REVIEW for Food, Girls, and Ohter Things I Can't Have

A big thank you goes out to author Allen Zadoff for sending me a copy of his book.







TITLE: Food, girls and Other Things I can't

Have


AUTHOR: Allen Zadoff



GENRE: YA



RATING: 4 Stars







I love the into, on Amazon.com, describing the author about being a former fat guy who use to eat too much and now writes alot and does not eat as much. I was not aware that Allen Zadoff had actually written the book Hungry - depicting his experiences in the world of fat.

Well, this YA book tackles this very subject (among others) from the point of view of a young guy in school (maybe a tad biographical here??). I have to say that as a former fat girl (who does not write as much as she should and still, on occasion, struggles with not eating too much) I have never really thought much about the point of view of a guy when it comes to his fat and his body image. Somehow, this feels too much like a female problem - although I know that this is not true.



Well, author Zadoff introduces us to a his main character Andrew - a young man who is stuck in high school and more importantly, stuck in a fat body that he does not want to be in.

What follows is a sarcastic, sad, touching and funny look at the life of a YA, who is trying to figure out his place in the almighthy world of high school, especially when it comes to "fitting in" - being like the others - hoping, against hope that maybe he can just squeeze in and fit it - despite his "handicap".

I was amazed at some of these observations and thoughts, and I thought that the author did a wonderful job of showing us just how difficult and crual people can be, especially in high school (oh boy!) when you are not "one of the guys" - yet, our main character never seems to loose his perspective on life - despite some difficult experiences that would have brought adults to their knees.

Written with a wry wit, I loved this story.