Angry Fat Girls: 5 Women, 500 Pounds and a Year of Losing It...Again

Columnist, poet and short story writer Kuffel spent 42 years morbidly overweight before losing 188 pounds, which she chronicled in 2004's Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding My Self. In this follow-up, she recounts the story of gaining back half of that weight and beginning anew her struggle to find herself, this time with the help of an online ""Angry Fat Girls"" club, including four other women who have each learned the same disheartening lesson: ""nobody who gets thin gets rid of their problems."" Kuffel's narrative of rededication is a skilled blend of insight (the psychology of being overweight, the ""literary paradigms of the chubby heroine"") and emotion (""It is a lonely state, the fat woman and the food and her groaning, aching, widening body"") that never flags in intimacy, honesty, or compassion. With keen humor and disarming skill, Kuffel introduces readers to the most private moments of the five women, whose addictive relationships with food make regular nourishment a constant nightmare of temptation. Though separated for most of the story, the members of the club eventually meet up in New York City for a conclusion that should prove unforgettable for anyone who has struggled with self esteem or addiction issues.