Rating: 
Summary: Tough story tough woman tough book...
Review: Frances Kuffel's book Passing for Thin is an honest evaluation and narration of one woman's experience in transition. Having lost 188 lbs, after a lifetime of obesity, she finds herself an awkward visitor in the land of normal. What Kuffel does so well in this book is personalize the experience of addiction. Several reviewers of this book have found her selfish, but what addict isn't? In fact, addiction of any sort can be the supreme expression of self involvement. I think it would be more fair to realize that Kuffel has exposed herself and her savage little heart and revealed that she, like many of us, are not always thinking kindly, about ourselves or others. I loved that this book WAS Kuffel's confession box. In the end, the realization of one's own frailties, the evaluation and compassion for our own judgements is what allows that fierce demanding child inside to be sated and quieted. That acknowledgement is what finally allows us each to have room for compassion and care for others. Kuffel is obviously on her way to resolving her anger and judgements and I for one can't wait for a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Good thing I can admire the work without admiring the person
Review: I know what it is to be like Frances, both ways. I also know that you don't have to shed brain cells with your fat cells. She writes well. Her observations on how fat women are treated and her "fat story" ring painfully true. I freely commend the incredible work she did in weight loss, (all the more impressive since she clearly has multiple addictions to address). These elements simply don't balance, for me, the fact that I am appalled at the person she has revealed by the end of the book. She is only too ready to tell us--endlessly and jocularly--how beautiful she is, an opinion I'm afraid I cannot share. She boasts endlessly of this and her intellect--despite a lackluster career record and occasional startling lapses in her writing--to an extent that can only suggest a virulent self-hatred, and which severed my support of her early in the book. This is never more appallingly clear than when she refers disdainfully to other fat people as "fatties," in particular describing a zealous new O.A. member as "a fatty smug in her chub." A good deal of text is devoted to her quest for A Man (hardly unique), how many men "look" at her and shopping-- "my crowning achievement in being able to wear Dolce & Gabbana." Her narcissism is never clearer than in the statement, "I'm a snob. I don't really like fat people much. I want a pretty sponsee, someone I can be proud of," who had "what I wanted to encourage" rather than a unique self for her to help reveal. For me, she ranks with Carnie Wilson in defining herself by, and embracing, those very values--shallow, cruel, competitive and contemptuous--that have made life in a fat body so painful for her, and for all overweight women. She's the quintessential "upwardly mobile" climber from a second-class status who has kicked the faces below her on the ladder and slammed the door behind her. Her chronicle records such a pattern of increasing recidivism with every "binge," that I think her story is far from over, but I can't wish her luck.
Rating: 
Summary: Revealing in Ways I Did Not Expect
Review: As a person on the path to weight loss, "Passing For Thin" piqued my interest because it told the story of the journey within. This is not a diet book.Kuffel's story begins when she realizes that she is a food addict. She joins O.A. and loses over 150 lbs. She is no longer the Fat Girl, who is insulated by her fat, who is treated differently, who could coast through life insulated from pain. She reveals that she is a beautiful woman with great legs, desirable to men and striking to women. And it scares the heck out of her. She struggles with this new role and is unsure of who she is and how to live. Her journey is facsinating, revealing and at times down-right frightening. Kuffel is a wonderful writer with a gift of storytelling. I recommend this book to those on the weight loss journey because it shows there is more to it besides a thin body. You won't be "instantly" happy. You have to work hard on different fronts: body, mind and spirit. And Kuffel shows it can be done.
Rating:
Summary: Interested with the Topic but Unhappy with the Author
Review: I've read several books about eating disorders and other compulsions. Although I have never read any others about severe obesity, this one intested me because it was about an obese woman rather than an anorexic. At first glance, the writing seemed good and the author seemed honest. I don't question the author's brutal honesty. And she is certainly articulate, if a bit wordy. But I don't like HER. The more I read, the less I liked her. It was interesting to know the downside of severe obesity, both physically and mentally. But the woman (who calls herself "a girl" despite being in her forties)is totally preoccupied with herself throughout. She wallows in her misery as a fat person. She admits to not liking other fat people. She doesn't try very hard to help anyone else and agrees to sponsor someone else only at the insistence of her sponsor and OA friends. She worships physical beauty and fashion to an unhealthy degree. She expects far too much from dating and the world of men in general. She's emotionally delayed (probably due to the years of addiction)when it comes to social interactions including the give and take of friendship and romantic relationships.
I wondered about what brought her to that state of severe obesity. She glosses over the reasons and I'm guessing that it had something to do with being adopted and with childhood experiences. However, her adoptive parents sounded really nice and her childhood seemed comfortable and relatively happy. Of course, she seems to blame God and religion for much of her life.
Well, she's sort of thin now or at least within normal range. She'll continue to struggle with the man/woman relationship thing, like everyone else in the world. I hope that she stops calling men "boys" by the time she hits 50. I also hope that she continues therapy and keeps the weight off.
