Are there any novels about fatness/weight loss?

[eggyweggies]

Not diet books or 'how-to' type things...more novels exploring what it means to be fat these days, or where the main character loses a lot of weight...does such a thing exist?

[heather1]

Jemima J by Jane Green is about a girl who loses a lot of weight. It's quite chick lit though but quite readable.

[PlayedThePinkOboe]

She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

[NettoSuperstar]

I came to say Jemima J too, it's probably quite dated now as it's based on online dating a good few years back, but it's a good read.

[louloutheshamed]

Heft by liz Moore

Big brother by Lionel Shriver

Yy to wally lamb I love him!

[bananastar]

You don't have to say you love me by Sarra Manning. It's like superior chick lit!

[Nicknamegrief]

Pear shaped by Stella Pearson (great price on kindle), she also wrote Left Overs which is similar and I would really recommend them both.

Life size, which is a haunting look at anorexia.

Bridget Jones talks a lot about dieting.

Does my bum look big in this by Arabella Wier and a couple of books by India Knight deal with this.

Because I'm nosey, are you looking at these books for any particular reason?

[tumbletumble]

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner - another 'good' chick lit one.

I've read Pear Shaped, it's not bad but I don't think the heroine is fat - isn't she one of those 'size 12 but thinks she's fat' women?

[MrsPnut]

Big girls pants by Stephanie evanovich is one I've read recently and enjoyed.

[MaddAddam]

Another vote for Big Brother, I found it quite thought provoking.

[serengetty]

The Fat Woman's Joke, Fay Weldon. Agree with Big Brother too, thought provoking

[EmpressOfTheSevenOceans]

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg. Not read it but I've heard it recommended.

[Hobbes8]

The cat ate my gym suit by Paula Danziger and it's sequel, There's a bat in bunk five are a before and after weightloss story. Aimed at teenagers though - the lead character is about 13/14 in the first book.

[MrsCakesPremonition]

The Edible Woman by Margaret Attwood has some interesting ideas about a woman's relationship with food.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

Big Brother was good

[Floggingmolly]

Sweet Temptation by Lucy Diamond? (chic lit)

[iheartdusty]

My Life on a PLate - India Knight

[BadCopNoDonut]

Another big yes for She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - an fantastic read.

Without intending to sound sexist, it's pretty amazing that it was written by a man - he's absolutely spot-on with the interior life of the female protagonist. (My instinct is to erase that potential bun-fight-causing sentence, but I've read the book several times and each time have been genuinely impressed with how authentically he's written the protagonist.)

Also the Paula Danziger books - loved those as a teenager!

[BadCopNoDonut]

*a fantastic read, not 'an'!

[icetip]

Stephen King's Thinner might do the trick......

[HotDogWater]

Some of these are great books

[BadCopNoDonut]

icetip

[ohfuschia]

Loved Wally Lamb, also Ron McLarty's 'The Memory of Running'.

[mignonette]

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg. Here is the Amazon blurb-


"Edie and Richard have been married for over thirty years, living in the Chicago suburbs. Everyone who knew them - even their own children Robin and Benny - agreed that Edie was a tough woman to love, but no one expected Richard to walk out on her, especially not in her condition. Edie is fifty-nine years old, she weighs 300 pounds, and her doctors have told her she'll die if she doesn't stop eating.As Richard is shut out by the family and seeks solace in the world of internet dating, Robin is dragged back from the city and forced to rebuild a relationship with her mother. Meanwhile Benny and his neurotic wife Rachelle try to take control of the situation. But have any of them stopped to think about whether Edie really wants to be saved?Written with sly humour, warmth and great insight, The Middlesteins is a novel about what it means to be part of a family"

I also enjoyed 'Ada's Rules' by Alice Randall-

"Ada Howard, the wife of the preacher at Nashville's Full Love Baptist Tabernacle, has a whole lot of people to take care of. There's her husband, of course, and the flock that comes with him, plus the kids at the day care centre where she works, two grown daughters, and two ailing, wayward parents. It's no wonder she can't find time to take care of herself. And her husband's been so busy lately she's suspicious some other woman may be taking care of him...
Then it comes: the announcement of her twenty-five-year college reunion in twelve months' time, signed with a wink by her old campus flame. It sets Ada thinking about the thrills of young love lost, and the hundred or so pounds gained since her college days, and she decides it's high time to change her body, and her life. So she starts laying down some rules. The first rule is: Don't Keep Doing What You've Always Been Doing. And so begins her unforgettable journey on the way to less weight and more love...For anyone who has ever found themselves at a crossroads, with one hand in their pocket and the other in the cookie jar, Ada's Rules is a warm, funny and soulfully wise novel about falling back in love with the life you have.

Then there is 'Bed' by David Whitehouse' about a larger than life kid and Sue Townsend's 'The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year'

[mignonette]

BadCop

Great choice in 'She's Come Undone'-one of my favourites and I agree, an amazing piece of writing by a man about a woman.

[RainierWolfcastle]

HEFT