If you've never read anything fat acceptance related, this is an excellent introduction. It's fun, light, and easily approachable without watering down the core tenants. Lesley never apologizes for her fatness (or anyone else's), and does a fine job of both showing and telling why fat acceptance is important and needed and why you ought care and join our team. If you're a fat-acceptance regular, fret not; I assure you, this book is also for you.
Two Whole Cakes is a small, friendly book. It's a paperback of about 160 pages. Neither an academic text nor a neatly logical refutation of anti-fat hate, reading it feels like I'm chatting with Lesley over dinner (or cake!). She tells stories from her childhood and grad school intermixed with passionate culminations of a manifesto. There is no index, no table of contents, and it's not chronological. It meanders, but not aimlessly. There are sentences and even paragraphs that I would expect to find in gradate school rather than a cute paperback. Rather than distracting from the intimacy of Kinzel's voice, they add a depth and complexity that is so often the hallmark of her work. She's thoughtful and reflective, both of herself and our culture at large (pun always intended). Kinzel has the ability to both take topics seriously while also conveying how absolutely absurd they are. When Kinzel discusses the side effects from a diet pill, I had to put down the book because I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt and I couldn't keep my eyes open. Only Lesley could get me to laugh so hard about diet pills and literal crap. And it's more than the absurdity of our culture that got to me. She talks about her involvement in fat community, a flourishing community full of self acceptance and love. Though I'm sure this was not her goal, she reminded my why I also do fat academic work and fat activist work. In the face of diet culture, I want everyone to be able to opt out of hate and self-loathing. And in order to do this, I need a community of others who get it. I need to know that I'm not alone in my fear, my love, and my rage. Two Whole Cakes renewed my love for my body and my work-- and that's the highest praise I can give any writer.
