Monday, July 29, 2019

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad


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4 Stars

If this title rings a bell to you . . . .



Or, at minimum, you are someone with a decent memory because it is very similar to the poem by Wallace Stevens. If you feel so inclined to Google said poem, you’ll find that Wiki says . . . .

The poem consists of thirteen short, separate sections, each of which mentions blackbirds in some way.

Such is the case with 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Intertwined vignettes where our MC (and, more importantly, her body) interacts with friends, co-workers, children, sexual partners, store clerks, her mother, her husband, the perfect Diane von Furstenberg dress, other women, etc. We watch as Lizzie morphs into Beth who then changes to Elizabeth who then becomes Liz as she grows from high school aged to adulthood and from fat to thin. We see how she views herself through these various ages and stages as well as how others view her via different perspectives being presented rather than Lizzie’s alone.

I picked this up pretty much immediately after reading the über bizarre Bunny because it was undeniable this was an author who could write . . . I just wasn’t smart enough to get all that she was putting down. This one, however? Holy crap. Talk about powerful and obviously someone who JUST. GETS. IT. Not to mention all the emotion is delivered without resorting to tragiporn or some pathetic trope or making us wallow in a billion pages. Mona Awad????? You are amazing.



Seriously. I want to crawl inside your brain and live there.

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