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A review by snarkywench
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
4.0
I have an admission to make; this book was sitting on my shelf for two months. Its poor, pink spine was crying out for me to read it, despite my ever growing review pile. I relented...and proceeded to devour it.
This book is deceptively simple. It doesn’t blow you away with forced humour, adjectives or revelations that make you pause. Instead it paints a clear, piercingly clear portrait of what it is like to be the fat girl. The invisibility, the crippling self doubt, the familial pressure, incessant stares, bullying and the eating of one’s feelings.
Now onto heavier issues, Byron’s date rape. I have always wondered when watching Law and Order: SVU what is must be like when your brother or father is the perpetrator of this kind of appalling crime. Shame, denial, anger? He’s still family but he’s betrayed Virginia’s gender - betrayed her rights and her trust by exploiting a fellow female. I think the addition of this plot point made it rise above what could have been considered a frothy girl fest. But readers know that this book wouldn’t have been that, with or without the Byron subplot. Virginia assertive stance to her brother in the closing chapters was near brilliant.
I was with Virginia with her whole misconception of Froggy. Was she being unfair and presumptuous in assuming he wanted a secret pashfest? Yes, but I would have thought that too. But really, what was she to think? Big girls are conditioned to think they aren’t worthy and that poor esteem in turn creates self fulfilling prophecies.
Freedom to be one’s self is a great right. And one that Virginia snatched back. Once she had finally broken free of her self-important, denial ridden mother’s restraints, Virginia was able to breath for the first time. I felt like cheering aloud...but didn’t as that would be weird.
Carolyn Mackler has a written a truly honest, candid and insightful look into the life of big girl (both in personality and in size). Her pacing along with the burgeoning confidence of Virginia and her ascertaining of independence felt real. I want to commend her, on her creation of this character and her world, wholeheartedly. I can’t help but think that this novel may have made many girls feel less alone and more empowered. Colour me impressed and hand me another Mackler!
This book is deceptively simple. It doesn’t blow you away with forced humour, adjectives or revelations that make you pause. Instead it paints a clear, piercingly clear portrait of what it is like to be the fat girl. The invisibility, the crippling self doubt, the familial pressure, incessant stares, bullying and the eating of one’s feelings.
Now onto heavier issues, Byron’s date rape. I have always wondered when watching Law and Order: SVU what is must be like when your brother or father is the perpetrator of this kind of appalling crime. Shame, denial, anger? He’s still family but he’s betrayed Virginia’s gender - betrayed her rights and her trust by exploiting a fellow female. I think the addition of this plot point made it rise above what could have been considered a frothy girl fest. But readers know that this book wouldn’t have been that, with or without the Byron subplot. Virginia assertive stance to her brother in the closing chapters was near brilliant.
I was with Virginia with her whole misconception of Froggy. Was she being unfair and presumptuous in assuming he wanted a secret pashfest? Yes, but I would have thought that too. But really, what was she to think? Big girls are conditioned to think they aren’t worthy and that poor esteem in turn creates self fulfilling prophecies.
Freedom to be one’s self is a great right. And one that Virginia snatched back. Once she had finally broken free of her self-important, denial ridden mother’s restraints, Virginia was able to breath for the first time. I felt like cheering aloud...but didn’t as that would be weird.
Carolyn Mackler has a written a truly honest, candid and insightful look into the life of big girl (both in personality and in size). Her pacing along with the burgeoning confidence of Virginia and her ascertaining of independence felt real. I want to commend her, on her creation of this character and her world, wholeheartedly. I can’t help but think that this novel may have made many girls feel less alone and more empowered. Colour me impressed and hand me another Mackler!