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Summary
Summary
In this "big-hearted triumph of a novel" (Carolyn Pankhurst, New York Times bestselling author) for fans of Jennifer Weiner, seven women enrolled in an extreme weight loss documentary discover self-love and sisterhood as they enact a daring revenge against the exploitative filmmakers.
Alice and Daphne, both successful and accomplished working mothers, harbor the same secret: obsession with their weight overshadows concerns about their children, husbands, work--and everything else of importance in their lives.
Daphne, plump in a family of model-thin women, discovered early that only slimness earns admiration. Alice, break-up skinny when she met her husband, risks losing her marriage if she keeps gaining weight.
The two women meet at Waisted. Located in a remote Vermont mansion, the program promises fast, dramatic weight loss, and Alice, Daphne, and five other women are desperate enough to leave behind their families for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The catch? They must agree to always be on camera; afterward, the world will see Waisted: The Documentary .
But the women soon discover that the filmmakers have trapped them in a cruel experiment. With each pound lost, they edge deeper into obsession and instability...until they decide to take matters into their own hands.
Randy Susan Meyers "spins a compelling tale" ( Kirkus Reviews ) and "delivers a timely examination of body image, family, friendship, and what it means to be a woman in modern society...Culturally inclusive and societally on point, this is a must-read" ( Library Journal ).
Author Notes
Randy Susan Meyers is the internationally bestselling author of five novels, including Waisted , The Widow of Wall Street , Accidents of Marriage , The Comfort of Lies , and Th e Murderer's Daughters . Her books have been designated one of the ten best works of fiction in 2010, 2014, and 2017 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress. She lives in Boston with her husband, where she teaches writing at the GrubStreet writing center. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-six languages.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Meyers's lackluster latest (after The Widow of Wall Street) concerns what turns out to be an unscrupulous documentary about weight loss, and what two participating women do to avenge themselves. After Alice Thompson's filmmaker husband, Clancy, admits that her weight has lessened his attraction to her, she agrees to appear in a rival documentarian's new project involving a weight-loss camp. Makeup artist Daphne also signs up after a lifetime of being harangued by her well-meaning mother. Though the women were enticed by promises of a well-organized wellness center, they're subjected to verbal cruelty, grueling exercises, and a reliance on amphetamine pills. Alice and Daphne escape the film set and use stolen footage to make their own exposé, but the girl-power ending feels forced. Meyers's prose is often overwritten: "Machinelike, she scooped out the candy, shoved in the pieces, masticated, and began again, hardly waiting to swallow as her full hand stood ready like an eager soldier, prepared to send the next wave of reinforcements to their deaths." Some details also require a suspension of disbelief: after a day of hard physical activity, participants have to force themselves to eat their meal of tofu and veggies in a broth. This heavy-handed novel falls short. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
How far will a woman go to lose weight? Acrobat Films intends to find out by hosting an extreme weight-loss program, but they may have chosen the wrong women for their documentary.Alice signed up for Acrobat Production's second documentary after ruining her husband Clancy's awards night. His film, De Facto, lost to Acrobat's debut: Waisted, the first in a planned trilogy examining women and weight. Worse, Alice's sheer fatness embarrassed him. When she married Clancy, Alice was thinthin from heartbreak over her last relationship and then with joy over her newfound love for Clancy. Seven years and countless bags of MMs later, she can barely squeeze into a size 18. Desperate and furious with Clancy's disapproval, Alice is ready to defect to his enemy's camp. There, at the posh Privation mansion, she joins six other women, including Daphne, a talented makeup artist who ended up at Privation despite her husband's delight in her every curve. Acrobat's methods, however, quickly devolve from extreme to degrading. Naked weigh-ins, Machiavellian trainers, Byzantine exercise equipment, starvation rations, and speed (masquerading as not-so-mysterious "vitamins") quickly melt off the pounds but also break down the women's psyches. That is, until Alice, Daphne, and their