffing their face whatever unhealthy food is in reach.) Oh, the paces this poor guy is put through from broken chairs to the excrement scene...
I stuck with this in the hopes that the ending would shed emotional depth on the characters the way the ending of We Have to Talk About Kevin did, but alas it didn't. Like your cold Aunt Millie who clucks her tongue about the shame of your beautiful face hidden under that fat, this book holds out love for Edison until he begins to lose weight. Then and only then could Edison be granted full character status, including a sense of humor (paraphrasing: "Boy sis, at my highest weight I could have been a sandbag!" *Harhar sigh*) I so wanted to root for Edison to escape this abusive partner of a book and strike out into a world that could have dealt with his depression in a supportive way.
I stuck with this in the hopes that the ending would shed emotional depth on the characters the way the ending of We Have to Talk About Kevin did, but alas it didn't. Like your cold Aunt Millie who clucks her tongue about the shame of your beautiful face hidden under that fat, this book holds out love for Edison until he begins to lose weight. Then and only then could Edison be granted full character status, including a sense of humor (paraphrasing: "Boy sis, at my highest weight I could have been a sandbag!" *Harhar sigh*) I so wanted to root for Edison to escape this abusive partner of a book and strike out into a world that could have dealt with his depression in a supportive way.
I thought that I would really like this, but I just couldn't get into it. I didn't really like or care about any of the characters, and ended up putting it down after about 70 pages.
Another powerful, unflinchingly hard hitting book from Lionel Shriver. It says a lot about the complex issue of obesity and also about the power of sibling relationships. Pandora was easier to like than Eva (Lionel Shriver does like interesting surnames), but in the end, I'm not so sure. I really like that in a book.
I keep trying to write a review for this book but find myself unable to adequately express how I felt about it. The only other Shriver book I've read so far was "We Need to Talk About Kevin," and I was blown away by it! So when I saw the concept of "Big Brother," I was so excited to see where Shriver would take this other socially taboo topic: fat.
I guess I expected it to be more emotionally wrenching (like "We Need to Talk About Kevin"), since food is tied up pretty deep in emotions. Instead, I felt like this book was sort of out of focus and schlocky, plus the ending seemed like a total cop-out.
Disappointing.
I guess I expected it to be more emotionally wrenching (like "We Need to Talk About Kevin"), since food is tied up pretty deep in emotions. Instead, I felt like this book was sort of out of focus and schlocky, plus the ending seemed like a total cop-out.
Disappointing.
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Powerful and bittersweet. Provokes the reader into questioning the relationships around them and who it is we are really trying to save. In the end you cannot save anyone from themselves.
A great book. As the notes at the end explain, it is one of very few books that address the issue of food and obesity head on. It tackles the subject from all angles: social, family and personal, but without becoming preachy or medical/clinical. Even as someone comfortably in the "normal" BMI range, I found many aspects of the book enlightening and it reflected many of the issues I experience regularly in my interaction with others about food and weight. At first I found some of characters rather weak and the behaviour implausible, but as the plot developed these weaknesses seemed to be a device to throw the reader off-guard so that when the profound messages at the end of the book are delivered, the impact seemed that much greater.
This was a decent enough read. Although not very likable, I genuinely wanted to hear what happened to the characters as I read. Spoiler alert! Then I began to feel it was all a bit twee and it all fell apart and was concluded with a slap dash "nah, that didn't happen, I'm not THAT stupid" ending. I don't like happy ever after endings as a rule and didn't want this to be one either. What I did want was an ending that lived up to the promise of the beginning and middle. A bit of a Leaving Las Vegas feel without the appeal of Nicholas Cage before the ego took over.