Fat Girl: A True Story

Incredibly well written, also deeply and profoundly sad. The level to which this poor woman loathed herself all of her life was absolutely heartbreaking. No one should ever be made to feel this way, this is exactly why the body positivity movement matters.

Judith Moore was born with two strikes against her, one genetic (she inherited her father's tendency toward obesity) and one situational (her mother was an evil beast who abused her physically and emotionally). In modern America, we're exhorted to "rise above" our painful childhood, if we had one, and to be "positive," blah blah. Well, you know what? Sometimes one's childhood is so painful that one can never fully heal from it. Judith Moore is brave enough to write about this. This book is painful to read BECAUSE she is so honest. As a woman with some weight issues of my own, and one who also experienced a tough childhood, I could relate to Judith's story, sympathize with her anguish, and applaud her honesty. I just wish there was a sequel! I want to know what relationship, if any, she has with her mother now, and I'd love to know more about her daughters.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because I can definitely identify with her. The pain and mental suffering fat children endure not only from other children but also from dysfunctional parents is devastating and causes incurable damage that sustains itself for the rest of their lives. I applaud this woman who was brave enough to reveal her inner demons. I pray her writing of this book was cathartic for her. For all thin fat girls everywhere, I thank you.

I'm not sure why I chose to purchse this book, as it's quite different from the types of books I tend to read - but I'm glad that I did...I finished reading "Fat Girl" last night, and was at such a loss for words that I decided to wait until today to write the review! I'm still finding it hard to find the right words, but let me try..."Fat Girl" is an in-depth look into the life of a woman who considered herself to be obese much of her life. It's sad & heartbreaking, but I think it provides at least one potential cause for obesity - the need for love, and the filling of this void with food.Author Judith Moore went through hell as a child! Her father was kicked out of the house when she was still quite young, and her mother didn't really want her. Because her mother felt stifled by this child, she lashed out in horrendous ways - mentally and physically abusing her, and letting her know that fattness was disgusting - that she should be ashamed by how she looked.On top of this, most of the kids in her life were also mean - calling her fatso, and saying things that would make anyone cringe!!!Feeling unloved & unlovable, Judith searched for love in food - but she could never get enough. But this isn't just about eating way too much, it's about starvation as well... This child was not only starved for love, but forced on many starvation diets - all due to her mother's attempts to make her "acceptable". It was during these "diets" that Judith began literally daydreaming of food - it was all she could think of.As an adult, she now has what I would call a love-hate relationship with food; she still hates her body - and hates herself; she still sees herself as "not good enough"; and she is still starved for love.I only wish more people would read this book - maybe then the teasing and out-right meanness toward the obese would stop. So many of us tend to think that obeseness is all about food - and yet now I believe that food is only the symptom - the causes run deep!

Do yourself a favor and read this book. It stands head and shoulders abovemost memoirs, and is almost the equal to Tobias and Geoffrey Wolff.The author is so pitiless toward herself that I was moved to pity for her, andwept when she wrote, toward the end, that she felt nothing, as a stone would feelnothing. (This is paraphrased, and paraphrased badly).If there is justice, this book will be on the New York Times' 100 Notable Books,to be listed at the end of 2005. Don't be misled by the slack-jawed one-starreviewers. I looked further at one who calls him/herself Anais Nin, and all thereviews that reader gave were bitchy one, two or three stars, sighing over whynothing in the world was very good. Trust me: one of the 100 Notable Booksof 2005. Check it out. I'll bet I'm right, and to thee author, thank you forthis book. (I am a male, and have always been lean, but you touched my heart).

I had to read this for my English class who's title was "Societies Taboos" this book is an extremely amazing story of a woman who was "overweight" and the struggles she lived! It was an amazing story, and It really engages the reader from start to finish. I highly recommen this touching true story to everyone!

I just finished this book and had to come down and write a review while it was fresh in my mind. This story is so honest, so painful that it's hard to turn each page. That said, it's also one of the most poignant reads I've ever had. I don't think it's only for heavy people to read either; it's for anyone who wants a glimpse into someone's brutal childhood who lived to tell the tale. At times, I wanted to scoop the author up and give her a mighty hug and tell her everything was going to be okay. Other times I really wanted to seek her family out and beat the crap out of them. Sometimes I wanted to eat while reading, especially the wonderful pies she's described in the text.Haunting and wonderful, this story will stay with you for a long, long time.

i read this on holiday after reading "The Hungry Years" by William Leith and by the end, I wanted desperately to get the two authors together!It's a very, very sad book, but as a "not fat person" who does look askance at fat people, it's made me change my ways. The author doesn't want your sympathy, she just tells it like it is, and I liked that. I don't like novels about kids shut in attics etc., so this was a comfortable deliverance of the truth. If you want to know what it is like for an American woman to be overweight from childhood to adulthood, including her thoughts on other's perspectives on her weight, then read this. Honest, brutally honest, but a compulsive (and quick) read.I'm so pleased i read this insight into what it is to be overweight and i'd recommend you read it alongside with The Hungry Years (if you're a healthy eating bore like me!)

