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A review by sararene
What We Don't Talk about When We Talk about Fat by Aubrey Gordon
1.75
This book is obviously a book with an agenda. And that agenda is one that I wholeheartedly agree with in premise.
However, I found that the arguments in this book towards recruiting others who are not familiar with the space to be wholly unconvincing. I felt that the statistics and studies and many examples were cherry picked to prove a point, and I could easily come up with counterpoints ignored for the sake of proving the author's point. (For example, when discussing fat characters portrayed negatively, the author mentions Vernon and Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter novels, who are admittedly despicable and their fatness exists very much to drive home this point. However, I might also bring up Neville Longbottom, a character repeatedly described as fat, but who has a story and arc that culminates in heroic acts while having nothing to do with his size (not to give anything away)). This is only one single example of a short-sighted, narrow perspective from a book that I found to be rife full of them.
I read this book because I believe in it's main thesis, but I would not recommend it to others, because I found it to have major holes in many of its arguments that would be picked apart by those who would have most to gain by hearing its message.
On top of that, while I found some of it engaging to read (the first and the last chapters especially), much of the writing was repetitive and failed to pull me back to wanting to pick it back up again and continue when I had set it down. Not a waste of time.. But, I'll still be on the lookout for books on this subject that are more convincing and compelling.
However, I found that the arguments in this book towards recruiting others who are not familiar with the space to be wholly unconvincing. I felt that the statistics and studies and many examples were cherry picked to prove a point, and I could easily come up with counterpoints ignored for the sake of proving the author's point. (For example, when discussing fat characters portrayed negatively, the author mentions Vernon and Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter novels, who are admittedly despicable and their fatness exists very much to drive home this point. However, I might also bring up Neville Longbottom, a character repeatedly described as fat, but who has a story and arc that culminates in heroic acts while having nothing to do with his size (not to give anything away)). This is only one single example of a short-sighted, narrow perspective from a book that I found to be rife full of them.
I read this book because I believe in it's main thesis, but I would not recommend it to others, because I found it to have major holes in many of its arguments that would be picked apart by those who would have most to gain by hearing its message.
On top of that, while I found some of it engaging to read (the first and the last chapters especially), much of the writing was repetitive and failed to pull me back to wanting to pick it back up again and continue when I had set it down. Not a waste of time.. But, I'll still be on the lookout for books on this subject that are more convincing and compelling.