LIZZIE IS A HARD CHARACTER TO LOVE IN 13 WAYS
The Vancouver Sun’s book club is discussing 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, by Mona Awad. It’s the story of Lizzie, an overweight young woman, told in 13 instalments at different points in her life. It’s shortlisted for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the book club panel will be chatting live with Awad at noon on May 27 at vancouversun.com.
Melanie Jackson: Everywhere Lizzie looks, including in the mirror, people are grim. I love Awad’s writing. Her characters? No. I find them annoying and unlikable. This is satire, after all.
I can’t really care about the relationships in the novel. There is one character I don’t mind, she’s viewed negatively — but of course! — by Lizzie: a co-worker whom she calls Itsy Bitsy. Itsy can stuff back scones, clotted cream and jam and other goodies without expanding in the slightest. Lizzie is sure Itsy is doing this to annoy her. I don’t think so. I think Itsy is just enjoying her enviable gift of eating without worrying.
I wish Awad would write a story about Itsy. It would be fun to combine Awad’s style with a story about someone not into body image issues. Maybe Itsy could have workplace advancement problems? Anything, just to get more of Awad’s guillotine-sharp writing style.
Ian Weir: The male characters in this book are brilliantly, and devastatingly, observed. What strikes me most is the way they’re basically divided into two groups. Either they’re the bar-scene version of third-level predators, trying to mimic some misbegotten concept of alpha masculinity; or (like Lizzie’s father) they’ve rendered themselves so detached and ineffectual they scarcely exist.
In terms of this discussion, I confess that I see the wisdom in Lizzie’s father’s approach. And I don’t pretend to have anything insightful to contribute to a discussion of women’s self-image. But, for what it’s worth, I am left feeling pretty alienated by the protagonist, who doesn’t (as far as I can see?) act on an empathetic impulse until page 208, when she helps rescue Char’s cat.
Monique Sherrett: One of the striking things about Liz’s relationships is the lack of emotional support she gets from any of them. There’s no one really loving her and validating the positive things she does such as finishing school, being gainfully employed and hitting other life milestones. It’s implied her husband loves and supports her initially, but he doesn’t provide any counterbalance to her off-the-rails dieting and dress shopping. Instead of a comfort, he becomes an adversary.
Awad offers some poignant insights into middle-age woman at the gym, and the culture of thin means fit.
Lizzie’s father is absent for most of the novel and then he becomes an enabler at the end when she gives in to sharing the popcorn. I’m not sure if this is meant to be a positive revelation or if it’s Lizzie slipping back into old habits she hates.
Her mother glorifies the weight loss and basically tries to pimp out her daughter, which is unsettling to read yet also hilarious.
The sense of humour kept me engaged with Lizzie and Awad pulls some punches with Lizzie’s early relationships, ensuring the reader doesn’t see her simply as a sad case. But those early relationships with the self-interested losers had me worried she was taking the path of Baby in Heather O’Neill’s Lullabies for Little Criminals.
Trevor Battye: I loved this book — it really resonated with me on a few different levels. I grew up as a larger child, and was often teased about this, so I loved the way the book took that on. It was also a very easy read to get through.
I agree with Ian about the male characters in the story. What I found really interesting is while the book focuses on women’s self image, I often wonder about that in the male context. Perhaps these male characters were purposefully set up this way, to raise the question about male self image. I would suggest Awad’s insights into woman at the gym could also be applied to body image stereotypes about men. Or maybe as a fat kid I’m just projecting.