Mirror, mirror ...

BOOK REVIEW who constantly invites her to lunch every day and eats scones while asking Lizzie why she isn’t having anything. This is a girl we all know — one we all pretend to love but really love to hate.

When Lizzie begins to diet in an effort to lose weight before going to visit her long-distance boyfriend, she tortures herself every night by trying on a tight bodycon dress that she knows she won’t like herself in. It’s tempting to scream at her not to do it, to not make herself something she isn’t for someone else. At the same time, most of us have done the same thing. After reading this, we may even have to take a peek at our own drawer that houses the too-tight jeans to wear “one day.”

Lizzy’s story makes clear that doubt about oneself, physically or mentally, can wear down both a person and their relationships over time, taking over each piece of their lives until there is nothing left.

When Lizzie is successful in her weight loss, she is more miserable than ever. Once she can fit into that elusive dress, she squeezes herself into one every day just to prove to herself that her pain is worth something. Meanwhile her name has gone from Lizzie to Beth to Elizabeth, echoing her attempts to reinvent herself with the personality she believes should go with her new body.

A story from the viewpoint of Lizzy’s husband shows the strain her dieting has put on her relationship. He misses who she was before she became someone who miserably measures out her wine before drinking a glass each night. By the end of the story, he finally breaks, finding an excuse to leave her at a party but really going to try and get a glimpse of the “fat chick” his friend’s been dating. By the time he gets back, Lizzie has already gone home. When he gets there, he catches her going through the history on his computer, watching the “two fat maids” porn he watched a few nights before. He can tell by the reflection of her face in the window that she sees him in the doorway, but she is too transfixed by the “fat girls” to look away.

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl succeeds not only in making us question what we regard as “beauty,” but also ends by making us wonder what it is in life that really matters. It is a debut that manages to question the foundations of the society we live in with no holds barred.