| View Larger Image | Moose: A Memoir | Paperbackby Stephanie Klein (Author)
| List Price: | $14.99 | | Price: | $10.19 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Harper Paperbacks | | Page Count: | 320 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 01, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 28,651th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780061672866
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Stephanie Klein was an eighth grader with a weight problem. It was a problem at school, where the boys called her "Moose," and it was a problem at home, where her father reminded her, "No one likes fat girls." After many frustrating sessions with a nutritionist known as the fat doctor of Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Klein's parents enrolled her for a summer at fat camp. Determined to return to school thin and popular, without her "lard arms" and "puckered ham," Stephanie embarked on a memorable journey that would shape more than just her body. It would shape her life. |
Amazon.com Review
With her signature acerbic wit and captivating insight, the author of the wildly popular Straight Up and Dirty offers a powerful and beautifully stark portrait of adolescence While she is pregnant with twins, one sentence uttered by her doctor sends Stephanie Klein reeling: "You need to gain fifty pounds." Instantly, an adolescence filled with insecurity and embarrassment comes flooding back. Though she is determined to gain the weight for the health of her babies--even if it means she'll "weigh more than a Honda"--she can only express her deep fear by telling her doctor simply, "I used to be fat." Klein was an eighth grader with a weight problem. It was a problem at school, where the boys called her "Moose," and it was a problem at home, where her father reminded her, "No one likes fat girls." After many frustrating sessions with a nutritionist known as the fat doctor of Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Klein's parents enrolled her for a summer at fat camp. Determined to return to school thin and popular, without her "lard arms" and "puckered ham," Stephanie embarked on a memorable journey that would shape more than just her body. It would shape her life. In the ever-shifting terrain between fat and thin, adulthood and childhood, cellulite and starvation, Klein shares the cutting details of what it truly feels like to be an overweight child, from the stinging taunts of classmates, to the off-color remarks of her own father, to her thin mother's compulsive dissatisfaction with her own body. Calling upon her childhood diary entries, Klein reveals her deepest thoughts and feelings from that turbulent, hopeful time, baring her soul and making her heartache palpable. Whether Klein is describing her life as a chubby adolescent camper--getting weighed on a meat scale, petting past curfew, and "chunky dunking" in the lake--or what it's like now as a fit mother, having one-sided conversations with her newborn twins about the therapy they'll one day need, this hilarious yet grippingly vulnerable book will remind you what it was like to feel like an outsider, to desperately seek the right outfit, the right slang, the best comeback, or whatever that unattainable something was that would finally make you fit in. Marie Claire, for Straight Up and Dirty "Stephanie Klein’s raw account of divorce at age 29 is refreshingly honest and funny, without delving into cheesy chick-lit territory. You’ll easily relate to Klein--even if you don’t have a 'wasband.'" USA Today "Klein is a talented writer who tells the story of her love life with boldness and irreverence." Publishers Weekly "Klein’s sense of humor is downright wicked . . . a great, fun read." New York Times "Nothing, it seems, is too private not to share with . . . Ms. Klein’s legions of followers. And that is exactly how they like it." People "You could call her ‘a real-life Carrie Bradshaw,’ but it wouldn’t do Klein justice. With a fearless voice, the blogger weaves a memoir filled with heartbreak and humor . . . a compelling writer." Kirkus Reviews "Candid . . . inspiring . . . With vivid characterizations, spot-on locale descriptions and sly jokes at her own expense, Klein offers an original and touching take on the all-too-common problem of childhood obesity." Elle, for Straight Up and Dirty "Klein’s appeal comes not just from her nocturnal wonderings, but from her relentless plumbing of what went wrong in her twenties and how those mistakes inform her present." Daily News, for Straight Up and Dirty "[Stephanie Klein’s] confessional, intimate writing style has a magnetic and often voyeuristic appeal that transcends the gloss of her Sex and the City-style escapades." Susan Shapiro, author of Lighting Up, for Straight Up and Dirty "A kooky, heartfelt, and ultimately triumphant chronicle of young divorce and the importance of family, friends, and a good shrink." Marie Claire (UK), for Straight Up and Dirty "Beneath the wisecracking tales of solo supermarket shopping, phone therapy and Hamptons houseshares, the raw emotion about her divorce and nightmare mother-in-law rings true." |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 32 reviews)
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Good if you relate to the subject by Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA)  4 Stars
November 17, 2009
This book was sent to me for review. I rated it four stars because the writing is good and the author is honest. Apparently there's a sub-genre of memoir relating to weight issues and that's where this book fits. If you relate to the topic, you'll like this book.
