My Nose, Trapped in Her Books
I made a new best friend this month. I've never met her and she doesn't know I have a girlie crush on her and want to spend my every waking moment with her, but I'm not letting that bother me. Surely if Jennifer Weiner just had a chance to meet me, she'd realize that we are soul sisters. We're kindred "larger ladies" and new mothers, destined to share the secrets of motherhood, plus-sized clothing and post-partum sex over a slice of cheesecake.
It all started innocently enough. I watched In Her Shoes, an atypical Hollywood movie about two sisters and instantly loved it. I know the cold, hard truth is that most movies are mere shadows of the books they are based on, so I filed away the title and promised myself that I would buy the book at some point in the future. I wasn't in a rush, but I did want to find out if the character of Rose Feller was really fat, or if someone was playing an incredibly cruel joke on Toni Collette. In the movie she was portrayed as overweight, as evidenced by the bulky sweaters that covered what surely must be jutting collar bones. Hollywood can't stand the thought of a real overweight woman, so I was willing to let this annoyance go if the book showed me that the author had a clue about life as a plus-sized woman.
I was not disappointed. Though I have little time to read, I ripped through In Her Shoes in a matter of hours. The characters were real: flawed, lovable, insecure. The plot was real: dysfunctional families, sex, work. I finished the book with a sigh of satisfaction and the determination to read everything Jennifer Weiner has ever written.
Weiner has only four books to her credit, Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, Little Earthquakes and Goodnight Nobody so I thought immersing myself in her works would be easy. I was right, in part. I found Good in Bed and Little Earthquakes at two different local bookstores and whipped right through them. Unfortunately, I could not find a copy of Goodnight Nobody anywhere. I could have taken the modern high road and ordered it online, but I wanted instant gratification. I finally found it at my local grocery store, of all places, but not in time to comment on it in this article.
Good in Bed was Weiner's first published novel and the one many of my friends call their favorite. Cannie is a size 16 woman who must deal with the public humiliation of being the topic of her ex-boyfriend's big-name-magazine column, "Good in Bed." Not only does he rat her out for weighing more than he does, he tries to make himself out to be a saint for loving her and her curves. Ugh. I think all women, no matter their size, will want to hit Bruce with a very large hammer. In the skull. Hard.
As the story unfolds, Cannie is hit with challenge after unenviable challenge. She meets them all with a wicked sense of humor that makes me long for the wit and courage to likewise slay my enemies with a well-timed verbal barb. As Cannie works her way through a breakup, the consequences of sympathy sex, and intense family drama, she finds that friends can come from the most unexpected places. Her relationships with the people in her life make it possible for her to triumph in the face of both small and large tragedies. As a reader, I felt like I knew Cannie and was holding my breath, hoping things would turn out for the best.
My personal favorite Weiner book, Little Earthquakes, follows the lives of four new mothers. Weiner doesn't hold back when portraying the demands a new baby places on a mother. Marriages are strained. In-laws are overbearing. Hearts break when the new baby is injured or ill. Work suffers and sleep is lost. I've read more than my fair share of non-fiction parenting books, but none of them come anywhere near explaining what parenthood is really like. Weiner manages to capture the exhaustion and exhilaration of those first few months in this work of fiction. Four different women with four different sets of problems, four different parenting styles and four different belief systems come together to support each other through the ups and downs of babyhood. I want to join their group.
All of Weiner's books are brimming with intelligent humor and peopled with complex characters. Even the "bad guys" are eventually shown to be human and sympathetic. Weiner has the one talent that most authors long for--she is able to make a work of fiction shimmer with truth. If you haven't already discovered her genius, you need to turn off your computer and run to the book store to pick up a copy of one of her novels right now. You won't be sorry.