I'm Not the New Me page 91 to the end

These kind of books are my romance novels. By that I mean voicey, funny, non-fiction books with just enough poignancy to let it rise above fluff. I can sit down and devour these kinds of things all day long. Is that really much of an endorsement? Probably not. I enjoy them, verily, but "fast read" is kind of a backhanded compliment, don't you think? Just because you can read it quickly doesn't mean it has any value. Why undertake something for pleasure if the main selling point is that you'll get done with it fast?

That's not to degrade this book at all. I still enjoyed it, though I had some worrisome moments. Lo, it was revealed that our heroine's weight problem was connected with some kind of drama. In her case, a mother who had two stomach stapling surgeries and belonged to Overeater's Anonymous, so there was some connection drawn from her overweight life to that of our heroine's. That disappointed me. I was hoping that McClure was fat because she was fat because that's the way it seemed at first, so to learn that, yes, there was a reason for the fatness, it bummed me a little. Well, a reason beyond too much cola and pizza.

Fat just can't exist only as fat if its put on the page. It's a symptom of something, or indicative of some other problem. It's sad that fat can't just be fat because you want to believe that fat is only from candy & pies, but, maybe there's more to it. Maybe fat is a symptom of some other problems in our life...and considering that we're an obese nation, well, what does that say abotu the country?

Anyway, the book also devolved into other disappointments as it got further away from the weight loss "struggle" and more about her just living her life and the growing popularity of her blog thereby getting her status & a book deal, and one really ill-advised moment of typical Sex-in-the-City stupid stereotypical female bitchiness/jealousy of a friend. It just cemented to me that fat or weight loss by itself just isn't enough and there's only so much mileage you can get out of being amazed at new clothes.

But it still sucked me in. The book covers the relationship problems that McClure faces, and I was really rooting for her with each guy she winds up with (aside from this one guy, Grape Ape, dude was an asshole).

The epiphany was nice, too. Sorry for the spoiler, but as the book gets away from the weight loss, so does our heroine. She sort of stops the "struggle" and just tries to be. I think total she lost like 15 pounds, even though she was 5'8" and weighed over 200 pounds. So really, for health physical she probably should have lost a heap more poundadge. But for health mental, well, she makes progress that it didn't seem like she needed to do at the outset of the book. By the end, she's really nowhere except maybe a little lighter, but somehow stronger than where she starts, so it's not fair to call it a failure. Yeah, she didn't lose "enough" weight, but she never outright gave herself a poundage goal (as far as I can remember). Change occured, verily, but not the change that was expected, which is nice. She doesn't end up 115 pounds and dancing in high heels on a cruise ship or some other nonesense like that. It's like she became comfortable with herself more than changing herself into some new version she could live with.

Yeah, deec book. Excellent shitter book. It's not the gold standard for shitter books (The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell) but it's enough. It's like a good sitcom. Not for everyone, and it's not terribly moving or inventive or anything that will make it Literature, but it's a good enough way to spend some time.