Book recommendation
May. 8th, 2006 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottishlassJust finished Conversations with the fat girl by Liza Palmer and I have to say, since Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me I haven't enjoyed a book this much even if the book is written in first person narrator AND present tense (something I really don't like and my prof at university thought it is the downfall of all literary greatness 'lol'). It takes skill to write in present tense, and clearly this author has the skill.
We meet Maggie, a chubby young woman of almost 28 years who has a BA in Arts and MA in art restauration but works in a coffeeshop and lives with her dysfunctional dog Solo.
Over the years she had several crushes and one or two dysfunctional relationships. Everyone around her seems to get on with their lives, except for Maggie. Even her best friend formerly fat Olivia who is now an illusive size 2 has met her dream man and is about to marry ... and Maggie is to be the maid of honour. But as Maggie changes her life and takes the plunge to actually work in her studied profession, after she is forced to move homes on a 48 hours eviction, the fat girl in the duo realizes that best thick friends at 12 might not survive a thin relationship at 28.
Maggie's latest crush is co-worker Domenic and due to her insecurities as well as Domenic's a strange ritual dance around dating ensues while on the other front of Maggie's life, she has to realize that her best friend Olivia doesn't want a best friend who is on the chubby side. Also her co-workers try to get her together with Domenic with sometimes disastrous and painful outcomes. But Maggie comes from a family of fighters, a family whose lawyer-mother uses the expression asshole all the time and a sister who doesn't shy away from the f-word when she calls it a spade.
Instead of going on a diet (she starts to work out more and eats healthier but that is about it) Maggie's still clinging to the image of the Olivia who was, while her family sees Olivia as what she is ... an insecure fat girl in a now super-slim body. Will Maggie wake up from her bubble and grab her life with both hands ... and Domenic at that? Or will she stay invisible?
The book has its flaws, I get that, but it was an enjoyable read nevertheless. I could relate to Maggie and her inability to let her best friend go when that person doesn't act as a best friend anymore. It is a typical chick-lit book but where others advertise that big girls only become happy if they diet and get skinny, this book leaves it open. It is about acceptance of the good and bad in life and not to dwell on the past too much. Finding a way to move on without loosing too much of oneself. All in all a very enjoyable read .. and it was good to know that not only Maggie learns how to stand up for herself but that also her older sister Kate, who leads a perfect life, with her perfect husband and her perfect little girls, fights like a prizeboxer for her sister and even doesn't shy away from the f-word if the going gets tough.
We meet Maggie, a chubby young woman of almost 28 years who has a BA in Arts and MA in art restauration but works in a coffeeshop and lives with her dysfunctional dog Solo.
Over the years she had several crushes and one or two dysfunctional relationships. Everyone around her seems to get on with their lives, except for Maggie. Even her best friend formerly fat Olivia who is now an illusive size 2 has met her dream man and is about to marry ... and Maggie is to be the maid of honour. But as Maggie changes her life and takes the plunge to actually work in her studied profession, after she is forced to move homes on a 48 hours eviction, the fat girl in the duo realizes that best thick friends at 12 might not survive a thin relationship at 28.
Maggie's latest crush is co-worker Domenic and due to her insecurities as well as Domenic's a strange ritual dance around dating ensues while on the other front of Maggie's life, she has to realize that her best friend Olivia doesn't want a best friend who is on the chubby side. Also her co-workers try to get her together with Domenic with sometimes disastrous and painful outcomes. But Maggie comes from a family of fighters, a family whose lawyer-mother uses the expression asshole all the time and a sister who doesn't shy away from the f-word when she calls it a spade.
Instead of going on a diet (she starts to work out more and eats healthier but that is about it) Maggie's still clinging to the image of the Olivia who was, while her family sees Olivia as what she is ... an insecure fat girl in a now super-slim body. Will Maggie wake up from her bubble and grab her life with both hands ... and Domenic at that? Or will she stay invisible?
The book has its flaws, I get that, but it was an enjoyable read nevertheless. I could relate to Maggie and her inability to let her best friend go when that person doesn't act as a best friend anymore. It is a typical chick-lit book but where others advertise that big girls only become happy if they diet and get skinny, this book leaves it open. It is about acceptance of the good and bad in life and not to dwell on the past too much. Finding a way to move on without loosing too much of oneself. All in all a very enjoyable read .. and it was good to know that not only Maggie learns how to stand up for herself but that also her older sister Kate, who leads a perfect life, with her perfect husband and her perfect little girls, fights like a prizeboxer for her sister and even doesn't shy away from the f-word if the going gets tough.
