Making It Big
Sharon is a little bigger than most women and so is very insecure about her weight next to her thin friend and work colleagues. She believes that the guy she has affections for is actually drawn to her friend rather than her and begins to give up on ever finding love. That is until she goes to a very unusual clinic that changes her perceptions of herself and of the rest of the world. A world where everyone is larger than life and skinny is the old fat.
I loved this book, for I had never read anything like it before. I loved the twist on a commonality that we have all come to accept, that skinny is the only way to look to be successful and attractive. This book turns all that on its head and convinces us that it is best to be big.
The character of Sharon is one that I am sure many woman can relate to which is the main attraction to reading this book. She reacts to things in a way that would be expected of someone who has felt down on herself for a long time. It shows both sides of the spectrum and how both skinny and fat can have its ups and downs. I did like the unpredictability of this book in its use of magical realism with the body changing clinic at the beginning. It was wildly outrageous however maintained the story as one that was believable following this. It plays to our fantasy that if we could magically make ourselves different, the likelihood is that we would.
Russell has carefully selected all of the common attributes and associations of a model and turned them on thier head, so as we read we can identify the gruelling lifestyle that models lead and how every minute detail is obsessed over and scrutinised.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves reading about love, work, fashion and body image. I finished this book feeling a lot better about myself and comforted by the fact that someone has taken the time out to write about ‘real’ women.