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A review by kassiereadsbooks
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry
funny
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, and Eating disorder
Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
I didn’t know anything about Rabia Chaudry going into this book (I didn’t listen to Serial and I hadn’t heard of Adnan’s case). I left this book thinking she’s not only extremely funny but also brilliant at what she does, however I feel like I have to leave this review because it’s what I needed before I picked this book up.
Chaudry dedicates this book to “all those who have spent their lives being judged — and judging themselves — for their weight, who have struggled between deprivation and depravity, and who deserve like anyone else to live an abundant life full of great food.”
I feel my issues with this book are summed up with the direct contrast between that dedication and the final sentence in the book: “But I am and will likely remain, by the standards of many, fat. But that’s okay, because I’m not that fat.”
The pros:
I loved Chaudry’s narrative voice and her stories of Pakistan. I listened to this on audio and I really loved my reading experience.
The cons:
I felt this book did not “show us how freeing it is to finally make peace with the body we have” as the inside cover states, but reiterates the stance that the author is finally okay with her “not that fat” body and she has achieved being not that fat through lots and lots of diet and exercise (6 days a week, one “cheat meal”), lots of money spent on personal trainers, as well as two surgeries.
Again, I left this book really loving the narration and wanting to know so much more about Chaudry’s work, however the marketing surrounding the book and the some of its stances invited criticism given the nature of the subject matter.
TW: uses specific weight numbers, ascribes food with morality, descriptions of binge eating, EDs, and the o-word