The story of Curved Air is important to Air Cut, and it started with budding classical musicians Francis Monkman (keys, guitar) and Darryl Way (violin, keys) teaming up with Sonja Kristina (vocals) and ace drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa of the glass family fame, plus Ian Eyre on bass, to form one of the first classical rock bands. And in the face of a lot of scepticism, they were actually pretty good, both on record and live. The first LP, a picture disc called Air Conditioning sold well and was followed by CA Two, also a top seller and full of fabulous tunes. The third, Phantasmagoria, was met by very mixed reviews and indiffrent sales (for the time) and introduced Mike Wedgwood on bass, fresh from The Overlanders and The Nicky James Band. Apart from bass, though, Wedgwood, a relation of Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, Charles Darwin and Ralph Vaughan Williams, had a perfect-pitch voice, could play guitar, sax, clarinet, drums and keyboards very well and could also score for a full orchestra if needed.However, after citing musical diffrences and the usual, Darryl, Francis and Florian all left after Phantasmagoria leaving ..... Sonja and Mike. Surprisingly, they decided to soldier and and went recruiting, and what they recruited was this: Eddie Jobson, aged 17, ex-Fat Grapple, on keyboards and violin, Kirby (Gregory), ex Armada, on guitar, and Jim Russell on kit. This bought the average age of the band to about 21. What nobody quite twigged, even then, was that Eddie was actually a genuine fully signed-up musical genius. And off they went to record the fourth album for Warners, Air Cut. And it was and is an absolute cracker.Much punchier than its predecessors, it nonetheless had their extraordinary musicality and flair. There are some fantastic highlights, but I have to mention Eddie's epic "Metamorphosis", starting with a lovely piano solo, seguing into bass, drums, volume control guitar and then into a killer riff and a lovely song. It goes on for about three and a half days and is absolutely brilliant. All the band play like folk possesed and Eddie's musicianship and playing skills at that age are just, well, unbelievable, actually. Mike's "2 - 3 - 2" is a powerhouse rocker with a massive solo from Kirby on his Dan Armstrong perspex guitar, "Easy" is a bitter-sweet but frightening ballad rocker with Mike and Sonja sharing vocals, "Elfin Boy" is a soft and sad tribute to her son from Sonja, "Armin" is a blazer with cracking violin and guitar from Eddie and Kirby, and the whole brew powered by Jim Russell's power drumming, which, just very occasionally, is not quite in synch, but this is nit-picking. Other tracks display all these qualities and the playing throughout is superb. This is a lost masterpiece, and it is rumoured that WB lost the masters.Equally important is that they were just mind-blowingly good on stage. This bunch of kids, basically, used to blow concert halls apart and I saw one performance at the old Finsbury Park Rainbow that still sticks in my mind as one of the best rock shows I ever saw. Eddie had to play Darryl's classic cod violin piece "Vivaldi" but he did it without five minutes of arpeggio screeching, Praise Be. What a performer, equally at ease on silver/perspex violins, grand and electric pianos and also the pretty primitive synthesizers of the day.Sonja is still on the road, Mike plays and works in Denmark after a productive spell with Caravan, Kirby works in rehabilitation, Jim, I know not, and Eddie went on to add spine and quality to Roxy music, and on to Zappa, Jethro Tull, UK, and later musical director for Nash Bridges.This CD release should be trumpeted from the hilltops. It is a one-off from an incredibly talented and musical ensemble and thank goodness they stayed together long enough to produce this fantastic fresh-as-new recording. Indispensible proof of the quality of some of this decade.Brilliant.The great news is that Kirby has reformed Stretch and will be supporting Jeff Healey later in the year (posted 24/3/7).Mike Wedgwood has recorded a great new album, Thrive, with his exemplary band, and has also produced and played bass and keys on a fantastic new five track CD, Keeping On, by Isobel Thatcher. Look up Isobel on Google, Reverbnation or Facebook, Isobel Thatcher Music

this book was heartbreaking and addictive! I loved it, she is very good at telling her story, her ability to go into detail is fantastic. I felt like I was living her sad life right there with her.

This book starts off very funny, the love affair with food. Than it turns quite sad and cruel. How the world and family treats those of us who are fat, overweight or whatever you want to call us. I can relate to this book as I wrote it myself. Anyone who struggles with weight must read this book.

Helps women see that there is a plus side to being plus sized! Not every woman is able to change themselves to meet society skinny view of beauty!

Heartbreaking masterpiece.