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Loading... Moose: A Memoir of Fat Campby Stephanie Klein
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This memoir is at it's best when Klein writes about her experiences of being an overweight teenager...and she's not a sad outcast, either! I thought this book depicts a teenager with a pretty confident outlook on life! I didn't like the ending, in which Klein goes off topic to discuss her struggles with her pregnancy as an normal weight adult...preachy, treacly; I just didn't care.  bookweaver | Aug 12, 2009 |  Klein's experiences as an obese kid, and her later adventures as an preteen at fat camp. There's some insight here, and more honesty about her sexual escapades than was probably necessary. I'm no prude, but I thought some of it was excessive, though it may prove the point that fat kids have sex drives too. If you've been a fat kid, you may identify here. This is a book I borrowed from the library, and for a freebie, I can't complain. But most of it's been said before. And Klein's style isn't particularly compelling. (  ) ilovebooksdlk | May 17, 2009 | This is one of those situations where my inquisitive nature caused too much information to spoil the experience. I really liked Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp. Sure, I had a few qualms, but overall, I was going to write a solid review supporting the time spent reading the book. But then… I just had to see if the author had a website. Not only does Ms. Stephanie Klein have a website, it seems the damned thing is mighty popular and was a jumping point for her writing career. That’s fine. I wish I could write well enough to earn such attention. The problem occurred when I saw the beautiful pictures of Ms. Klein adorning her blog. She’s thin and pretty. How could that woman write such an understanding book, one that clearly denotes the pain and effort of carrying rolls of fat on one’s person? Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp lays all of Klein’s pain and disparagement on the line. She holds nothing back. Her greatest proficiency is prostrating herself. Not only is this a tale of struggling with weight, but a tale of struggling to fit, period. Klein examines her own prejudices where she delineates how fat she’s willing to date and how even the ‘fat campers’ divide into a hierarchy of the more or less repellent. I found it amazing to watch this structural division of misfits who’d normally form the outsiders in the popular cliques. It’s a solid vignette in the coming-of-age genre with Klein emerging victorious, but not unscathed. Of course there were a few nit-picky qualms. My first was with the editing. Some passages are allowed to become tedious and the beginning and end are almost extraneous to the tale. Due to the overdevelopment in these areas, a few effects are left underdeveloped. My second qualm concerns the uneven skidding between the years that form the fat camp experience. Ms. Klein began with an author’s note explaining that she’d condensed years of fat camp survival into a single year. Her apologetic tone protects her from being Freyed (my term referring to Oprah calling you a liar because you flower-up your memoir), but presumes we readers aren’t smart enough to understand that memoirs come with embellishments… (end of rant). I’d recommend this book to older teens, anyone who enjoys honest coming-of-age tales, memoirs and especially those who have struggled with weight issues. Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume © Tasses 2007-2009 1  Tasses | Dec 9, 2008 | Loved this book. I enjoyed reading about Stephanie Klein's experiences in this book and immediately had to read her first memoir when I finished. I think every female can relate to aspects of this book and the humor that is found within the pages makes this a delightful read! (  ) mustreet | Sep 16, 2008 | I was diappointed with this much anticipated second book by Stephanie Klein. The story was really dragging and I enjoyed her first memoir, Straight Up & Dirty much more. In her first book, the writing was sharp and witty and this one was lacking. (  ) jennifour | Sep 9, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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With her signature acerbic wit and captivating insight, the author of the wildly popular Straight Up and Dirty offers a powerful and beautifully stark portrait of adolescence
While she is pregnant with twins, one sentence uttered by her doctor sends Stephanie Klein reeling: "You need to gain fifty pounds." Instantly, an adolescence filled with insecurity and embarrassment comes flooding back. Though she is determined to gain the weight for the health of her babies--even if it means she'll "weigh more than a Honda"--she can only express her deep fear by telling her doctor simply, "I used to be fat."
Klein was an eighth grader with a weight problem. It was a problem at school, where the boys called her "Moose," and it was a problem at home, where her father reminded her, "No one likes fat girls." After many frustrating sessions with a nutritionist known as the fat doctor of Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Klein's parents enrolled her for a summer at fat camp. Determined to return to school thin and popular, without her "lard arms" and "puckered ham," Stephanie embarked on a memorable journey that would shape more than just her body. It would shape her life.
In the ever-shifting terrain between fat and thin, adulthood and childhood, cellulite and starvation, Klein shares the cutting details of what it truly feels like to be an overweight child, from the stinging taunts of classmates, to the off-color remarks of her own father, to her thin mother's compulsive dissatisfaction with her own body. Calling upon her childhood diary entries, Klein reveals her deepest thoughts and feelings from that turbulent, hopeful time, baring her soul and making her heartache palpable.
Whether Klein is describing her life as a chubby adolescent camper--getting weighed on a meat scale, petting past curfew, and "chunky dunking" in the lake--or what it's like now as a fit mother, having one-sided conversations with her newborn twins about the therapy they'll one day need, this hilarious yet grippingly vulnerable book will remind you what it was like to feel like an outsider, to desperately seek the right outfit, the right slang, the best comeback, or whatever that unattainable something was that would finally make you fit in.
Marie Claire, for Straight Up and DirtyUSA Today
"Klein is a talented writer who tells the story of her love life with boldness and irreverence."
Publishers Weekly
"Klein’s sense of humor is downright wicked . . . a great, fun read."
New York Times
"Nothing, it seems, is too private not to share with . . . Ms. Klein’s legions of followers. And that is exactly how they like it."
People
"You could call her ‘a real-life Carrie Bradshaw,’ but it wouldn’t do Klein justice. With a fearless voice, the blogger weaves a memoir filled with heartbreak and humor . . . a compelling writer."
Kirkus Reviews
"Candid . . . inspiring . . . With vivid characterizations, spot-on locale descriptions and sly jokes at her own expense, Klein offers an original and touching take on the all-too-common problem of childhood obesity."
Elle, for Straight Up and Dirty
"Klein’s appeal comes not just from her nocturnal wonderings, but from her relentless plumbing of what went wrong in her twenties and how those mistakes inform her present."
Daily News, for Straight Up and Dirty
"[Stephanie Klein’s] confessional, intimate writing style has a magnetic and often voyeuristic appeal that transcends the gloss of her Sex and the City-style escapades."
Susan Shapiro, author of Lighting Up, for Straight Up and Dirty
"A kooky, heartfelt, and ultimately triumphant chronicle of young divorce and the importance of family, friends, and a good shrink."
Marie Claire (UK), for Straight Up and Dirty
"Beneath the wisecracking tales of solo supermarket shopping, phone therapy and Hamptons houseshares, the raw emotion about her divorce and nightmare mother-in-law rings true."
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400)
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