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Fat Woman
Ella Mae Hopkins, a monstrously fat but adorable woman living in a shanty house with her husband, Edward, and little boys, dreams of a more beautiful life and a wonderful figure
- GenresFiction
179 pages, Hardcover
First published August 27, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 3, 2018
The writing in this is gorgeous. I really enjoyed the prose. Mr Rooke has a way of really focusing in on these tiny moments that give them huge impact, and his descriptions are fantastic.
There were times, though, that Ella Mae went on and on and one a bit long about Jesus. It reminded me of my mother.
I don't think this is a book that aged very well, even though it deals with some valid and current themes (such as family and community, and where we draw the line between unconditional love and tough love.)
In 1981 (when this was published) I was a poor 6 year old kid. My mother stayed home and my father was a student, and we struggled sometimes. But even so it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for me to imagine the kind of poverty Ella Mae and Edward live in. Maybe that's the privilege of growing up in CA versus the South, but that really struck me. How much more jarring that is today, with the enormous changes that technology has brought.
Also--and I say this as a fat woman--I think our societal idea of fat has shifted a great deal since 1981, and that makes the whole thing seem that much more tragic. Ella Mae appears to weigh about 200lbs, and yet the entire book is based on how ENORMOUS she is. As big as the house, big enough to break the truck, too big to bury if she died, too big to fit through doorways. That's... ridiculous by current standards. My fifteen-year-old daughter weighs almost that much and looks like basically every other teenager out there, wears a size medium. On the other hand, in 1981 I vividly remember my mother becoming frantic (or despondent) about her weight, and she probably weighed 150 at the time. She stopped eating entirely for long periods of time, her shame was so great. That's tough to reconcile with our (healthier) attitudes of today and the different norms we see.
The end result is that poor Ella Mae is impoverished, uneducated, probably not very bright, and of very normal, average size for a woman... and yet her entire existence is shaped by a culture which tells her she is unacceptable and must be destroyed. This breaks my heart.
There were times, though, that Ella Mae went on and on and one a bit long about Jesus. It reminded me of my mother.
I don't think this is a book that aged very well, even though it deals with some valid and current themes (such as family and community, and where we draw the line between unconditional love and tough love.)
In 1981 (when this was published) I was a poor 6 year old kid. My mother stayed home and my father was a student, and we struggled sometimes. But even so it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for me to imagine the kind of poverty Ella Mae and Edward live in. Maybe that's the privilege of growing up in CA versus the South, but that really struck me. How much more jarring that is today, with the enormous changes that technology has brought.
Also--and I say this as a fat woman--I think our societal idea of fat has shifted a great deal since 1981, and that makes the whole thing seem that much more tragic. Ella Mae appears to weigh about 200lbs, and yet the entire book is based on how ENORMOUS she is. As big as the house, big enough to break the truck, too big to bury if she died, too big to fit through doorways. That's... ridiculous by current standards. My fifteen-year-old daughter weighs almost that much and looks like basically every other teenager out there, wears a size medium. On the other hand, in 1981 I vividly remember my mother becoming frantic (or despondent) about her weight, and she probably weighed 150 at the time. She stopped eating entirely for long periods of time, her shame was so great. That's tough to reconcile with our (healthier) attitudes of today and the different norms we see.
The end result is that poor Ella Mae is impoverished, uneducated, probably not very bright, and of very normal, average size for a woman... and yet her entire existence is shaped by a culture which tells her she is unacceptable and must be destroyed. This breaks my heart.
January 21, 2025
Really narrow-minded book by someone who clearly assumes fat people stuff their faces all day long with pie. mmmm…pie. Anywho, I liked the fat woman and think there is much more to her than her roundness. She’s my kind of people.
August 18, 2011
This seems like it would be a good book for the right reading group; plenty to discuss. True to life and some real sympathetic characters whether you like them or not.
July 13, 2017
Read this for an English Lit. survery course at U of Calgary, in early 1994.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews