Good in Bed
by Jennifer Weiner Atria Books I picked up Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner from Netgalley because it is been recommended to me as a modern classic. It was originally published in 2001. I was 39 years old in 2001. I wish it would have crossed my radar then instead of discovering it at age 54. While only 5' 2 1/2", I am considered a larger woman, a plus size woman, rubenesque, or according to health standards obese. That is how I had thought of myself and like Cannie, the main character in Good in Bed, that was the first and sometimes only attribute I saw in myself: fat. Cannie, the heroine of Good in Bed, learns that her weight is not who she is or what she is. She learns through hard experiences and the love of her family and her friends. There is a huge wall she has to break down to believe in herself. The wall was built by her son of a bitch father who told her at age 12 she was fat and no one would ever love her. In the novel, as in life, karma does not always show up when it should so we do not get to see Cannie's father suffer as he made her suffer or ever acknowledge that he has caused any pain to her or her siblings. If karma was a character, the man would have lost everything he held dear, twice. Cannie is single and dealing with an ex-boyfriend who wrote an article about loving the larger woman. It humiliates Cannie because although she is not named in the article, only referred to by her first initial, everyone who knows her or the ex know the article is about her. She reminds me a lot of me at that age, late twenties. Although I was already married by then, I still had no confidence in how I looked. My self worth was very much tied to how I perceived others saw me. The book is excellent. The characters are fully formed, not two dimensional, even the side characters. The dialogue flows like a normal conversation. Cannie does not need a man or a diet to rescue her and make her complete. I wish I had discovered this book when I was younger. It really opened my eyes about how I still see myself.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
August 2023
|