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Rita Formica Series
Fat: A Love Story
Rita Formica is fat. A fat baby, a fat child, and now a fat teenager, Rita has come to believe that her looks will never change. Her friend Nicole thinks that she looks like a fat spy. Her long-suffering parents have sent her to every diet counselor and psychologist on Long Island. But Rita, the extrovert, the clown, continues to eat -- working meanwhile for an eccentric gentleman named Arnold Bromberg who runs a cheesecake business. Then Rita meets the gorgeous athlete Robert Swann, and her appetite fades. In love with Robert at first sight, she is determined to become thin for his sake and to change her image forever. The complications that result from this decision have an incredible effect on everyone: Rita, Robert, Nicole, and even the mysterious Mr. Bromberg. But when Nicole sets out to help Rita seduce Robert, real trouble begins.
- GenresYoung Adult
160 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1987
About the author
Barbara Wersba
41 books15 followersBarbara Wersba was born in Chicago, moved to California, and then to New York City. She attended Bard College, and after graduating returned to Greenwich Village to study acting with Paul Mann. She received an honorary doctorate from Bard. In 1994, Wersba founded The Bookman Press, a small-press publishing company. She lives in Sag Harbor, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 29, 2008
This is a very strange book. It was sort of cutesie and fable-ish (think "Love among the walnuts" by Jean Ferris) which I am not keen on, and then it gets weirder.
Rita Formica, our 16-year-old narrator, is fat, and has just gotten a summer job delivering cheesecakes for Arnold Bromberg, an odd man in his thirties who makes bad cheesecakes. One day, Rita is out and about and sees a handsome man on the street. She falls madly in love, following after him with an open mouth and hearts for pupils. He goes into a gym, so she joins the gym, finds out his name is Richard Swann, and decides to become thin to make him love her.
This doesn't really work out so well on account of becoming thin is not that easy for her. Also she is an awkward teenager, while he is much older and a fitness guru. So Rita enlists the help of her older friend, a beautiful french waitress named Nicole. Nicole says she will get Richard's attention and introduce him to Rita. Obviously this backfires because Richard falls in love with Nicole.
Rita tries talking things out with the gym's diet counselor, who sucks, but it is really Mr. Bromberg the crappy cheesecake maker who helps her. They become friends, he takes her to visit his goat, etc.
Everything is pretty cute and fable-ish and going along fine, if kind of silly, until the end, when Rita realizes she is in love with Arnold (who is twice her age) and they begin a romantic relationship. He won't sleep with her on account of it being statutory rape, so Rita stages a fake wedding ceremony, swears that she will love him forever, and loses her virginity to him. I must be missing the charm of the book. Because guess what? Even if you have a fake wedding ceremony-- it is still statutory rape if a 32 year old man has sex with a 16 year old girl! Even if he is sweet and has a goat named Daisy.
so this didn't really work for me.
Rita Formica, our 16-year-old narrator, is fat, and has just gotten a summer job delivering cheesecakes for Arnold Bromberg, an odd man in his thirties who makes bad cheesecakes. One day, Rita is out and about and sees a handsome man on the street. She falls madly in love, following after him with an open mouth and hearts for pupils. He goes into a gym, so she joins the gym, finds out his name is Richard Swann, and decides to become thin to make him love her.
This doesn't really work out so well on account of becoming thin is not that easy for her. Also she is an awkward teenager, while he is much older and a fitness guru. So Rita enlists the help of her older friend, a beautiful french waitress named Nicole. Nicole says she will get Richard's attention and introduce him to Rita. Obviously this backfires because Richard falls in love with Nicole.
Rita tries talking things out with the gym's diet counselor, who sucks, but it is really Mr. Bromberg the crappy cheesecake maker who helps her. They become friends, he takes her to visit his goat, etc.