A major part of the book is devoted to Stephanie's first summer at "fat camp." This camp seemed fairly benign, as camps go. She made friends and even developed a love interest, which was actually reciprocated. She had some moments of humiliation. But mostly, the story seemed like just another camp story, with counselors, chores and color war. I was impressed that Stephanie liked the structure and responded to the reward system. I was also impressed with her ability to swim and to have fun in that environment. Unfortunately, I got bogged down in the details of camp minutiae and started skipping pages.
What fascinated me was the contrast between the crazy people trying to help Stephanie deal with her weight problem and her own serene, sensible parents. Her parents didn't overreact when Stephanie reported just one episode of what could be bulimia. They seemed sensible, although their efforts to help Stephanie seemed somewhat misguided.
Contrasting with Stephanie and her parents were the "experts." The therapist she calls "Fran" dispensed advice and concern, but also seemed a little strange. The camp featured a resident psychiatrist who clearly was out of touch. I kept wishing someone would just get Stephanie involved in some activities where she would excel so she could go beyond herself. She was a really good swimmer, which means she could excel there or even branch out to other sports. I also wondered why her parents (who seemed quite comfortably off) didn't consider a private school where Stephanie could bolster her self-esteem, instead of spending all that money on "fat camp" and weight loss programs.
When Stephanie herself becomes a counselor at the same fat camp she attended, she says she wishes she could give the campers a message of self-acceptance, although she doesn't use those words. She seems to have found an amazing husband who refuses to answer the killer question, "Do I look fat?" Instead he loves Stephanie, not her weight.
When Stephanie can love herself the same way, she'll have achieved victory.
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The tyranny of self-image by Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA)  5 Stars
November 14, 2009
"A tall senior named Otis tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, he megaphoned, `Mooooooooose,' in a voice so deep and loud that the clump of students around us parted ... His friends laughed and boomed it along with him. They continued to repeat it, even after I'd slammed my locker closed and ripped down the halls. I heard the low even tone, Moooooose, now accompanied by a rhythmic stomping of feet, even after I turned down a new corridor. A deep foreign sound came from my mouth, almost the sob of a man. I pressed my hands to my mouth and tried to contain it. I coughed and breathed through my nose, pushing harder against my mouth as the tears slipped out. I didn't know where to go." - Author Stephanie Klein in MOOSE
"I became convinced that if there were less of me, there'd somehow be more to love ... If I took care of my appearance, looking just so, if I lost weight and became the envy of others, Poppa would love me more. I thought this for a very long time. And I felt it with every boy I've ever dated, certain each suitor would want me more, want me longer, want me back if I lost a few pounds ... My father said I could be prettier and happier. I wanted so much to be someone other than me, to give him an angelic, beautiful, trim daughter, instead of what I was: Moose." - Author Stephanie Klein in MOOSE
Unlike memoirs of a happy childhood, e.g. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, or Our Hearts Were Young And Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s by Cornelia Otis Skinner, MOOSE by Stephanie Klein is the mostly sad and painful story of an adolescent girl coping with obesity. Now, as an adult, the author is able to inject into the narrative some elements of self-deprecatory humor, which keeps the story from being totally depressing. The bulk of the text ostensibly deals with her experiences at a summer-long "fat camp" attended between her eighth and ninth grades, though she states up front that the events she chronicles were condensed from five such camps she attended both as a camper and a counselor.
