Moose: A Memoir

I had read Straight Up And Dirty by Author Stephanie Klein and anxiously awaited her sophomore outing. This book did not disappoint. Ms. Klein navigates the storylines of pregnancy, motherhood and adolescence impeccably. At times I cried with her. Other times I was angry at her. In the end I learned more about myself from reading this memoir than just hearing about an experience at a camp for fat kids. I recommend this book.

Stephanie Klein is me, but she's also every other fat kid who ever walked the planet. In "Moose: a Memoir of Fat Camp," Klein so adeptly paints the myriad emotions the overweight adolescent experiences that I found myself not only shaking my head in agreement but also revisiting feelings I thought I'd long left behind when I finally shed the excess pounds. Whether you ultimately beat the battle of the bulge like Klein and me or you still struggle with your weight, you'll recognize yourself in page after page of "Moose." And even if you were never fat, you just might find yourself there as well, as the "have-to-have" best friend, the "want but can't have" object of affection, or the fat kid torturer. In fact, I dare you NOT to see yourself somewhere in this passage (pages 174-175): "The pain of being an overweight kid, the humiliation, makes you think twice before ever cutting anyone else down. There's something almost perfect in the ugly duckling syndrome. Something just. Something that just makes it mildly worth it. Because a sensitivity is tattooed on a part of you no one else can see but they can somehow guess is there. It's always with you. A scar maybe, some hurt that really does make you better. And you feel a sense of superiority, not for winning some supposed battle against all your bulges, but because you'll never be insensitive, or cruel. You know what it is to experience the pain of being chastised and therefore feel superior, morally composed, with an enduring, hearty even, robust sense of character. You think that because you've overcome, you'll always rise to defend the underdog. You've already lived through rejection and loneliness. At the age of thirteen you've felt it profoundly and won't ever be malicious and will always remember that you somehow made it out okay." Poignant, so realistically so that at times it's painful to read, "Moose" is keenly insightful and utterly relatable.

I purchased MOOSE after reading Stephanie Klein's incredibly popular [...]. This book did not disappoint. I found myself confronting the same adolescent fears and emotions she describes so eloquently. I wasn't the fat kid but instead the tall kid. This book shows that no matter what it is, as an adolescent you will get picked on and it's up to you how that affects your adult life. Not preachy or cliche. This book is a true story of introspection, camp fun and life. Pick it up now!

Moose, A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein was truly a remarkable book. I was so impressed by the author's honesty in telling about her experiences of being an overweight preteen and teen. Her descriptions of the embarrassment and anger felt by the rejection and names she was called was convincing. I could identify with so much of what was written, the poor body image, the pain of not being accepted just for who you are. I believe that most women have a poor body image; we obsess about those areas that aren't "perfect" and fail to recognize what is good about our bodies. It's good to read that these feelings are shared by others. The only fault I felt with the book was the jumping around from the past to the present and not making it entirely clear what time we were reading about. But with a little extra concentration I would easily work out what the author was talking about. I feel this is an important book for anyone with weight issues. Her discussion of various eating disorders was extremely interesting. I think teenagers especially should read this book to find they are not alone in their feelings.

If you grew up as the "chubby" or "fat" kid on the block, you'll understand and relate immediately to Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein. I could definitely relate... Contents: Part 1: Baby Fat Part 2: Weigh of Life; Sabotaje; Sloppy Seconds; Bay of Pigs; Your Worth In Weight; Blame It On the Rain; Shrinkwrapped; Mamma Mia; When Even "Misfit" Misfits; American Pie; Hurts So Good; Are You There, God? It's Me, Pound Cake; Caught; Inside Out; Tall Takes and Heroes Part 3: Moose; To Fat and Back; The Hate Diet; Father Figurative; The Mother Load This is an actual "memoir" of the author and the five years she spent at various fat camps. She was overweight as a child, and struggled (like we all do) with acceptance and self-worth issues. Her parents sent her to the camps to learn better eating habits and to get more exercise. The style is somewhat unique, in that she blends all the camps, friends, counselors, and enemies into a single fictional camp over one summer. As she states up front, names and some details have been combined and modified to protect the innocent, but everything in the book actually did happen. Things like falling in and out of love numerous times, sneaking out of camp with friends to have a food binge, and learning how to make oneself vomit in order to get rid of the food gorging that just took place. Throughout the book, you get a peek into the mind of an overweight child who desperately wants to be accepted for who she is, but is constantly judged by how much weight she carries. Her obsession with weight continues on to this day, manifesting in issues such as not wanting to gain any weight while pregnant for fear she'll once again be fat. Part 3 of the book does get more into her adult attitudes and issues, but you realize they're still tied back to that overweight child being shipped off to fat camp. No matter how thin she gets, in her mind she's destined to always be "fat". Having been that fat kid myself, I could identify and relate to many of her experiences. Unlike her, I'm still fighting my weight problem on the upper end of the scale. But that self-image of the short fat kid is always there, and will probably never go away. Moose is well-written and worth reading. If you've never grown up with weight issues, you'll begin to understand what those of us who did went through. And if you *were* the fat kid, this may be a way for you to step back and realize that those times are gone and you've grown up.