What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology [Paperback]

Donna Jarrell (Author), Ira Sukrungruang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2003

This anthology of thirty works by some of our best contemporary American writers looks at our perennial American obsession: fat. It's everywhere, all around you, and maybe even on you. Now, America's consuming passion at last has its own anthology. From Andre Dubus's delicious story of a young woman more comfortable in her fat body than her thin one
("The Fat Girl"), to Tobias Wolff's tale of bonding over pancakes ("Hunters in the Snow"), Dorothy Allison's poem about food and love ("Dumpling Child"), Peter Carey's surreal tale of a fat-man revolution ("The Fat Man in History"), Wesley McNair's poetic celebration "Fat Heaven", and George Saunders's "The 400-pound CEO," this bountiful feast of fiction and poetry will ensure no reader ever looks at fat quite the same way again.

Including stories and poems by
Dorothy Allison
Frederick Busch
Peter Carey
Raymond Carver
Junot Díaz
Andre Dubus
Pam Houston
Jill McCorkle
George Saunders
Tobias Wolff

Editorial Reviews

Review

This singular and delightful anthology of stories and poems told by and about "fat" people is compelling in its honesty and surprising in its range-morbid narratives of murder and dark compulsions mingle with thoughtful reflections upon fatness in relation to family, friends, and culture. Andre Dubus's "The Fat Girl" follows Louise, who loses weight and loses herself in the process. Jill McCorkle presents sweet revenge in "Crash Diet." Peter Carey's "The Fat Man in History" is a bizarre and mysterious tale of a small clan called the Fat Men Against the Revolution that ends with cannibalism and a twist. Like any addiction, the focus is rarely on the poison of choice but rather on the relationship of the addict to himself and his environment and is ultimately a commentary on the complexities of a world where people are constantly trying to "find themselves" amidst a confusing array of social conventions. But the real joy of this anthology is that there is no "message" or moral that is thrust upon the reader, only stories attempting to illuminate aspects of the human condition-as all good stories should. Highly recommended. (Library Journal - Ann Kim )

From the Back Cover

Here i s f a t i n a l l i t s g l o r y a n d g randeur-a
l a r g e - h e a r t e d c e l e b ra t i o n o f t h e h u m a n s p i r i t a n d
e a c h i n d i v i d u a l 's u n i q u e va l u e , re g a rd l e s s o f s i z e .

This anthology of thirty works by some of our best contemporary
American writers looks at our perennial American obsession:
fat. From Andre Dubus's delicious story of a young woman
more comfortable in her fat body than her thin one ("The Fat Girl"), to
Tobias Wolff 's tale of bonding over pancakes ("Hunters in the Snow"),
Dorothy Allison's poem about food and love ("Dumpling Child"), and
Peter Carey's surreal tale of a fat-man revolution ("The Fat Man in
History"), this bountiful feast of fiction and poetry will ensure no reader
ever looks at fat quite the same way again.


Donna Jarrell is a self-described fat American whose
fiction won Case Western Reserve University's prestigious
Kennedy Prize for Outstanding Creative Project. She lives
with her family in Columbus, Ohio.


Ira Sukrungruang is a first-generation Thai-American.
His stories have appeared in Witness, Indiana Review, Another
Chicago Magazine, and numerous other literary journals. He
teaches creative nonfiction at State University of New York-Oswego.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (September 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156029073
• ISBN-13: 978-0156029070
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ira Sukrungruang is a Thai American writer born in 1976 in Oak Lawn, Illinois, a suburb just south of Chicago. He spent most of his childhood eating at McDonalds, playing Nintendo, watching kung fu movies, and writing horrendous unrequited love stories.

In 1994, by some miracle, Ira graduated from Oak Lawn Community High School and was accepted to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he spent the next five years jumping from major to major before choosing the writer's path. During this time, he was an undergraduate intern at Crab Orchard Review, an experience that taught him the ins and outs of literary magazine publishing.

