Rating: 
Summary: Simply Brilliant !
Review: Frances Kuffel begins her book, "Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding My Self" with descriptions of food she has known and love. She describes her absolute passion for food. The heel of a leftover roast, cracker crumbs, cocktail fruit. She licks and slurps her way through the first few chapters in the book.So its stunning to find that she is able conquer her addiction and lose half of her body weight. Frances joins a 12 step program and commits. This book reveals her journey to weight loss. How she thinks, what she feels in graphic detail. How she wears shorts under her dress because her thighs rub together. How her loose skin can be pulled up and shifted around. The book is not a weight loss book. It gives only a brief glimpse of her weight loss program (3 meals a day no snacks, no sugar, no flour). Yet at the same time its very inspiring.
Though I have just a few pounds to lose, as I read the book I realized that if someone had to live by such strict rules to lose weight I sure couldn't complain about giving up desert now and then. The book is beautifully written. Frances is a gifted author. It totally captures her feelings and the way she struggles with her weight. One of the best books I have read in years!
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I had hoped
Review: I thought I was going to like both this memoir and its author, but I came away feeling ambivalent about both. (I read about Frances Kuffel in a magazine, and got the impression that her book would be well worth reading, but I did not find that to be the case.)
What put me off the most about Passing for Thin was that, despite having once been fat herself, Kuffel seems devoid of empathy for those who are still fat. She refers to a woman in her OA program as a "fatty" and to her lover's obese son as "Dudley Dursley". (Harry Potter's cousin.) This might be an apt comparison in that Dudley Dursley is indeed obese, but he is also mean, petty and spoiled rotten, so it seems more than a little unkind of Kuffel to mention this particular fictional character when writing about her lover's son.
Having lost half her weight, Kuffel now seems as contemptuous of the obese as the people who used to give her "appalled second glances" when she herself was obese.
I was also put off by Kuffel's relentless narcissism. It's very peculiar that she would choose Janeane Garofalo as a role model, because as far as I can tell, these women have very little in common. Garofalo has been quoted as saying (about a time in her life when she lost a lot of weight in the hope that it would help her land more parts) she hates the vanity that goes with being thin. Kuffel, on the other hand, seems to embrace this kind of vanity, going on and on about various aspects of her appearance. (I watch What Not to Wear and buy fashion magazines from time to time, so the fact that even I was bored by the endless descriptions of Kuffel's various outfits is saying a lot.) It also doesn't seem to occur to Kuffel that, having been supported and encouraged by various OA members for quite some time, she ought to start thinking about supporting other members in return. It is only after her sponsor gently suggests that she should "pay attention to something besides what you look like" and recommends that she volunteers to sponsor someone, that she even considers doing so. And the woman Kuffel ends up sponsoring is chosen because she is "prettier" than all the other OA members in need of a sponsor. Where is it written that if you are the proud owner of a pretty face, you are by definition a fascinating creature and deserving of all the help you can get, whereas if you look like what Kuffel calls a "Drab", then you must surely be drab on the inside as well and not really worth helping? (Or at least, you can't expect someone who is "pretty" to help you.)
I am also mystified as to why the book description compares Passing for Thin to Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face. I read Autobiography of a Face several years ago, and it was, as I recall, a far better memoir than Passing for Thin. For starters, Grealy is nowhere near as self-absorbed as Kuffel, and her writing also flows better. Kuffel's writing style is not as consistent. Sometimes it is ornate to the point of becoming stilted, while other parts of her book read more like the kind of simplistic article you might find in a magazine like Cosmopolitan than like a memoir. (One example is the Planet of Fat/Planet of Girls metaphor, which becomes more tiresome with each passing chapter.) I really don't like book descriptions that try to attract potential readers by comparing the book in question to an already published and greatly acclaimed book. (It's like those annoying movie ads that say: "If you liked that movie, you'll love this movie!" By allowing whoever wrote the book description to compare Passing for Thin to Autobiography of a Face, Kuffel is in effect saying: "Hey, MY book is that great, too!")
