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katherineg 's review for:
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
by Chris Crutcher
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.