In 1999, he wrote his way into graduate school at The Ohio State University where he received an MFA in creative nonfiction. Along the way, he married an animal-loving, environmentalist/feminist/poet/cookie maker extraordinaire, Katherine "The Great" Riegel, and co-edited, with his good friend Donna Jarrell, What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology. His essays, stories and poems have appeared in such magazines as North American Review, The Sun, and Creative Nonfiction. He is also the author of Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy. Now he edits The Clever Title (www.theclevertitlebookreviews.blogspot.com) and Sweet: A Literary Confection (www.sweetlit.com).

He taught creative nonfiction at SUNY Oswego for six years (Go Lakers!), and now teaches in the MFA program at University of South Florida (Go Bulls!). In between grading papers, he makes frequent trips to McDonalds, plays Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, and watches reruns of West Wing. Admittedly, since moving to a warmer climate, he is now a little addicted to disc golf.

To learn more about him, visit his website at: www.sukrungruang.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time, September 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology (Paperback)

For anyone who loves fiction and has struggled with weight (or not) this is a wonderful, insightful book. The stories are funny, sad, and real. I'm so glad someone had the guts to put together this collection. The book makes you realize that it isn't fat that's obscene, it's America's gluttonous hyped obsession with perfection and "skin deep" body image. (My only complaint is that I wish the book had been fatter.)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too many suffering characters, March 18, 2004

By 

David Spero "David Spero RN" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology (Paperback)

The blurb at the top of the jacket says, "Here is fat in all its glory and grandeur - a large-hearted celebration of the human spirit and each individual's unique value, regardless of size."

But it isn't. I was hoping for some proud, in-your-face fat people who believed in themselves. But nearly all the fat characters in this story collection are miserable, and some are tragic. The only contented one is a cat.

Some of the stories are marvelously written. Junot Diaz' "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" paints an amazingly colorful picture of the culture of young Dominicans in New Jersey. And Rhoda Stamell's "Love for a Fat Man," set in a public health clinic in poverty-stricken Detroit, is one of the few stories where people change in positive ways. But several others, including S.L. Wisenberg's "Big Ruthie Imagines Sex Without Pain," present people with too much self-hatred to identify with or enjoy.

Perhaps I was looking for something that doesn't exist. I'm not heavy myself. I regard overweight as a health condition, not a character flaw. I have a chronic condition myself, multiple sclerosis. But unlike overweight people, I get sympathy for my problem, not blame. I interviewed several overweight people for my book, "The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness" (Hunter House 2002). Even though some of them are very fit aerobics instructors, most have a lot of self-doubt. I don't know if society put it there, or if there's something else about being heavy that hurts your self-esteem. Anyway, the protagonists in these stories are mostly damaged.

It's worth reading, though. There are more poems than stories. I very much liked J.L. Haddaway's "When Fat Girls Dream." I think this book could start a lot of valuable discussion about weight and society's attitude towards it.

David Spero RN, author of "The Art of Getting Well." Write "david at davidsperorn.com"

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for the poetry, 2 for the stories, November 16, 2004

By 

curvynovelsdotinfo "[e-mail]" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology (Paperback)

A guest review by Lara Frater

Heroines: varied

31 stories and poems that have something to do with being fat by such authors as Frederick Busch, Junot Diaz, Jill McCorkle, Katherine Riegel, Rebecca Curtis, Donna Jarrell, and Raymond Carter.

What worked for me:

This book is only worth it for the poetry. So check out "Full Figure" by Allison Joseph, "Nouveau Big" by Katherine Riegel, "For the Man who likes my Thighs" by Denise Duhamel, and "When Fat Girls Dream" by J. L. Haddaway. These poems show the suffering and joy of fat women. The only short story that was interesting and somewhat fat positive was "The Displaced
Overweight Homemaker's Guide to Finding a Mate", and that was saved only by its humor.

Size-wise only the poems seemed to praise plus-sized people.

What didn't work for me:

Where do I start? With the exceptions of the entries listed above, most of the stories portray fat women and men as lazy, obsessed, out of control eaters, neurotic, and they could only lose weight and be happy if they received counseling and really tried.

Overall:
I recommend borrowing the book and not buying it. (Or perhaps getting it used.) The poems are much more positive than the short stories, but there just aren't enough of them.

If you liked "What are You Looking at?" you might also enjoy the "Love at Large", "Living Large" or "At Long Last, Love!" anthologies.