While I found Passing for Thin disappointing, I do admire Frances Kuffel for managing to lose weight without the aid of gastric bypass surgery, and despite having been obese for most of her life, and I find it touching and heartening that she was brave enough to put herself out there in terms of dating and romance, despite her insecurity and lack of experience.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written and poignant
Review: Kuffel is above all a writer, and many times during my reading of this book I stopped and paused over an unusual or perfect turn of phrase, at least as often as I was stopped with discomfiting recognition of her descriptions of life as a fat person. This is not an easy book, or an inspirational rah-rah about How I Lost My Weight, and You Can, Too! It's not a diet book, but the author's alienation and ambivalence will resonate with many people who are or have been obese in a world of normal-sized people. It's not so much the story of how she lost the weight, but of her emotional journey from "Planet Fat", where she could watch life but was not allowed to participate, to "Planet Girl," where she arrived at the ripe age of forty-something, with no inoculations and unable to speak the language. This is a funny book sometimes, and often a sad one, but it ends on a note of ambiguous hope. I liked this author's voice, and hope to hear more of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Inspirational
Review: I enjoyed this book. As I continue on my weight loss journey, I read and re-read the book when I plateau. I appreciated Frances Kuffel's honesty about how obesity had left its marks on her body and that even with the weight loss she will never be body-beautiful. Especially moving was her honesty about how losing weight didn't solve all her problems as so many of we heavyweights believe deep down.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Although I congratulate Ms. Kuffel on her success in leaving the Planet of Fat, I was turned off by the tones of self-pity and self-loathing that permeate this book. Ms. Kuffel spends a great deal of time judging herself - and others - according to body weight and other superficial attributes. Her descriptions of "the Stepfords" (women who followed the same eating plan Ms. Kuffel used), different "types" of fat women, and "laws about men" are simplistic and somewhat mean-spirited. I wish that the author had deepened her analysis more and questioned the premises that seem to have informed her desire to lose weight and her response to accomplishing that goal.
Rating: 
Summary: Left me hungry for more...
Review: I love stories about facing your dreams, living with your demons, and finding your true self. I wanted Frances to "win", to accept herself, to let go of her pain. I kept reading late into the night to get to the "happily ever after" part -- but alas, this was a memoir, not fiction. Her courage and commitment are real. Some of the writing, however, was awkward: "My first date was an old work buddy Chris's fault" for exampple, could have easily been changed to "My first date was the fault of my old work buddy, Chris." Also, she jumps around quite a bit chronologically. I would have preferred a more straight-forward account of things. Most frustrating was the lack of information about the author's struggle (or lack of? we never find out) with actually sticking to her food plan. What challenges did she face right off the bat? How could she have gone overnight from food obsessed to measuring and weighing every mouthful? And for over 500 days straight? Aside from that, the author did let us in on extremely person details, especially in the dating arena. If you're looking for the specific "how-tos" in getting a handle on your eating and emotions, this book is not it. However, if you like inspiring memoirs, you'll be satisfied with Passing for Thin.
Rating:
Summary: I identify
Review: Frances Kuffel might be telling my story in a lot of ways. It is refershing to read an account of self discovery that is so real and visceral. No sugar coated, saccarine sweet platitudes here. Those of us who go to the "Rooms" for recovery from compulsive overeating know the joys and terrors of figuring out who we really are and how to be, at long last, functioning adults. Ms Kuffel tells it like it is in an interesting and entertaining fashion. She also has a gift for the descriptive that made me recall clearly shopping in the Missoula Mercantile with my grandmother when I was a kid!! I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Leaving Planet Fat
Review: I read Frances Kuffel's "Passing for Thin" with mixed emotions. As a person who has (and continues to) struggle with weight, body issues and weight loss, I could readily identify with many of the topics Kuffel writes about.
