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alyssah14 's review for:
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
by Chris Crutcher
TW: abuse, fat shaming
Another old read I picked up recently (from the same YA Lit professor who gave me Cut) is Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher which came out in 1993. I didn’t read the synopsis before picking up this book so I really had no idea what it was about other than the small clues one can glean from the title. I’d just heard a lot about it throughout my life and decided now was the time to finally get to reading.
Most of the books I read are newer YA novels. I pick up classics, memoirs, poetry etc. every once in a while but YA novels from 2008ish-present are what I’d like to claim as my “area of expertise.” Therefore, I’m not really sure how to review Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes or compare it to other books I’ve read. It’s still definitely a YA novel, but it almost seems like a different genre than many of the books that come out today. There’s also the issue of how negatively people viewed (and still view but at a lesser extent) fat people. All of that being said, there are quite a few things I deeply appreciated about this book:
1) the main character took back the word fat and embraced his classmates calling him Moby as a compliment. That speaks volumes for teaching people to love and accept themselves as they are as well as the power behind taking back negative or derogatory terms. Sarah Byrnes did the same by embracing the irony of her last name.
2) The fat kid was an athlete, and a good one at that. This lost a bit of its merit when he started losing weight, but he was still bigger than the average swimmer. I love how this character proves that fat people can be fit and healthy athletes.
3) the book deals with serious, real world issues such as abuse, bullying, abortion and religion that young people deal with and need to understand they aren’t alone in experiencing.
Overall, I think Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a revolutionary novel ahead of its time. It encourages teenagers to think critically and question their values in complex situations and it doesn’t degrade teenagers or lead them to believe they are incapable of understanding “the real world.” Don’t be turned off by how old it is.
Another old read I picked up recently (from the same YA Lit professor who gave me Cut) is Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher which came out in 1993. I didn’t read the synopsis before picking up this book so I really had no idea what it was about other than the small clues one can glean from the title. I’d just heard a lot about it throughout my life and decided now was the time to finally get to reading.
Most of the books I read are newer YA novels. I pick up classics, memoirs, poetry etc. every once in a while but YA novels from 2008ish-present are what I’d like to claim as my “area of expertise.” Therefore, I’m not really sure how to review Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes or compare it to other books I’ve read. It’s still definitely a YA novel, but it almost seems like a different genre than many of the books that come out today. There’s also the issue of how negatively people viewed (and still view but at a lesser extent) fat people. All of that being said, there are quite a few things I deeply appreciated about this book:
1) the main character took back the word fat and embraced his classmates calling him Moby as a compliment. That speaks volumes for teaching people to love and accept themselves as they are as well as the power behind taking back negative or derogatory terms. Sarah Byrnes did the same by embracing the irony of her last name.
2) The fat kid was an athlete, and a good one at that. This lost a bit of its merit when he started losing weight, but he was still bigger than the average swimmer. I love how this character proves that fat people can be fit and healthy athletes.
3) the book deals with serious, real world issues such as abuse, bullying, abortion and religion that young people deal with and need to understand they aren’t alone in experiencing.
Overall, I think Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a revolutionary novel ahead of its time. It encourages teenagers to think critically and question their values in complex situations and it doesn’t degrade teenagers or lead them to believe they are incapable of understanding “the real world.” Don’t be turned off by how old it is.