Rating: 
Summary: Struck Familiar Chords For Me
Review: I read an excerpt of Frances Kuffel's story in "Oprah" and immediately bought the book. Kuffel's wry and witty writing style resulted in a balance between self-pity and selp-realization that I found profoundly touching and devastatingly honest. I found myself laughing with tears in my eyes more than once. Her journey sure struck familiar chords with me. I never had to lose 180 pounds but I did lose 50 lbs. and keep it off with Weight Watchers. I really appreciated this unflinching confrontation with the reality of living with a food addiction. Although some may disagree, on one level it doesn't matter if one is 20 lbs. overweight or 200 lbs. overweight, the daily struggle is the same. I have gained some new understandings of what drives me to eat. Thanks to Frances Kuffel for telling us her story. I'd love to be her friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Are we supposed to be happy for her?
Review: I'm glad she finally found some degree of self-fulfillment, but there are better ways to learn to like yourself than losing 150 pounds. My concern is that this book perpetuates the myth that thin=happiness and fat people are emotionally disturbed in some way. Definitely there are a lot of people who have emotional issues that affect their eating habits, but often the cure is to work on the emotional issues instead of another diet. If your happiness is contingent on your weight, it's likely that you'll never really be satisfied. If this book does anything good, it is in showing that that losing weight will not make your problems go away.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating memoir of self-discovery
Review: Francis Kuffel has written a beautiful, fascinating memoir of self-discovery focusing on her journey through life as a fat girl and then a fat woman, then the transformation into a slender woman.Particularly wrenching are her memories of her childhood spent poaching as much food as possible from the household larder without being disovered and her interactions with an older brother's cruelty. Her observation that one may have fed (no pun intended) the other is keen, especially since she observes that it's unclear which did the feeding. Kuffel's writing is occasionally forced into a false sounding stylization. Other than this minor criticism, the book is easy to recommend to anyone interested in a tale of personal transformation, both physical and emotional.
Rating:
Summary: Self Absorbed but Totally Absorbing
Review: Note to readers: this is not a how-to! Don't expect a lesson in how to lose 170 pounds. What Frances Kuffel does here is document a lifetime of emotions (and emotional damage) that accompany HER weight (and weight loss). I've struggled with my weight since my early teens (although not to the same extreme as she) and there's a lot of truth in this book. The compulsiveness, the anger, the disappointment, her flip responses when she is excluded from things because of her obesity. I think the prose reads fine: maybe what's more unpalatable to some readers is her me-me-meism. But put it in context: she obviously has more going on in her life than a weight problem (meds for depression, family issues - note the very abrupt reference to her oldest brother's death, ongoing health concerns) and she reads as someone who is emotionally immature and still finding her way. One reviewer complains she isn't always kind to other obese people. Unfortunately, that is sometimes a normal side effect of weight loss. Go on any weight loss message board and you will find people just like her. We want to grab and shake anyone we see who has a weight problem and is eating Ding-Dongs, Fritos and a Coke for lunch. Ms. Kuffel could have chosen to tell a very slick, Disneyfied story about losing an incredible amount of weight (anyone who's never dieted has no IDEA what kind of discipline she had to have to pull that off) but she chose to tell the truth, warts and all. There's a sweetness and humanity here as well as a heaping helping of ugliness. I see a lot of what she says as internal dialogue, so I doubt she was as unpleasant a person as some other reviewers have suggested. True, there are some weird moments (her miscarriage/breakup metaphor and brief reference to 9/11) but the flaws in this book only add to the too-human picture of Francie. If you go in without expectations and do some in-between-the-lines reading, there's a lot here, especially for people who have struggled and continue to struggle with their weight. If you've been there, this book makes some sense. If you haven't, it probably won't touch you.