Everything is pretty cute and fable-ish and going along fine, if kind of silly, until the end, when Rita realizes she is in love with Arnold (who is twice her age) and they begin a romantic relationship. He won't sleep with her on account of it being statutory rape, so Rita stages a fake wedding ceremony, swears that she will love him forever, and loses her virginity to him. I must be missing the charm of the book. Because guess what? Even if you have a fake wedding ceremony-- it is still statutory rape if a 32 year old man has sex with a 16 year old girl! Even if he is sweet and has a goat named Daisy.
so this didn't really work for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2008
For more than half of the book I was really liking it and found Rita Formica a rather funny character. I laughed aloud several times. But then something unrolled that I'd sorta predicted but had really hoped I'd be wrong and then I wasn't and then I got scared and freaked out and just didn't know how to think of the whole turn-out of events except what I knew I thought and that was that I was questioning whether this "event" was right or not. Not only that but the author wrote some small inconsistencies, which I tried to ignore but kinda couldn't because I have OCD. And going back to the event at the end of the book, where were Rita's parents when all this happened? Did they want her so badly to be thin that they ignored what was going on? Did they really approve of the situation?
March 14, 2018
Rita Formica just got a summer job. She will be delivering cheesecakes for a newly established cheesecake baker on Long Island. Rita is 16, and she weighs some 200 pounds. It has ever been thus—her higher-than-average weight, that is. Her parents have tried all kinds of counseling and camps, but nothing works.
Rita will have to use her bike, since the baker doesn’t have a car. He’s rather eccentric, to say the least; he owns a goat, but not a vehicle.
Rita is outgoing and sometimes even effervescent. She has one close friend, a thin woman who is somewhat older than her. Nicole came to the U.S. from France, and she is a waitress at a diner where Rita often finds solace in comfort food—lots of it.
But things change dramatically for Rita the summer she delivers cheesecakes. That’s the summer she meets Robert Swann. He is an athletic virulent manly man—everything she could hope for. Now if she can only get him to notice her despite his suave worldliness. Because he’s a member of the local gym, she joins. May as well get as thin as possible, after all, if the guy is going to notice her. Predictably enough, he doesn’t really ever notice her, so it is up to the thin and elegant Nicole to get his attention and turn it to Rita. That has predictable results, and the plot sickens.
I was a bit creeped out by the way this ends. It may have been an ok ending for whenever it was written, but …
Rita will have to use her bike, since the baker doesn’t have a car. He’s rather eccentric, to say the least; he owns a goat, but not a vehicle.
Rita is outgoing and sometimes even effervescent. She has one close friend, a thin woman who is somewhat older than her. Nicole came to the U.S. from France, and she is a waitress at a diner where Rita often finds solace in comfort food—lots of it.
But things change dramatically for Rita the summer she delivers cheesecakes. That’s the summer she meets Robert Swann. He is an athletic virulent manly man—everything she could hope for. Now if she can only get him to notice her despite his suave worldliness. Because he’s a member of the local gym, she joins. May as well get as thin as possible, after all, if the guy is going to notice her. Predictably enough, he doesn’t really ever notice her, so it is up to the thin and elegant Nicole to get his attention and turn it to Rita. That has predictable results, and the plot sickens.
I was a bit creeped out by the way this ends. It may have been an ok ending for whenever it was written, but …
August 14, 2014
A book from the high school library... started out cute and funny -- I found myself laughing aloud quite a bit. The protagonist is likeable and the secondary characters quirky. Just the same, I cannot get over how awful was the ending! If the last couple of chapters were rewritten, this might be a much better book. As is, I'm not sure I could, in good faith, recommend it to a teenage reader.
December 6, 2009
it's been so long since I read this! I want to read it again!
September 10, 2016
The relationship between these two is very squicky. I did not enjoy this book; it was very gross. This guy is very much a predator.
February 3, 2011
Not that great a book, honestly. It seemed really contrived, and unrealistic. Understandably it was written in 1987, so perhaps that was more of what was expected and popular at the time.
About an overweight girl who decides to join a gym and lose weight after 'meeting' a handsome member of the club on the street.
About an overweight girl who decides to join a gym and lose weight after 'meeting' a handsome member of the club on the street.
October 26, 2012
I loved this book! It was so sweet and innocent, but it did kind of have a weird ending if you don't believe love has no bounds.
December 23, 2012
A really well written and inspiring story for teens and adults. I read the others in the trilogy as I needed to know how the story continued and developed. And concluded!