A final section of five chapters chronicles her adult life dealing with weight fluctuations. Inasmuch as they affected her love relationships, the story at this point potentially becomes much more insightful to the mature reader. ("I spent my whole single life trying to be thin just to find someone who'd love me once I got fat.") Indeed, the up and down cycles of relationships in the context of particular foods and the circumstances under which they were eaten are brilliantly told.
"I'd drink too much, and we'd argue over plans and friends and parents. He'd fall asleep angry. I'd eat quiet foods straight from the fridge. Custard. Whipped potatoes. Lemon curd. In the morning there'd be soft-boiled eggs, strips of fried bacon, and apologies."
I believe that most, if not all, adolescents and teenagers, even the "popular" ones, are tormented by flawed self-images: too fat, too short, too many zits, too undeveloped or over-developed breasts, too large a nose, crooked teeth and braces, glasses, whatever. In my own fourth grade, there was an obese girl who, if that wasn't enough to invite mockery, had an in-class episode of fecal incontinence. One who was not there can only imagine the reaction of her classmates. She left soon thereafter and we never saw her again. MOOSE reminds us of the unbridled cruelty of children, not unique among youth but rather because children are not yet adults who've learned that such meanness invites social repercussions back onto themselves. For the grown-up to get ahead in social milleux, one's innate human capacity for viciousness needs to be curtailed; but it always remains under the surface.
MOOSE is a must-read coming of age story in the midst of which the reader is likely to forget that, in some of the world's societies, it's the Rubenesque female that sets the standard for physical beauty.
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Klein channels that little voice in many women's heads by Erin K. Simons (Central Indiana) 4 Stars
October 15, 2009
Less than a page into "Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp," I knew I had discovered a new favorite writer "voice." Author Stephanie Klein is hysterical - she writes with a self-depricating, slightly baudy humor that really reeled me in. The story -- a composite of Klein's own teen experiences at five years worth of fat camps -- may not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. I wasn't an overweight kid, but I was a camper, and Klein's recounting of "chunky dunking", sneaking out after lights out to visit the boys camp, prank raids and other summer camp milestones are pretty universal.
However, readers should know that there are some meaty issues tackled here, too. Klein dabbles in bulemia to control her weight, and is taught by another teen exactly how to make herself throw up. (I found that part especially cringe-worthy.) She encounters a lot of cruelty from her peers and even from her parents. And as a grown-up, now-thin pregnant mom, Klein still struggles with her weight -- although now, she struggles to allow herself to gain the weight she needs to for her babies without guilt about getting fat.
Many of us have weight issues -- whether they're in our heads, or on our bodies. I think "Moose" is a great read, but it's not exactly a triumphant story of a fat girl that got thin and lived Happily Ever After. Of course, if you're looking for a story like that, there's lots of great chick lit out there that should fit the bill
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Well written, brutally honest by BookLover from PA (East Coast) 5 Stars
September 29, 2009
This was a well written and interesting memoir by an established author.
More than anything, I was impressed by Klein's candor. I know few people who would be so open about not only their eating/weight disorder, budding sexuality (including masturbation) but also their family dysfunction involving ugly episodes with family members still very much alive.
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A little hard to get though by C. Watkinson (Studio City)  3 Stars
August 21, 2009
I'm a pretty easy audience, but I found this book hard to get through. I found myself guiltily skimming through lengthy passages.
I also thought the book jumped around too much. She will be telling you an engaging story when bam! she's off on a tangent, telling you about how this moment reminds her of another time or person in her life. I kept thinking, "Wait a minute! I want to hear more about that first story. Where are you going?"
I also found her hard to like. I think she should be given credit for being blunt and honest, but sometimes that honesty led me to not root for her in the way I think she wanted me to.
Like a lot of the other readers, I think she could have cut the book down to just fat camp. She does a good job of taking you into that world, but then pushes you out. For the rest of the book you find yourself floating around, reading bits and pieces of her life until present.
I think that this book might have a stronger impact for someone who was a heavy kid or an outcast in general. I think she does a great job of describing that type of isolation and self-hatred, and for that, I give the book a solid 3 stars.
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