Who we really are
MY young adult fiction reading has consisted of far too many mediocre dystopian future and fantasy stories of late. So the contemporary Holding Up The Universe comes like a gust of fresh air, both in terms of genre and storytelling.
It’s touted as a “poignant, exhilarating love story”, but the romance for me is secondary.
This book is really about appearances: how who we really are on the inside is often far from what people perceive and how far (or not) we are willing to go to fit other people’s ideas of us.
Sixteen-year-old Libby Strout was once known as “America’s Fattest Teen”.
Three years ago, she had to be rescued from her own house when she had a severe panic attack, because at 653lb of weight, she could not get out of her own front door.
After years of dieting, exercising, fat camps and therapy, Libby is finally ready to go back to school and face the world again.
“I’ve lost 302 pounds (137kg). The size of two entire people. I have around 190 (86kg) more to go, and I’m fine with that. I like who I am.
“For one thing, I can run now. And ride in the car. And buy clothes at the mall instead of special-ordering them.
“And I can twirl. Aside from no longer bring afraid of organ failure, that may be the best thing about now versus then.”
Nevertheless, she is still “TERRIFIED OUT OF MY SKULL” at the prospect of going back to
school and facing those who probably still remember her as “America’s Fattest Teen”.
Author Jennifer Niven does an excellent job of balancing Libby’s hard-won self-confidence and sassiness (Schoolmate: “I think you’re disgusting.” Libby: “If it’s any consolation, I think you are too.”), with her natural trepidation at facing the mean-girl-andbully-boy culture common in American secondary schools and her still-present insecurities about her image.
In fact, if you have any overweight teens or tweens in your life, consider getting them this book so that Libby can provide them with some realistic inspiration.
The other protagonist, 17-yearold Jack Masselin, meanwhile, is known as the cool cat in school. But no one knows how much work he puts into this facade, or the reason why he feels like he has to act this way all the time, sometimes against his better instincts.
Jack has a rare condition called prosopagnosia, which means that he is unable to recognise the faces of familiar people, ie, everyone is a stranger to him in terms of appearance.
For example, “Marcus drops his phone, and when he sits up again, it’s as if he’s a brand-new person. Like that, the Etch A Sketch in my brain is cleared, and I have to start over, adding up the parts: Shaggy hair + pointy chin + eight-foot-long giraffe = Marcus.”
In fact, he can’t even recognise his own face each time he sees his reflection.
In one of the random lists Niven intersperses between chapters, Jack lists the top most embarrassing moment of his life as the time his mother picked him up at kindergarten after cutting her hair (a feature he used to help himself identify her) and he accused her of trying to kidnap him because he didn’t recognise her.
While he has figured out what he has, Jack has never told anyone about his condition.
No one until Libby, that is. And even then, it’s only as a kind of excuse for the horrible thing he has done to her.
Niven paces the development of their relationship quite slowly, but well. Something I much appreciated after all the insta-love and best-friends-realisethey’re-in-love plots I have been subjected to lately.
More importantly, she develops both characters well as the story moves along.
Jack has the more obvious development as he goes from trying desperately to keep up his facade as cool guy and occasional douchebag to fully accepting his condition.
With Libby, the story is more about how she deals with the typical secondary school culture, including when she carries through with her secret desire to join the school’s famous drill team, the Martin Van Buren High School Damsels.
Holding Up The Universe is real and well-written. Highly recommended.
PS: As a fan of the TV show Supernatural, I might be slightly biased by the fact that young Libby refers to the boys living opposite her, and whom she imagines as her friends, as Sam, Dean and Castiel.