Welcome to the first edition of the Super Happy Fun Time Awesome
Elastic Waist Book Club Full of So-Smart People (name still in progress). Our
first selection--Wendy McClure's memoir of more-than-just-her-body, I'm Not the New Me--and we are really excited.
We're talking about the first half of the book right now, up to the very
excellent Weight Watcher's recipe cards. (However, you may be like me, and have
been unable--actually, physically unable--to put the book down at that point.)
Here are some questions to get us started:
- In the prologue, McClure writes, of telling a "fat girl
story," that "You need to be brave to tell it. Very brave!" Does
this resonate with you? How does the narrator's bravery carry the story
forward? In what ways does it appear through the narrative?
- The book is often categorized as a weight-loss memoir and
the book does start with the narrator's determination to lose weight; however,
do you think that's an accurate description? When does her focus shift, and
what does the book ultimately seem to be about?
- Much has also been made of the blog-to-book
translation--bloggers getting book deals, and then more or less slapping covers
around their daily posts. What makes I'm
Not the New Me transcend this label?
- McClure says, in an interview,
that she wanted to deliberately work against the Hollywood idea, the cliché of
the fat person carrying around pockets full of candy bars and planting their
faces in buffets; she avoids tracing back her weight to any one why. Did this ring true to you?
- I would argue that it's the voice of the narrator that sets
this memoir apart--acerbic, hilarious, often gorgeously poetic and always
intelligent. How did you relate to the narrator's take on weight loss, writing
online, and figuring out who she was in relationship to her body, and the
people in her life?
The comments are open! Let's talk about any of these, or anything else
you're dying to talk about. We want to know what you smart people think.
FEED ME
Wendy is the bomb. I own that book and have read it a few times now, although it isn't currently in my possession so I can't read along with y'all.
I didn't read Wendy's site until after I read her writing in Bust, I think. And I read her book soon after starting to read her site, so I can't say that it necessarily does transcend "web to book" writing, because I wasn't a reader *before*. But I think it doesn't have to transcend anything, going from one media to another doesn't make someone more legit, at least, not in my mind. In both her online writing and her book she's hysterically funny but also able to capture those moments big and small that grab at you. I can't even describe it better than that.
Ok, I will get to Powells and buy it today. Comments pending...
JUST HANG ON.
My favorite part of the book was the intro, where Wendy skewers the conventions of weight-loss memoirs, especially the food-porn descriptions of all the horrible stuff the memoiree ate to get fat in the first place: "Make sure there's lots of butter..."
I dug up my copy and am having a great time re-reading it--I haven't read it since it first came out, and I was very caught up in the surreal nature of having something like a JournalCon written about in a book.
A lot of things struck me, but one I wanted to mention in response to your second question is the depiction of other "fat chicks" (like Evelyn at the wedding) that seem to have something the author does not, something enviable. Since it's not thinness, I think at this point, the narrator has shifted from wanting to be thin to wanting to find whatever it is Evelyn has. I don't know if I'm right, but after part one, that's my theory.
Sass: The problem for authors who have a website AND a book is a general expectation, no matter how good the writer is, is that the book will be a regurgitation of "what you get for free" online, and it won't be as good, and etcetera. What made Wendy's book so interesting to me is not only is her writing beautiful enough to blow that idea out of the water, she completely subverts the whole blogger/book thing by writing about the genesis of her website--going behind the scenes in a way I don't think has been done before. It's totally meta and really fascinating.
Kiala: STAY ALIVE, NO MATTER WHAT OCCURS. WE WILL FIND YOU.
Jen: That's when I knew this was going to be more than a weight loss memoir. And it also sets up that voice, the ironic, aware tone that carries so much of the book, but also creates a little bit of a distance from the narrator, which is sort of odd for a memoir--you usually expect a great intimacy with the narrator, but sometimes there is a gulf.
Pie: Actually, I think that's what the book actually ends up being about, ultimately--the narrator isn't the new her, but she isn't sure, exactly, what she is. Weight loss was a thing to do, a way to get her where she thought she needed to be, and it ended up not being the solution, after all. There's a thread of longing all the way through, which even the ironic tone cannot surpress, which is one of the most relatable things about the book for me, and makes it ultimately work.