Welcome to the Reeds, a penal colony for over-eaters. Minimum stay: three months. Be prepared to be addressed as fatty and subjected to a near-starvation diet. No cell phones allowed. Talking about food is forbidden. Weigh-ins are mandatory. The watchtowers are manned at night.
In The Weight of Temptation, Ana Maria Shua defines her characters by their poundage, writing in a familiar inner voice of excuses and guilty rationalization. Slices of forbidden bread are fondled ecstatically. Dog kibble is a black market delicacy. Courting lovers share sweaty lumps of chocolate candy.
Her brave fatties are swiftly sketched but unpredictable, with human contradictions and depth: Denise the librarian, with a literary example for every occasion; Alex the sexy restaurant owner who would have been attractive 100 pounds earlier; Jughead, a 6'7", 600-pound mass of pure love who unchecked could eat himself to death; and the 16-year-old, 300-pound Carola, who leads the adolescent revolution taking over the fat farm.
But it is Marina Rubin around whom the novel ultimately revolves. Marina gained 22 pounds in her first year of marriage. She gained another 48 pounds in her first pregnancy; her second pregnancy got her 35 more. Now, at 5'2" and age 43, she weighs 207 pounds. Her desperate search for the right doctors, the right program, the right drug have led her to pay the exorbitant fee, say goodbye to her family and enter the Reeds.
Are thinness, youth and beauty really the essential values of the human race? Science fiction, allegory or parody, this tasty little novel serves up a witty parody of today's calorie-obsessed culture. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle