Dimensions
136 x 212 x 22mm
The best thing about weighing 571lb is eating whatever you want. You don't worry about gaining 5lb: you know it won't make a difference. You know that losing 5lb won't make a difference either.' Rebecca Golden weighed just over 6lb at birth. By the time she graduated from high school she weighed 360lb and a few years later she tipped the scales at over 40 stone. Although morbidly obese she never had high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes; she drove a car and worked and 'never became fused to a plaid sofa'. But being so large meant there were things she simply couldn't do, like get up off the floor unaided and sit in booths in restaurants. At the age of thirty-three she had a gastric by-pass and lost 216 pounds. Fusing the themes of body image, abusive family dynamics and the social consequences of being fat, this astonishingly articulate and beautifully written memoir gives a unique and quirky insight into what it's like to be an outsider. As Rebecca herself says: 'One of the few good things about weighing nearly 600lb is the sense of uniqueness it bestows. People had no trouble remembering me. I was a rare, elusive creature.'
