Stack of Spines

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I picked up Moose because I am fascinated by the idea of fat camp. The food rules, the exercise, the fat hierarchy – it all makes me want to quit my day job and go on an anthropological fieldwork adventure. Moose was entertaining, but was not exactly the foray into another world like I’d hoped it would be. Klein is crude at times but it’s typical (and hilarious) teenage boorishness that you recall so well but would never dream of mentioning twenty years this side of puberty. She has the guts to write and put into the universe what so many of us thought but never expressed.

Moose, from a storytelling standpoint, is excellent but I desired more connection between the self-titled fat camp champ and her progress as an overweight child.  Some excerpts are seemingly random, but they work with Klein’s style and didn’t take away from the overall flow of the book.  There were moments I was instantly taken back to childhood bonfires and moments when you discovered your friends weren’t really who you thought they were.

I had no idea she was first a blogger until I read the back jacket and I was impressed; it seems (to me anyway) some writers do better with one medium over the other and I was delighted that Moose did not have a voice fit for an internet audience or series-of-posts type feel to it.

The ending really let me down as I was hoping for more explanation of her transition from overweight childhood Stephanie (AKA Moose, where the title comes from) to normal weight adult Stephanie the writer and mother. I felt unnecessarily teased by the prologue that included many present day details.  The theme was explicitly outlined in a few neat and tidy paragraphs, which was helpful for me; at that point in the book I had lost track of where exactly the whole thing was going.  Though it was helpful, I think it detracted from the overall presentation.  I do wish there were more insights along the way regarding young Stephanie’s need to lose weight out of revenge versus losing weight for herself and her future family.  But perhaps I am being a bit harsh here; Moose was a good novel to escape with and I had quite a few laugh out loud moments.  I will make time to read her first book, Straight Up and Dirty.