The image that one
is fat and not worthy of attention, friendship or any of the good things in
life...This concept didn't seem too unbelievable or strange. A book on this seemed to be apt especially as
it seemed to address something that is not too uncommon.
As I turned the
pages of this book, I found myself getting engrossed in the characters and the
story. The story of the life of Victoria Dawson, the protagonist, as she fights
the battle with her weight issues.
The storyline describes the life of a chubby girl with blond hair and blue eyes. The initial description makes you imagine a beautiful young girl but the constantly reiterated is the fact that the girl is ordinary and little on the 'Big' side. Incomparable to the rest of her family who are described as 'tall and slender', 'fine-boned' and 'dark-haired beauty', she deals with disappointment of her family with her looks.
The story is in the
form of a narration where we hear the incidents rather than see and feel them.
The parents are depicted as self-centered, out-spoken and with a narcissistic
outlook where they leave no stone unturned in belittling and ridiculing her, little
realizing what they are actually doing.
The entire book
repeatedly talks about how her parents belittle her and pass remarks which chip
away her confidence bit by bit till she is absolutely low on self esteem and
confidence and feels that she doesn’t deserved to be loved. Victoria's struggle and her constant fight
with her weight seems very realistic. But after a point one is frustrated by
Victoria's non reactive nature to her parents remarks.
Victoria's character
is depicted as that of a very nice girl, good in whatever she does, having a
lot of accomplishments and rarely has she ever seemed to have done something
that is not right. She come out a someone who is flawless. The only flaw in her
is her lack of self-esteem and this is supposed to have been caused by her
parents. This flawless depiction of Victoria where she never loses it or
confronts her family seems unrealistic at this age and time.
Victoria's sister
Grace, the beautiful anger and the perfect replica of her parents is at the
center of attraction in this family. Both Victoria and Grace, though brought up
by the same parents seem to have undergone two different childhoods. This
difference in them and their childhood has not affected their love and bond.
Despite the tension with her parents, the two sisters are close and it is a
pleasure to see it.
Victoria is also
shown to meet a shrink who helps her with understanding her issues and
realizing her worth. The book shows her a someone who is desperately trying to
lose weight and is also worried and wanting to find a man who can love her. But
it is unfortunate that the book depicts that Victoria only makes some leeway
with her esteem issues once she has a nose job done. She also seems to come
into own her own only when she finds that perfect guy for her, which happens
towards the end of the book.
Does this tell
readers that you need to get some external enhancements or get a guy for
recovering some of that self-esteem? Can it not be developed from within or
only by yourself? These are some questions that would come into the readers
mind as we continue reading...
The story moves on
to her sisters engagement where she has
selected a man who is a replica of her father and Victoria is worried that
Grace would become like their mother, under the constant shadow of their
father. This incident and Victoria's efforts to dissuade her sister from what
she believes is a wrong step brings about a slight estrangement between the
two.
The book moves
towards closure as the sisters solve their issues, the younger sister gets
married. After the first serious estrangement, it was unfortunate that the book
ended with the sister getting married to the "wrong guys". Things end
well in the book otherwise…
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