roommate, Hania, decide to fight back. The consequences of Acrobat's unmasking, however, remain frustratingly unclear. Meyers (The Widow of Wall Street, 2017, etc.) spins a compelling tale, raising critical questions about familial, social, and cultural messages about body image; each woman at Privation, fat-shamed on a daily basis, has lost her sense of self. Yet Meyers' portraits are also riddled with every stereotype of the overweight American woman, traumatized by well-meaning but bitterly critical mothers and judgmental husbands, stuffing down her emotions with handfuls of sugar and butter. Although Alice, Daphne, Hania, and the other women rebel against Acrobat's evil plan, their lives post-Privation remain food- and body-size obsessed.A Cinderella tale for fat-shamed women that unfortunately misses the mark. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
To Alice and Daphne, being thin is taking over their world. They become fast friends when they both sign up for a program promising dramatic weight loss in one month. Alice, Daphne, and the other participants sign a contract, agreeing to always be filmed, with the end result being a documentary for all to see. However, what they signed turns out to be not what they signed up for. Meyers (Accidents of Marriage, 2014) exquisitely explores body image, family, and marriage in this surprisingly deep novel. Though she starts with a fictionalized version of the TV show The Biggest Loser, she dips into major issues of race, culture, obsession, and sisterhood. Taking on the timely topic of how a woman is perceived in today's society, she twists it into how far women will go to be what society deems right, and at what cost a marriage, a family obligation, a personal goal? A compelling story that will leave readers giving their scale the side eye. Perfect for fans of Kristan Higgins and Jennifer Weiner.--Erin Holt Copyright 2019 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Alice and Daphne are both successful professionals, wives and mothers, and obsessed with their weight-the number on the scale takes precedence over everything else in their lives. The two women meet at an extreme weight-loss camp in Vermont where they agree to be filmed for a future documentary called Waisted. There, they are starved, humiliated, and force-fed speed. When they learn that the purpose of the documentary is not to chronicle their weight loss but to conduct a cruel experiment, they devise an escape plan and have the camp shut down. Back home and still fighting their own personal demons, the women, along with the other camp participants, release their own film, telling their side, and struggle to find what will make them whole. VERDICT Meyers (The Widow of Wall Street) delivers a timely examination of body image, family, friendship, and what it means to be a woman in modern society. It will appeal to anyone who has ever dreaded stepping on a scale; even those who haven't will learn from it. Culturally inclusive and societally on point, this is a must-read. [See Prepub Alert, 11/26/18.]-Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Waisted CHAPTER 1 Everyone hated a fat woman, but none more than she hated herself. Alice knew this to be true. Today's proof? She, along with six other substantial women, stood in the parking lot avoiding each other, as though their abundance of flesh might transfer from body to body, despite all waiting to board the bus for the same reason: "the unique opportunity to spend an entire month exploring ways to bring yourself into balance." Balance, as written in the Waisted brochure, implied weighing less. The virtually memorized pamphlet tucked in Alice's jeans pocket promised a new life. The women scuffled in the leaves in the parking lot of a designated Dunkin' Donuts--a meeting place Alice suspected, for no good reason, had been chosen with deliberate irony. She pushed away thoughts of mean-spirited motivation, chalking up her suspicion to nerves and rising hints of buyer's remorse. The thick smell of donuts blew around with the scent of fall leaves. As Alice shuffled from her right to left foot, pulling her suede jacket tight against the wind, a redheaded white woman approached with an outstretched hand. "I'm Daphne." Being much shorter, she had to look up at Alice. "And nervous as hell." Before Alice could do more than shake Daphne's hand, a uniformed woman came into view, self-importance emanating from her stiff shoulders to the black pen she clicked on and off. "No talking, ladies. Line up, tell me who you are, and then march on board." She checked names against a paper fastened to a red clipboard. One at a time, the women climbed the steps of a repurposed school bus. After the last participant dragged her crazy-wide thighs up the stairs as though this ascension were an Olympian