I really did not get the ending where she "finds herself." I reread those last pages and did not understand about her and food versus her and life. It seemed like an excuse for not remaining abstinent. I was hoping that Katie, the sponsor, would drop her.
Perhaps Montana is where she should be.
Debra Dycaico, San Diego, California
Rating:
Summary: Insightful, honest and uplifting.............
Review: This book was not as inspiring as I had thought or hoped it would be but I came to realize that Frances Kuffel didn't write this book for me to be inspired - she wrote it to try to make people understand what it is like to live day to day with a weight issue. It gave me an understanding of the obstacles obese people deal with every day and the heartache they suffer by the cruelty of others.
Ms. Kuffel lost all her weight but was still tormented by the food issue, had her ups and downs and learned to live with them. There is so much to deal with when you have such a huge weight loss and is seemed that Ms. Kuffel had to help many people learn to accept her as a new person while she was still trying to get used to the new Frances herself. She had every right to be vain, she had gone through life avoiding mirrors and now she was able to look in them and try to get used to the person looking back.
I admire and commend Ms. Kuffel for putting her soul out there for all to see and for sharing her personal struggle with the many of us who also share it.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful even though flawed in some ways.
Review: On the whole, I found this book helpful because it pointed out things to me that I hadn't seen framed that way before. Ms. Kuffel's writing style really bugged me in the first third of the book...it seemed like she was working overtime to impress us with her vocabulary...but once I got pulled into her story, this element of her writing no longer jumped out at me.
As much as I appreciated how difficult it had to be to be so honest and forthright about telling her story, the book had a rather schizophrenic and inconsistent property to it. Some things are explored in tremendous detail and some are glossed over entirely. There are a lot of questions left unanswered, but I am still appreciative of the issues that she DID explore.
While I could not relate to the aspects of the book that dealt with Frances' binge eating issues, I could definitely relate to having a weight problem much of one's life and the way people discount you when you're fat. Her concept of how people pigeon-hole you as "the fat one" and then don't know how to relate when you're no longer fat was really an eye-opener.
I'm glad I read the book, but I wish it had been more consistent and left less things unsaid.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and brutally honest
Review: There are revelations and observations in this book that I've never heard anyone talk about before. Kuffel is able to put into words so many things I've felt but haven't been able to describe. A major theme is discovering the "Planet of the Girls", which is her way of articulating how obesity can rob you of your femininity and sexuality (if you allow it). Once she dropped the weight, she had to learn how to be female. It must have taken a lot of courage to document not only her transformation, but also her internal life as a fat person; the humiliation, her social role, and the sarcasm and humor she used to cope with it. My only complaint is that she does not discuss her adjustment to the "no flour or sugar" diet she adopts and sticks to for over a year. She never describes hunger or cravings, which seems pretty unrealistic. But overall, this is necessary reading for anyone who has been obese since childhood.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: All the previous reviews that point out Ms. Kuffel's self-absorbtion seem accurate. But this is how it seemed to me: she was being brutally honest.
This candor is what appealed to me. It's really the selling point of OA: being able to be yourself without being judged about it. She had to adjust to being a different person after being obese her entire life and it would take a period of self-absorbtion to orient.
Her story inspired me and made me admire her for baring all. We all have our "dark sides" and I, for one, am tired of always hiding my eating disorder around people who don't have eating disorders and don't understand. It's great to be frank at the meetings. That's the feeling I got from Frances K. in her book--it was brutally honest.
Rating: 
Summary: ABOUT AS INSPIRING AS TOAST....
Review: If you want inspiration go to a twelve step meeting and meet people who live the steps and not those who break the tradition of anonymity. "They have no Stars or VIPS"
This volume was as thin as anyone could get when it comes to wisdom and grace, and as shallow as one can be while being colorful. Credit through to her wrting style; however style without substance and integrity is well.. Fox news comes to mind!
Rating:
Summary: This is Not Yo Momma's Diet Book
Review: Transplanted Montanan to NYC Literary Agent, self- described "Pillsbury Dough Girl," Frances Kuffel had 3 dreams: to be thin, to write and publish a book, and to get married and live happily ever after. Well, as Meatloaf sings: "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."
This book diaries Fran's journey from The Planet of Fat to The Planet of Girls. Extremely heavy her entire life, she has to learn a whole new set of Rules, Couture, and Ways of Being on the New Planet. Her mission is mostly accomplished via a Twelve Step program, with Fellow Travelers she dubs "Stepford Wives." But if you are looking for a "How To" Diet Book, this ain't it. There are fleeting mentions of "Diet Plans" phoned in every morning - consisting of lots of lettuce and NO SUGAR or FLOUR- but other than that, the reader won't learn much about nutrition or consumption. What you do get are SuperSize portions of touchy-feeley emoting during the interGalactic travail. Kuffel has a Masters of Fine Arts, so her Yellow Brick Road is bloated with the imagery those types require - a trip taken sans "the barbituate haze of starchy carbohydrates." /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer
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