“Some of us are forced to eat spring mix in the half-dark of our low-ceilinged studio apartments and still expand inexplicably. Some of us expand at the mere contemplation of what you shovel so carelessly, so dancingly into your smug little mouth,” (Awad 74-75).
I’ve been a fan of Mona Awad’s since first reading Bunny but it’s only now that I’ve read her debut novel. It’s interesting to read a contemporary work by her with her many horror/Gothic novels, but it was still fantastic.
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is interesting because it isn’t really a novel but thirteen short stories following Lizzie, said fat girl, and her desire to lose weight. We follow Lizzie from high school, through various temp agencies, to meeting and then marrying her husband Tom and all that comes after. We meet her as Lizzie, Liz, Beth, Elizabeth as she struggles to define herself with her weight loss and the obsession that comes with her hatred over her body.
It was an interesting way to format a book. While most of the stories centre on Lizzie narrating we do get a few other point-of-views that give an outsiders glimpse on Lizzie’s drive to like herself and if she ever really can see herself any differently than as a fat girl. It’s a sad, uncomfortable, fantastic read, one that forces readers to look at their own reflections in the mirror and really question which of our desires actually lead to happiness.
Publication: February 23 2016
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Pages: 212 pages (Paperback)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Canadian, Short Stories
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks—even though her best friend Mel says she’s the pretty one. She starts dating guys online, but she’s afraid to send pictures, even when her skinny friend China does her makeup: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She fights her way into coveted dresses. She grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror. But no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl?
Sarah O'Connor 