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Thinner Than Thou by Kit Reed
01/10/2004 . Source: Sue Davies 
pub: TOR. 334 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30762-6. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.tor.com
Imagine a world where fat and eating disorders is given zero tolerance. Where an organised religion forces everyone to conform to the body beautiful and old age is not on the agenda. We are already partly in the world where being fat is a crime and big brother wants us to toe the body-line.
Taking a sideways look at the world of the fascist-fitness fanatics and the scary God-squadders of the networks, this book queries where it will all end. The Reverend Earl is the Guru for the time. He is sleek and beautiful, says we can all have his body and lifestyle and we all should and pay the price.
Annie thinks she has controlled her figure perfectly but her shocked parents recognise her as an anorexic who will die soon if they don't get her help. She is sent to be looked after by the 'Dedicated Sisters', who determine she will eat or die or will she?
When Annie makes a friend, the enormously obese Kelly, together they are two parts that make a whole and discover that something more than sinister is happening within the confines of the Sisterhood. There is a connection with the Reverend Earl and an obsession that will affect their future.
Meanwhile, Annie's brother and sister, Betz and Danny, enlist her boyfriend Dave Bergman to get Annie out of the 'Sisters' clutches, funding their travels by Danny doing what he does best, taking part in local all-you-can eat competitions. He can usually get away as the dark horse entrant but it's the kind of trick that only works once. Their mother has also reached a point in her own personal journey and she starts to question the wisdom of sending Annie away.
At Sylphania, the weight loss camp personally run by the Reverend Earl Jeremy Devlin is embarking on his personal weight loss journey to 'Afterfat Heaven With The Reverend Earl'. He discovers that that heaven is actually illicit gifts of food from a new friend. This is a dangerous game to play with the punishment that fits the crime.
It sounds on paper that there could be too much going on to get involved with the individual characters but, surprisingly, the two plots work well side by side before they coalesce towards the end. Reed has picked out the salient points of a culture that admires the rake-thin Hollywood beauties whilst killing itself with palm oil.
Not that any Western country can be complacent about the road we choose to take. The characters are fleshed out and believable and nothing is black and white. Sometimes it feels like an on the road story as enlightenment comes through each person taking a certain kind of journey.
The real obsession with weight and beauty in our culture and the fictional creations within the book of an alternative underbelly of fat porn and eating contests marries well together in a highly readable story that makes the reader think. The religious element is also highly appropriate. It is not preachy or too clever but simply weaves elements that already exist in society into a world that is just over the next mountain of pancakes.
Sue Davies
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