All those things you think--but don't say--about fat, being fat, or fat people? Jamie Carcaterra says them. She calls you on them. Jamie's a senior. She's a writer. She's an actress, and she has a boyfriend. She's out to win a college scholarship with her blunt, brutal column Fat Girl in the school's newspaper.
I haven't read any of Susan Vaught's work before, but the characters she's created in BFM and her head-on tackling of issues that many shy away from has made me curious. According to her web site, Vaught is a practicing psychiatrist, as well as a full-time writer. Vaught also candidly shares pics regarding her own body transformation on the site, so I'm sure she's speaking, at least partly, through experience through several characters in her novel. According to the publisher's site, BFM has received several awards or citations--deservedly so!
I'm now anxious to read some of Vaught's other works, particularly Fat Tuesday
and Trigger
!
Trigger is really good also - about a kid who shoots himself in the head, trying to commit suicide, and doesn't manage to kill himself. The book is set about a year after he does the deed. He's leaving the hospitals and is returning to school and "real life."
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