Rating:
Summary: Gratitude for Courage
Review: I just finished reading Passing for Thin and am filled with emotion because I've been there. Having lost 142# in the Rooms myself, I feel Kuffel brilliantly shared from the depths what a lifetime of obesity does to a person. Losing the weight, while the primary focus, is only the beginning of recovery. (We come for vanity and stay for sanity) Her anger showed, her self-loathing showed, her imperfections showed, her vanity showed, and her insensitivity to others was nothing more than her own misdirected insecurity. Those core issues are not resolved on the scale, and recovery is a life-long process. I don't really care if her literary style is polished; I read this diary of feeling, emotion, success, failure, fear, hatred, love and longing for what it was meant to be--a glimpse into her journey. I'm sure she's not proud of all she shared, but she didn't sugarcoat her feelings, and I applaud her for that. My guess is this book will have a rather slim (no pun intended) audience. It takes one to know one and truly appreciate what Kuffel has done, and in this age of quick fixes, pills and magic formulas, surgeries, and "tomorrows," most people don't really want face all the issues this book addresses.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Testimonial --- Poor Writing
Review: I have never been obese; nor did I need to guide my children from it. This is a very detailed testimony of the problems obesity can bring to those who are obese, and that most of us never think of. I would recommend it for parents of children who have fallen into our obese society of "Fat Americans", but I would be appalled if they felt it was good literature...Frances should be proud of her accomplishments, but should hone her skills at writing. Communication is not her forte. I saw her on the Today Show and bought the book because of curiosity on eating disorders in general - I am a recovered anorexic. I hope Frances can enjoy the remainder of her life. Perhaps, in days to come she can lose the weight of anger she continues to take along with her veggies.
Rating: 
Summary: shallow and mean-spirited
Review: I am so sorry I spent my money on this book! While Frances can be commended for her strength to lose the weight, she should have spent all the time and effort changing herself on the inside instead. She repeatedly treats others horribly; she's only interested in people for what they can do for her. The only time she helps someone else is when she feels obligated because she "owes them". The author seems to think that since she had a hard time for so much of her life, she now deserves whatever she wants whether it means walking all over someone else. Does she not understand that everyone's life is hard in some way? That thin people have problems too?
I was disgusted when I read her take on 9/11. She talked about dodging people falling from the World Trade Center the way most people ask to pass the salt. She expressed no sympathy for the victims and their families...she was too busy talking about the Gap and her lunch date. It would have been better for her not to bring up 9/11 at all.
I finally threw this book down and vowed not to read another word of her drivel, when she proceeded to compare being dumped by her first boyfriend to having a miscarriage or the death of an infant. Is this women high? Are you kidding me? I know first loves hurt, but to compare it to the loss of a child is unbelievable. It is one of the coldest, most insensitive things I have ever heard. The only thing that made me feel good about this book was throwing it in the trash.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and thought provoking
Review: I went to get this book after reading a review of it on Salon.com. Unfortunately, I had to ask for help since it was buried in Health & Fitness rather than Biography or Memoir. Once found, however, I discovered Kuffel's account to be both thoughtful and thought provoking. From reading the reviews on this site, I gather that readers were looking for more specific instructions on how to lose weight, but I interpreted Kuffel's message as inspirational rather than instructive--particularly since addiction transcends many categories (food, alcohol, sex, etc). One reader was offended by Kuffel's choice to sponsor somebody she found "pretty" rather than "drab"--but I also saw this differently. I thought she simply chose somebody she felt had potential because she saw some of herself in her. One last thing: Kuffel says she would have been prepared for heartbreak had she experienced it for the first time at 16 rather than 43. However, despite having experienced it in both my teens and twenties, I've found it knocks me on my bum each time!
Rating:
Summary: A reflection of myself, an inspiration.
Review: Yes, this was a fast short read. I too read it in two days. I loved it and I cried through half of it. It was incredibly honest and brave. I plan on keeping it on my shelf forever and rereading it for inspiration. I plan on getting my friends to read it. I know other reviewers have commented on her mean-spiritedness towards other people who have weight issues, but that is a reflection of her own self-hatred and fear. I understand that only too well. I think the language she uses is very specific to her personality and the fact that she is a literary agent. It gives insight to her life and shows how being smart was what she hid behind all her life, her sinecure. I understand that as well. Losing weight is scary. Writing about your life is scary. Change is scary. I applaud her and her book especially because she has put herself out there to the critical masses who play a specific role in food addiction.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling but mean-spirited
Review: I too could not put this book down, and read it in 3 short evenings. What was genuine was the checkered voyage of self-discovery she encountered as she went from 300+ to 150-. Her storytelling was engaging and I truly felt like I was in the bat cave with her at times. What was off-putting in the novel was her unabashed meanness towards herself, her family and others. When her dates would compliment her and say she was nice, I, as a reader, didn't agree. One would have hoped having walked in "fatty" shoes herself, that she would be more sympathetic towards others struggling to accomplish what she had. Instead, I found her judgements of those starting their journey appalling. Frances may be beautiful and thin on the outside, but there's something still quite ugly on the inside. I give her credit for being brutally honest about her feelings, but I hope in retrospect, it helped her heal and find compassion for others.
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