event, the woman in charge marched aboard. "Listen up. I'm the driver. Here are your rules." Though she wore no cap, an invisible one seemed perched on her head. "You will have five minutes for any last texts or emails that you wish to send. After that, you will give me your cell phones and wallets. Tell your loved ones you'll speak to them in four weeks. Until that time--" Daphne, her voice breaking, raised her hand. "What if--" The stern woman held up a hand. "No exceptions will be made. Every one of you signed agreements containing this information. You will be allowed to write letters. This is not meant as punishment; it's your first step in freedom from your past. From this moment on, you concentrate on yourselves and no one else." Alice stared at her phone, pulled up the keyboard, and then closed the screen. She repeated the exercise three times until shutting off the device. She'd already sent all the explanations to her husband that she could muster. To her parents as well. Additional messages wouldn't help justify her actions. The driver walked down the aisle, hand out. When receiving each phone, she peeled off a sticker--a small name tag, it turned out--and placed it on the back of the device. "To ensure you get the right phone back," she explained. After handing over her phone, Alice unfolded the creased and much-read brochure. "Waisted: Where You Discover You Can," the luminous cover announced. A photo of a sprawling mansion, rays of sun shining through clouds and dappling the windows with sparkling promise, covered the front. Adirondack chairs dotted the green lawn. Giant sunflowers waved from a garden in the distance. Muscular women with strong-looking legs lay on straw mats. An avalanche of fancy words for slimming down drew her, once again, like a magic potion. Idealized photos revealed attractive, plump women in yoga positions, diving into a pool, and sitting cross-legged in circles. Alice read again the quote she'd highlighted in yellow. "?'If there is no struggle, there is no progress.'--Frederick Douglass." She pushed away thoughts about the brief paragraph regarding filming for educational purposes. None of the women sat far from the front of the bus, though nobody shared any of the bench seats. They only darted covert glances at one another. As though imitating the brochure, they formed a virtual UNICEF poster of heavy women: white, black, Hispanic, Korean, and Indian. And then there was Alice, representing mixed race, though who knew into which category they'd slotted her. Alice tried to ignore her period cramps and the nausea brought on by exhaust fumes. Perhaps the first test of fortitude "as you embark upon a journey of inner exploration to reevaluate your lives and learn how the mind-body connection affects your body," was this bumpy ride to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. After traveling for hours, Alice wanted to separate from both her outer and inner explorers. Sleep threatened to overtake her, the day having begun with an early train ride from Boston to Springfield. Alice needed food, water, and ibuprofen. The women surrounding her were dressed as though they were headed to a brunch attended by friends they wanted to impress. Without phones, zoning out with headphones and a playlist was impossible. A dark-skinned woman with red glasses clutched an unread paperback, but most of them simply gazed out the window. After three hours, they left the highway and turned onto a two-lane state road. Neither homes nor businesses appeared on either side. The area seemed deserted. The driver made a sharp left, though no identifying marker beckoned from anywhere, and steered the bus up a narrow paved road. After driving up as though on the ascent of a roller coaster, the ride evened out as the road gave way to tamped-down dirt. They slowed to a crawl along a single-lane road bordered by a low rock wall until reaching an open area fenced in by barbed wire. Here the bus entered a road bisecting a magnificent field strewn with fiery maple leaves until resuming its journey to the top of a long circular driveway. Alice put a hand to her heart as the vehicle shuddered to a stop. From this vantage point, high up a mountain, she beheld the breathtaking view: multiple valleys colored by a riot of October colors. "You've arrived." The driver's sardonic grin unnerved Alice. "Enjoy." Across two football fields' worth of grass loomed a yellow mansion, topped with a copper-topped cupolaed roof. A vast white porch curved around the building. The women exited the bus and walked the long brick path leading to a set of broad perfectly painted brown stairs. Hanging from a porch beam swung a cryptic wooden sign. Welcome to Privation. Excerpted from Waisted: A Novel by Randy Susan Meyers All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