For instance, she writes about needing to wear shorts underneath a denim dress to prevent chafing of her inner thighs in the summer...and of being refused entry to an amusement park ride - and the condescending remarks of pity offered by one woman afterwards as a sort of consolence...and of being hot and feeling in poor health all the time...so much of this a large reader can understand intimately.
I also think she does a very good job of showing, early in the book, how family dynamics affect her weight gain...her family (and one brother, in particular), come across as very insensitive to her during her childhood.
Yes, Frances Kuffel has spent much time on "Planet Fat" (her own descriptive phrase for what it's like living as a very fat person in this world) and she knows alot about the terrain, the rules and so forth.
She also does a fine job showing how difficult it is to make the transition from "Planet Fat" to a normal life in a "normal" body after her loss of about 150 pounds. (Not just in terms of the physical weight loss...but how, mentally, emotionall and spiritually she had to adapt to a new way of living and being in the world after her huge weight loss).
Despite all this, I did have some problems with the book. Kuffel's assessment of fat women (she devises her own system of grouping various "types" of fat women under such headings as the "Drab", the "Perfectionist", the "Orphan" and so on) leaves much to be desired in terms of actual respect (and insight, I felt) of women who live in a large body. Yes, I'm sure many women are just as Kuffel describes in her "types"...but surely there are also lots of fat women living lives of happiness too? Or is this too hard to imagine (much less give credence to) in the fat-phobic world we are All living in?
I don't mind when Kuffel details the elements of her own self-loathing, but when she extends this to All fat people, women in particular, I feel uncomfortable.
She was able to lose a huge amount of weight in a 12-step program (and more power to her) but such programs are not for everyone. I got a distinct feeling from her book that people who do not (or can not) lose weight in this way are somehow "in denial" about their weight problems (and addictions to food).
Reading this book, I got the impression that my only option, in terms of living a normal, sane life with food would be to do as Kuffel did: join a heavily spiritual program and do their "diet" (weighing and measuring of certain foods on a very restricted food plan), otherwise I'd be forever on "Planet Fat" too. (Kuffel refers to the "barbituate" effect of certain kinds of food and explains that she could never eat such food again if she were to maintain her newly thin body).
It is all well and good that Kuffel can do this. Many people either can not or do not want to. This does not mean we are "in denial" about our problems...or that we must forever hate ourselves as her book seems to suggest.
I applaud her strength of will (and higher power) that brought her to this state and I'm glad she's written her story. It is, in many ways, very inspiring.
I do feel she's left alot out, though. For instance, a more thorough, in-deph understanding of her self-loathing (aside from it mainly stemming from fat = bad) would have given her book a deeper perspective, I think.
Reading this book, I find that Kuffel (both when she was fat and now that she is thin) does little to question many entrenched attitudes towards fat people.
Maybe this book does not need to do that. For myself, it would have made her book much more insightful if she had done so.
Rating:
Summary: Witty storytelling, intelligent societal commentary
Review: Frances Kuffler's first book "Passing for Thin" is much more than a "memoir." It's a funny, absorbing, intelligent personal journey of a witty woman through her weight loss. I am not interested in dieting and am of a different age group from Ms. Kuffel, so I didn't expect to find enlightenment in this book. But her observations of others' reactions to her weight loss ("As I circled in on thin, I was changing the status quo") are--surprising. I never thought I classified people into "pretty" and "fat" and "dorky" and "smart," but come to think of it, I do, and I'm trying to stop. There's something for everyone in "Passing for Thin."
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I bought this after reading the excerpt in "O". I put the Davinci Code on the sideline as I found this book more interesting. Frances Kuffel is a gifted writer, telling many sides of weight loss and about being a member "on the Planet of Fat". I was startled to see myself in these pages from time to time. My only dissapointment was that she never gives the diet plan that she followed. Perhaps that is to veer away from a self help genre or maybe to inspire us to seek out a meeting to get it for ourselves. What ever her reason for ommiting it, I still so enjoyed this book and her story. I simply could not put it down.
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