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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
Eric and Sarah Byrnes have been friends for years. Eric, an overweight teen who has recently shed some pounds after joining the swimming team, remembers when Sarah Byrnes was his only friend. Sarah Byrnes’s heavily scarred face and Eric’s weight problem bind them together as social outcasts, so much so that Eric delays losing weight for fear of losing her friendship. So he is doubly saddened when his normally tough friend lapses into a vegetative state:
“’Sarah Byrnes is up there just staring into space. She doesn’t talk or respond to anything. When I looked at her close, when I saw her without her razor-sharp words and her fire –all the stuff she cuts us up with – she looked gone… Every day when she gets up, she knows she has to bring her scarred-up face to school, knowing what everyone thinks and won’t say. There’s no place to hide and it never lets up. I’d call that a bad place to live'” (22).
But Eric discovers that Sarah’s life is even worse than he thought when she confides in him the reason she is faking her unresponsive state. Her dad is a horribly abusive and violent man and is responsible for nearly murdering her mother in addition to giving her the scars that mar her face. Afraid to return home, tough, unrelenting Sarah must learn to accept help from others in order to heal her life. Eric and his swim coach do a great deal to help Sarah, though sometimes at a heavy cost. In the end, all wrongs are righted and a happy resolution awaits all of the characters.
The book’s major strength is its depth of character. Eric’s humorous narration of events keeps the book from being dominated by dark and depressing themes, while his intelligent insights give the book emotional depth. Subplots involving a new girlfriend, participation on the school’s swim team, and thought-provoking class discussions about abortion and religion help to round out the portrayal of Eric’s life. While sports don’t play a large part in the book’s plot, Eric’s enthusiasm for swimming adds interest and a sense of fun that helps to balance the book’s more serious aspects. In addition, the depiction of the swim team’s activities reveals both the strengths and weaknesses of his personality. We see how he has grown as a person, why swimming appeals to him, and learn of the determination that will be essential to his role in aiding Sarah.
Flashbacks to key scenes in the development of the pair’s friendship are woven with the present in the book’s opening, allowing the reader a glimpse into the emotional history of the two and their unusual bond with a school bully. These flashbacks are essential for developing Sarah’s character, as she is silent or absent during most of the book’s activity.
Kirkus Reviews calls Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes “pulse-pounding, on both visceral and intellectual levels” (Amazon.com 2004). In addition to the inclusion of heavy intellectual themes, the book climaxes with a terrifying stalking scene that results in a brutal stabbing. Wit and humor keep these elements from overwhelming the reader, and a happy ending balances out the brutality.
Overall, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a well-rounded, aptly plotted novel that is by turns humorous, disturbing, and touching. Knowing how much the characters have suffered, readers will enjoy the happy ending regardless of its realism.
“’Sarah Byrnes is up there just staring into space. She doesn’t talk or respond to anything. When I looked at her close, when I saw her without her razor-sharp words and her fire –all the stuff she cuts us up with – she looked gone… Every day when she gets up, she knows she has to bring her scarred-up face to school, knowing what everyone thinks and won’t say. There’s no place to hide and it never lets up. I’d call that a bad place to live'” (22).
But Eric discovers that Sarah’s life is even worse than he thought when she confides in him the reason she is faking her unresponsive state. Her dad is a horribly abusive and violent man and is responsible for nearly murdering her mother in addition to giving her the scars that mar her face. Afraid to return home, tough, unrelenting Sarah must learn to accept help from others in order to heal her life. Eric and his swim coach do a great deal to help Sarah, though sometimes at a heavy cost. In the end, all wrongs are righted and a happy resolution awaits all of the characters.
The book’s major strength is its depth of character. Eric’s humorous narration of events keeps the book from being dominated by dark and depressing themes, while his intelligent insights give the book emotional depth. Subplots involving a new girlfriend, participation on the school’s swim team, and thought-provoking class discussions about abortion and religion help to round out the portrayal of Eric’s life. While sports don’t play a large part in the book’s plot, Eric’s enthusiasm for swimming adds interest and a sense of fun that helps to balance the book’s more serious aspects. In addition, the depiction of the swim team’s activities reveals both the strengths and weaknesses of his personality. We see how he has grown as a person, why swimming appeals to him, and learn of the determination that will be essential to his role in aiding Sarah.
Flashbacks to key scenes in the development of the pair’s friendship are woven with the present in the book’s opening, allowing the reader a glimpse into the emotional history of the two and their unusual bond with a school bully. These flashbacks are essential for developing Sarah’s character, as she is silent or absent during most of the book’s activity.
Kirkus Reviews calls Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes “pulse-pounding, on both visceral and intellectual levels” (Amazon.com 2004). In addition to the inclusion of heavy intellectual themes, the book climaxes with a terrifying stalking scene that results in a brutal stabbing. Wit and humor keep these elements from overwhelming the reader, and a happy ending balances out the brutality.
Overall, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a well-rounded, aptly plotted novel that is by turns humorous, disturbing, and touching. Knowing how much the characters have suffered, readers will enjoy the happy ending regardless of its realism.
Eric and Sarah Byrnes are best friends because they are both outcasts. Eric is fat, and Sarah Byrnes is burned. As they enter highschool Eric starts swimming and losing weight, but he tries to stay fat so Sarah Brynes won't feel like she's losing him. One day the pressure is Sarah Byrnes' life explodes and she stops talking. Eric has to find a way to make her world right again. Strong themes about religion, thought and belief, and the role of adults in teens' lives.
Tags: outcasts, friendship, religion, abortion, bad parenting.
P/Q: 4/4, SH
Tags: outcasts, friendship, religion, abortion, bad parenting.
P/Q: 4/4, SH
Once again, I am in awe of Chris Crutcher's ability to create believable, heart-wrenching yet heart-warming characters, and, also as always, making me so very glad to be done with those high school days of my own.
With the exception of a few pop culture references that are out of date....(Candice Bergen)..this book has a current feel and a sense of authenticity and honesty. Captivating characters and interesting plot make for an overall great read.
I read this based on a friend's adamant recommendation, but I didn't love it. It was fine! And I might have enjoyed it more if I'd read it in high school, but it just didn't quite do it for me.
I really liked the fast pace of this book. Crutcher seems to be able to breathe life into his characters effortlessly. Almost all the characters in this book change. He hits on a bunch of big issues, but still keeps you laughing.
Great story. Got very un-put-downable toward the end.
One of the booms I read during middle school and it was a lot of fun to read!
Finally read this one! I am quite sad no one pointed me towards this as a teenager--and it did exist at that time. I knew the general outline of the story and several scenes extremely well from Reader's Theatre. But the emotional truths were there, even if some of the teens do know way too much about therapy and development. Eric Calhoune's mom is also way too awesome. The adults in this book are pretty awesome (I mean, the ones that aren't abusing the crap out of their kids).
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a surprising and intense story of teenage outcasts, revealing the truth that we're all outcasts in our own way, no matter our age. This book has heart, intensity, and most of all, compassion. It'll make you laugh, cry, and break into a sweat. If my students who are reading this don't like it, I quit. :p