Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp
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By: Stephanie Klein
Format: Hardcover
From: William Morrow
Pub. Date: April 2008
From: William Morrow
Pub. Date: April 2008
Product Details:
Catalog: Book
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 320
Ean: 9780060843298
Isbn: 0060843292
Catalog: Book
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 320
Ean: 9780060843298
Isbn: 0060843292
ABOUT THE BOOK
EDITORIAL 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."
USER REVIEWS
"This book is the true story about Stephanie and how she battles losing weight at "Fat Camp." I think teenage girls would enjoy this most. I found it somewhat interesting, but it did not really hold my attention in the second half of the book. Not all that bad but nothing great either."
~ Written on 2008-08-29
~ Written on 2008-08-29
"I wanted to love this book. I heard the author on NPR and she sounded interesting. It was also recommended in Women's Health magazine. After reading it, however, I was extremely disapointed.
The story of the fat camp experience was mostly good, but I have to say I was HORRIFIED when the author detailed exactly how she made herself throw up after eating too much. She seemed to recognize bulemia was a bad thing, but then gave detailed instructions on how to do it. Does she not realize that young people will read her book? So MAYBE I could look past that (probably not, but maybe) and then I got to the end of the book and it really didn't seem like the author had actually learned anything from her experiences as an overweight child. I was waiting for the epiphany, the bit about how she got over it and managed to live a healthy life, but it wasn't there. She talked about extermely unhealthy eating habits she still had as an adult, is still blaming her father for insensitive comments he made to her when she was a child, blaming her mother for not showing enough affection and had to be forced to eat more food when pregnant with twins.
Mostly, when I finished the book, I was just thinking that this person was someone I never wanted to know and that I hoped no one else would read the book and be influenced by her dysfunction. I hope her kids turn out okay if she can ever get over giving them butter on their bread, I hope she has a good pediatrician that explains to her that children need fat in their diets to develop properly, but mostly, I hope she doesn't write any more books. I know that I will NOT be letting my teenaged nieces or my daughter ever read this book."
~ Written on 2008-08-24
The story of the fat camp experience was mostly good, but I have to say I was HORRIFIED when the author detailed exactly how she made herself throw up after eating too much. She seemed to recognize bulemia was a bad thing, but then gave detailed instructions on how to do it. Does she not realize that young people will read her book? So MAYBE I could look past that (probably not, but maybe) and then I got to the end of the book and it really didn't seem like the author had actually learned anything from her experiences as an overweight child. I was waiting for the epiphany, the bit about how she got over it and managed to live a healthy life, but it wasn't there. She talked about extermely unhealthy eating habits she still had as an adult, is still blaming her father for insensitive comments he made to her when she was a child, blaming her mother for not showing enough affection and had to be forced to eat more food when pregnant with twins.
Mostly, when I finished the book, I was just thinking that this person was someone I never wanted to know and that I hoped no one else would read the book and be influenced by her dysfunction. I hope her kids turn out okay if she can ever get over giving them butter on their bread, I hope she has a good pediatrician that explains to her that children need fat in their diets to develop properly, but mostly, I hope she doesn't write any more books. I know that I will NOT be letting my teenaged nieces or my daughter ever read this book."
~ Written on 2008-08-24
"I wanted to love this book. I heard the author on NPR and she sounded interesting. It was also recommended in Women's Health magazine. After reading it, however, I was extremely disapointed.
The story of the fat camp experience was mostly good, but I have to say I was HORRIFIED when the author detailed exactly how she made herself throw up after eating too much. She seemed to recognize bulemia was a bad thing, but then gave detailed instructions on how to do it. Does she not realize that young people will read her book? So MAYBE I could look past that (probably not, but maybe) and then I got to the end of the book and it really didn't seem like the author had actually learned anything from her experiences as an overweight child. I was waiting for the epiphany, the bit about how she got over it and managed to live a healthy life, but it wasn't there. She talked about extermely unhealthy eating habits she still had as an adult, is still blaming her father for insensitive comments he made to her when she was a child, blaming her mother for not showing enough affection and had to be forced to eat more food when pregnant with twins.
Mostly, when I finished the book, I was just thinking that this person was someone I never wanted to know and that I hoped no one else would read the book and be influenced by her dysfunction. I hope her kids turn out okay if she can ever get over giving them butter on their bread, I hope she has a good pediatrician that explains to her that children need fat in their diets to develop properly, but mostly, I hope she doesn't write any more books. I know that I will NOT be letting my teenaged nieces or my daughter ever read this book."
~ Written on 2008-08-24
The story of the fat camp experience was mostly good, but I have to say I was HORRIFIED when the author detailed exactly how she made herself throw up after eating too much. She seemed to recognize bulemia was a bad thing, but then gave detailed instructions on how to do it. Does she not realize that young people will read her book? So MAYBE I could look past that (probably not, but maybe) and then I got to the end of the book and it really didn't seem like the author had actually learned anything from her experiences as an overweight child. I was waiting for the epiphany, the bit about how she got over it and managed to live a healthy life, but it wasn't there. She talked about extermely unhealthy eating habits she still had as an adult, is still blaming her father for insensitive comments he made to her when she was a child, blaming her mother for not showing enough affection and had to be forced to eat more food when pregnant with twins.
Mostly, when I finished the book, I was just thinking that this person was someone I never wanted to know and that I hoped no one else would read the book and be influenced by her dysfunction. I hope her kids turn out okay if she can ever get over giving them butter on their bread, I hope she has a good pediatrician that explains to her that children need fat in their diets to develop properly, but mostly, I hope she doesn't write any more books. I know that I will NOT be letting my teenaged nieces or my daughter ever read this book."
~ Written on 2008-08-24
"I read Stephanie's first book and loved it. Her writing style is/was exactly what I look for in a book, especially a memoir. I was waiting for this book to hit the shelves because I was very much looking forward to not wanting to stop reading. My husband bought this for me at Borders, hard cover, and that night I dove in. He mentioned it was in the nutrition section, which kind of caught me off guard. Regardless, I dove into it that night, and was surprised to find myself wanting to put the book down after the first 10 pages. Perhaps the subject isn't for me. After all, I wasn't an overweight kid. I guess I couldn't relate. And it wasn't just that -- I coudn't relate to how she wrote it. It was way too long -- and I know this because I made myself finish it (expensive hard cover that it was).
"
~ Written on 2008-07-28
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~ Written on 2008-07-28
"The book definitely shed some light on what overweight children go through. I think Ms. Klein is admirable for not being afraid to expose every detail regarding what she went through at this time in her life."
~ Written on 2008-07-22
~ Written on 2008-07-22