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| Thinner
Than Thou by Kit Reed check out website: www.tor.com
Taking a sideways look at
the world of the fascist-fitness fanatics and the scary God-squadders of the networks,
this book queries where it will all end. The Reverend Earl is the Guru for the
time. He is sleek and beautiful, says we can all have his body and lifestyle and
we all should and pay the price. Annie thinks she has controlled her figure perfectly but her shocked parents recognise her as an anorexic who will die soon if they don't get her help. She is sent to be looked after by the 'Dedicated Sisters', who determine she will eat or die or will she?
When
Annie makes a friend, the enormously obese Kelly, together they are two parts
that make a whole and discover that something more than sinister is happening
within the confines of the Sisterhood. There is a connection with the Reverend
Earl and an obsession that will affect their future. Meanwhile, Annie's
brother and sister, Betz and Danny, enlist her boyfriend Dave Bergman to get Annie
out of the 'Sisters' clutches, funding their travels by Danny doing what he does
best, taking part in local all-you-can eat competitions. He can usually get away
as the dark horse entrant but it's the kind of trick that only works once. Their
mother has also reached a point in her own personal journey and she starts to
question the wisdom of sending Annie away. At Sylphania, the weight
loss camp personally run by the Reverend Earl Jeremy Devlin is embarking on his
personal weight loss journey to 'Afterfat Heaven With The Reverend Earl'. He discovers
that that heaven is actually illicit gifts of food from a new friend. This is
a dangerous game to play with the punishment that fits the crime. It sounds on paper that there could be too much going on to get involved with the individual characters but, surprisingly, the two plots work well side by side before they coalesce towards the end. Reed has picked out the salient points of a culture that admires the rake-thin Hollywood beauties whilst killing itself with palm oil. Not that any Western country can be complacent about the
road we choose to take. The characters are fleshed out and believable and nothing
is black and white. Sometimes it feels like an on the road story as enlightenment
comes through each person taking a certain kind of journey. The real obsession with weight and beauty in our culture and the fictional creations within the book of an alternative underbelly of fat porn and eating contests marries well together in a highly readable story that makes the reader think. The religious element is also highly appropriate. It is not preachy or too clever but simply weaves elements that already exist in society into a world that is just over the next mountain of pancakes. Sue Davies
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OTHER REVIEWS - October 2004
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Imagine
a world where fat and eating disorders is given zero tolerance. Where an organised
religion forces everyone to conform to the body beautiful and old age is not on
the agenda. We are already partly in the world where being fat is a crime and
big brother wants us to toe the body-line.
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