Of course, I'm always visible, I always enact with the world via my physical body, but during pregnancy I seemed to become a kind of community property about which strangers were invited to comment. I think this was the main thing I disliked about being pregnant, this sense that I was more noticeable than I am usually. Manifest to myself in the ethereal privacy of my head, I grow alarmed when presented with evidence of my public body."I don't know how commonplace this is, but I certainly relate to it.
When I walk down the street, my experience is of looking. I do not, under normal circumstances, feel seen. One of these moments comes in chapter ten or Part I (p 138 in the hardcover I read):"This sounds idiotic, but every time I encounter a picture of myself I am shocked to have been seen. I was sometimes incredulous about the way it progressed, which I suppose makes sense given the ending, but there were still bits that struck me as true (in the sense of emotional truth, not factual accuracy).
Read moreĪside from an ending that feels a little like a cheat, I enjoyed reading this novel. BIG BROtHER tackles a constellation of issues surrounding obesity: why we overeat, whether extreme diets ever work in the long run, and how we treat overweight people. Putting her marriage and two adoptive children on the line, Pandora chooses her brother - who, without her support in losing weight, will surely eat himself into an early grave. After the big blowhard of a brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: it's him or me. What happened? Worse, Edison's slovenly habits, appalling diet, and know-it-all monologues drive her health-and-fitness freak husband Fletcher insane. In the four years since the grown siblings last saw one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesn't recognize him. The new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, this is the compelling and confronting story of a sister who risks her marriage to save her morbidly obese brother.
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