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Bezig met laden... 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl (2016)door Mona Awad
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. fiction (human condition-desperation, depression, misery; weight loss struggles and how one sees oneself). The first time I tried to read this I abandoned it in the first chapter/story for all of the self-hate; the second time, 4 years later, I pushed through and was rewarded with an unpleasant story that I probably would never recommend. At least the ending is a bit hopeful, like maybe the main character has come to terms with her body. It did not feel empowering for women of size, and who wants to read such a downer these days? At first I thought this book was going to dredge up a slew of bad feelings from when I was "the fat girl"...and while I could relate to some of the stories, because unfortunately I totally could, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Lizzie, and in turn myself. She worked so hard to lose the weight and she was 1000% less happy in life ... And as a heavy person I have to say that a common thought is... If I could just be thin I'd be happy. I feel like the story just ended too... Like it wasn't quite finished. Also, the editing/proof reading was crap which made it annoying to read at times.
. Awad masterfully weaves in thoughts most women can relate to — calorie counting, insecurity at the gym — with more extreme ones, honing in on the spectrum from preoccupation to compulsion when it comes to body image. This isn’t a feel-good beach read. While there’s definitely wit and dialogue to be enjoyed, Lizzie’s constant inner monologue devoted to calories, inches and pounds will make you feel sick — but that’s the point. Beautifully told, with a profoundly sensitive understanding of the subject matter, it’s clear that all of the anticipation for this particular fiction debut was entirely warranted....One of the more harrowing aspects of 13 Ways is how genuinely it highlights female cruelty as a byproduct of this obsessive journey to being thin. Young women judge, berate, and even loathe each other, becoming necessary competitors in a battle that doesn’t benefit them beyond external approval...Perhaps 13 Ways’ greatest victory is how easily so many people will relate – Awad is an incredibly skilled writer, with a rare ability to construct tiny moments of both acute empathy and astonishing depth. PrijzenOnderscheidingenErelijsten
A darkly funny, deeply resonant, and exquisitely written literary debut, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is the story of one woman's journey from fat adolescence to an ex-fat adulthood, as she seeks love and acceptance from everyone except herself. 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 weight. 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? In her brilliant, hilarious, and at times shocking debut, Mona Awad simultaneously skewers the body image-obsessed culture that tells women they have no value outside their physical appearance, and delivers a tender and moving depiction of a lovably difficult young woman whose life is hijacked by her struggle to conform. As caustically funny as it is heartbreaking, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl introduces a vital new voice in fiction. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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I could not disagree more.
There's nothing wry, clever, or funny about this book at all. Acerbic and bitter. Perhaps deeply tragic, even.
There are 13 vignettes, 11 of which are told from the perspective of Elizabeth/Liz/Lizzie/Beth, the name she insists people use is usually connected to what sort of identity she's invented for herself. She's a fat girl who has internalized all the fatphobic propaganda of society - not only does she hate herself, as she is supposed to, she hates anyone and everyone around her.
That's perhaps the most difficult aspect of the book: the protagonist is empty. She has no real friends, no interests beyond fatness, and not once in the book does she have a nice thing to say about anyone. Her self-loathing is a poison that has coated everything, preventing Elizabeth from having a single meaningful relationship.
Truly, the closest the book come to wry or clever is in the second vignette, told from the unnamed perspective of some douchebag musician who only refers to Elizabeth as the 'Fat Girl' in his head, who should be grateful to have even his drunken, sloppy attention. That he was the one replaced at the end with another gormless musician was a funny twist. But then we were back to Elizabeth's perspective.
I suppose any cleverness lies in the way that Elizabeth's desire to be thin, and the time when she achieves her goal weight, and that it changes nothing. She is still self-conscious, still self-loathing, still deeply hateful of all women. But ultimately, this novel is just sad. A portrait of a woman who internalized all the hateful messages of society, as she was supposed to, and all it did was leave her with nothing. ( )