Years ago when I read Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, I remember stopping midway through to re-read the back cover, where someone or other was quoted as saying the book was hilarious. I began to think I was either missing the point of the book or something was wrong with me because I didn't find it amusing. It was well-written and moving and downright sad, but I would never have called it funny.
I had almost forgotten about that until I read Fat Girl by Judith Moore, a book that has been called "a nonfiction She's Come Undone." Each time I tried to comfort myself with the thought that it was only a story, I remembered the book is nonfiction. I won't give anything away for anyone who might want to read it, but I'll just tell you that the story is not a happy one.
Then I noticed the quote by Augusten Burroughs on the front cover: "A slap-in-the-face of a book -- courageous, heartbreaking, fascinating, and darkly funny."
Hm. I'm all about the slap in the face. And the courage. And the heartbreak. And okay, I suppose it might be "fascinating" to some people. And dark, definitely. But Augusten and I part ways with the "funny" business. I didn't laugh once, and while I was willing to accept that perhaps I had just missed the point in She's Come Undone, I would be willing to bet Judith Moore wasn't giggling, or hoping for giggles, as she wrote Fat Girl.
Out of curiosity, I looked up She's Come Undone on amazon.com and read the editorial review. The review contained several fat/overeating jokes. My favorite is, "Whether you're disgusted by her antics or moved by her pathetic ploys, you'll be drawn into Dolores's warped, hilarious, Mallomar-munching world." Yeah, "hilarious Mallomar-munching world." Fat girls eating candy bars are just hilarious. There was another remark about how her gluttony was "rivaled only by Henry VIII." Hardy-har-har.
Are these books funny to people because the world from a fat and abused woman's perspective is so shockingly different from their own that they can't begin to empathize? Do the publishers say "funny" on the outside of a book just because people will only read about fat women if they think they get to laugh?
Sorry, but I don't get the joke.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I don't think it's funny, either. And I am one skinny dude.
I remember thinking the exact same thing when I read the excellent "She's Come Undone." Not funny. Sometimes sweet and usually heartbreaking, but definitely not a knee-slapper. My hunch is that your thought is right: The publishers probably think the only way to sell a "fat" book is to call it funny. And this is just one of the thousands of things wrong with the publishing industry! Sigh.
I'm not fat and I didn't think "She's Come Undone" was funny either. I know Jennifer Weiner's "Good in Bed" was also marketed as being funny and I think the author intended it to be, but I was disappointed by it. After reading all narrator's descriptions of how huge she was, she mentions somewhere she's a size 16. That about made me choke, that someone who is a size 16 (only one size up from the average American woman) would be considered "a larger woman" and would constantly be making fat jokes about herself.
What has always bothered me are the portrayals of fat people on TV and in movies. Both the fat Monica in Friends and the fat Julia Roberts in "America's Sweethearts" are ridiculous caricatures. They are ALWAYS shown eating and their mannerisms and personalities are totally different from their skinny selves.
Thanks, anonymous, Teej, and Melissa. It's good to know that some regular-sized people are bothered by fat stereotypes, too.
Post a Comment