June 8, 2022
I just had a recovered memory that I read this book. It was weird to read as a teenager and worse to remember as an adult. Do not recommend. Still on the hunt for a good romance.
January 5, 2025
I love any author for writing. It’s a struggle and a feat to get published. That being said, this book was awful. It starts off so promising! Like it’s going to be about navigating life as an overweight teenager with misguided parents. But then it shakes out that basically everything you want this book to make sense of ends up exactly as the sad, fat girl worries daily that it might. The book says in so many works “Dead fat girl, you just have to accept it! And make peace with your lower value as a fat person!” There is no compelling, supportive counter narratives that manifest in the world of this overweight teenager, just a doubling down. The final messaging comes off as a, “welp! yah you’re not hot! You know that! What a silly dream to dream. You know that! You’ll never get thin or get the crush you so desperately seek salvation on. Your crush WILL end up with your much hotter best friend who you are the sidekick to and the love that you deserve in the end is the creepy, illegally older, eccentric, “weirdo”. But hey! The sooner you start ACCEPTING that and leave the world to its regular working order, you will find love and salvation! And happiness! And it’s still in a man! But you know, a man more in your league. It’s just about submitting to your lower worth and all will be well and the man that you deserve can help make your life better and teach YOU how to love YOURself. Even Rita’s name supports this “status quo” for the fat girl. Formica - a reliable standard.
I’d like to note that I read this book when I was about Rita’s age and struggling with the same issues - being overweight, binge eating, having parents who just “hated” how fat I was, having a hot best friend, seeking salvation in thinness and male approval. And that was half of my life ago. And I still remember this so vividly because this book cut me to my core. Upon finishing it, I sat alone in my bedroom feeling that the main takeaways bolstered my greatest fears about the fate of a fat teenager.
15 odd years later, I’ve not “accepted” my place. And I am grateful that I don’t [always] feel this way. There’s so much inaccurate and just flat wrong about the author’s narrative. Some of this book’s insidious ideas I’ve undone for myself, but they still live in my head and like to snake around my brain when I’m feeling low. That’s the nature of insidious narratives after all.
Please, do not let your teenager read this book.
I’d like to note that I read this book when I was about Rita’s age and struggling with the same issues - being overweight, binge eating, having parents who just “hated” how fat I was, having a hot best friend, seeking salvation in thinness and male approval. And that was half of my life ago. And I still remember this so vividly because this book cut me to my core. Upon finishing it, I sat alone in my bedroom feeling that the main takeaways bolstered my greatest fears about the fate of a fat teenager.
15 odd years later, I’ve not “accepted” my place. And I am grateful that I don’t [always] feel this way. There’s so much inaccurate and just flat wrong about the author’s narrative. Some of this book’s insidious ideas I’ve undone for myself, but they still live in my head and like to snake around my brain when I’m feeling low. That’s the nature of insidious narratives after all.
Please, do not let your teenager read this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2025
BATSHIT INSANE !!!! WHY IS A 32 YEAR OLD MAN THE ANTIDOTE TO BEING FAT??? DID WE JUST WATCH A 16 YR OLD GET GROOMED??
April 9, 2026
I read this so long ago and just found my notes, which only say "A ++." At this date, that's all I know, lol!
June 10, 2023
Rita Formica has always been fat, a compulsive eater. When she sees Robert Swann, she falls in love with him immediately: his perfect body and incredible good looks. She knows he could never love her, but there's always that small bit of unrealistic hope. In the mean time, she begins working for Arnold Broomberg, who is starting a business making cheesecakes. When she finds she can't get Robert to notice her at the health club, she enlists the aid of Nicole, her beautiful thin friend to help. But when that situation takes a wrong turn, Rita finds herself turning to Arnold for comfort.
Rita's 16-year-old character is very believable and her relationship with 32-year-old Anrold develops naturally and slowly ... it's not lurid in direct contrast to Robert and Nicole's seemingly surface attraction.
Rita's 16-year-old character is very believable and her relationship with 32-year-old Anrold develops naturally and slowly ... it's not lurid in direct contrast to Robert and Nicole's seemingly surface attraction.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews