Customer Reviews

FatLand

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Frannnie Zellman has weaved an intriguing tale of a territory named FatLand, where fat people can live without being harassed. In fact, it's against the law for weight to be mentioned. People of FatLand have raised their children in a society completely free of any kind of fat prejudice.

Frannie has done an outstanding job of writing a story that, while it is futuristic, it's close enough to home to be extremely thought-provoking. FatLand makes me want to do more fat activist work to make sure we don't wind up like the people on the Other Side...

Many of us have had this fantasy--to build a world where fat prejudice is not allowed, where discrimination against fat workers and travelers does not exist and where teachers and school authorities don't look the other way when brutal teasing forces some fat kids to contemplate or actually commit suicide. In a future where the authorities maintain "Re-education centers" for those who do not meet government-imposed standards of thinness, Frannie Zellman's characters create such a place--a territory called FatLand, 400,000 people-strong. In FatLand, discrimination is illegal. Lots of us would line up to become citizens. In the book, of course, there are diet profiteers fighting the brave pioneers of Fatland. The fun in the book is seeing tolerance and healthy body positive attitudes win the day! I loved the Anti-Dieting Underground Railroad!

FatLand is technically a science fiction book, since it's located in the near future (mid-21st century) and predominantly features the lives of people who live in a size-celebrating territory called FatLand. Outside of FatLand, pro-health laws have broken out, thereby criminalizing certain types of foods and restricting individuals' caloric intakes. As well as promoting a body-positive attitude, the author also provides us with a sobering and timely social commentary of governmental intervention into our lives and lifestyles. The novel follows the loves and lives of the FatLand council members, the very egalitarian ruling body of FatLand Territory. The novel includes themes of love, assassination, betrayal, and self-sacrifice. Above all, however, this is an unabashedly political novel that encourages readers to consider the roles government, advertising, and body hatred play in our own lives.

As for her writing style, Zellman is an intriguing mix of sensualist and minimalist. Some scenes burst with the sensuality of food, sex, and scenery; they're so lush, readers can almost smell or taste them. Other scenes are told only in dialogue and are devoid of any commentary outside of characters' discussion. Her style is alternately lush and spare, which I took as commentary on the different interpretations (and dictates) concerning fatness itself. Also, it's very easy to see Zellman is a Leftist, since there is no central character and her novel is wrought with concerns of political rights, personal freedoms, and in-group egalitarianism. Each character has a voice, a scene, and tells her/his own story. In this way, the story feels more like a stew, filled with individual vegetables that contribute to the overall flavor, than a narrative melting pot. It will be disconcerting to some readers who are used to the usual protagonist/antagonist formula that privileges one s/hero; ultimately, however, and IMO, her writing style reflects the novel's overall, political theme of equality and diversity.

In short, I wish FatLand really existed. I'd apply to immigrate immediately! :)

Fear of being obese or become obese is consuming our lives , emotions and happiness. This madness can go to an extreme level. This book has taught me to understand the relativity of health, life and obesity. This book has boldly spoken those things which either we are scared to say or restricted to say for many commercial and social reasons.

FATLAND is fun to read: it's a great adventure and it incorporates and combines the charms of mysteries, "soft" science fiction, thrillers, and erotica. I recommend it to anyone and everyone with enthusiasm. FATLAND belongs to the wonderful tradition of utopian/distopian novels and short stories that goes all the way back to the nineteenth century . . . and farther. There is the 1915 HERLAND by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carol Farley Kessler's DARING TO DREAM: Utopian Fiction by United States Women Before, 1950 and THE FEMALE MAN by Joanna Russ, the wonderful science fiction writer who died recently. about a women's planet (and of course the men show up from their world, just as the Other Siders leak over into Fatland -- and some Fatlanders leak the other way.) Most of the ones I'm familiar with are feminist and posit a women's Utopia and after showing how wonderful that world is, set up the inhabitants of that world to face their nemisises (is there such a word?) and in the contact/conflict we learn all the same kinds of things we learn in the interaction between the Fatlanders and the Other Siders. This literary tradition is rich, entertaining, and enlightening. I'm thrilled we now have a pioneering practitioner of that tradition dealing with bigotry aimed at and the oppression of fat people. This fantasy explores the false science behind that prejudice and discrimination and the various ways the prejudice encouraged by that false science can be countered and a better world achieved. It is an enthralling page-turner. Zellman explores so many kinds of conflict -- those between people and their own natural bodies, those between one kind of natural body (slender) with another kind of natural body (fat), those between generations, those between business competitors, those between conflicting and contrasting political structures, and more. And don't forget to take the time to read the wonderful meal descriptions!