Body of Knowledge

by Carol Dawson

In a saga of lust, revenge, betrayal, scandal, and sin, six-hundred-pound Victoria Grace Ransom's tale unfolds, revealing the shocking secrets surrounding her wealthy family and the truth about why she is the last of the bloodline. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 1994

Reviews

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

it took me a month to read, which i always resent a little. when a book fails to drive me forward but still somehow manages to keep drawing me back, i get to feeling grouchy.

my issue with the novel was probably the summary on the book jacket. it spins a tale about a 600 pound woman who lives sequestered on her family's property, gorging herself on stories from her family's past.

only guess what? it isn't until i was over halfway through the book that i even got the tiniest hint as to what the narrator of these stories looked like or even personally thought about.

the story itself was compelling, but the summary of it was misleading to the point that it soured the whole thing for me.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle is incorrect. How does one get goodreads to correct? The book is a great read and the cover is like a Boteri painting.

[Katie Burkey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this book started very strongly, but it became too ponderous and convoluted as it went on. I didn’t feel anything for a single character in this entire 471 page novel. They were all so horrible that the devastating things that kept happening elicited zero emotion from me. I found Victoria’s problem to be super icky, especially the descriptive scenes of her shoveling food down her gullet to feed her 600 pound frame. Her family put in all of this extra effort to install industrial elevators and build special furniture, but not a single person said “hey fatty let’s jog around the lake a few laps?”
And I have NO clue what the heck was up with the introduction of Nyla’s character. I guess she was the long lost daughter of Sarah and Grant who got pawned off to an orphanage, but then her uncle tracked her down to bring her back to the estate, and now she’s living as a servant for her morbidly obese cousin? Ummm no, no one would put up with that, especially seeing how she was actually family and should have shared the family fortune. Plus if she were really Sarah’s daughter, wouldn’t she have to be in her 50s or 60s?? I had the impression she looked much younger.
I love to read, but had to force myself to finish this.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that the writing is brilliant but it takes more than brilliant writing to make a story progress. The book is so long and the relationships between some of the characters so tenuous, that I lost track of who was related to who. This novel doesn't know what it wants to be--a mystery, a morality play or an existential piece looking for an audience. I wish I had stopped at page fifty instead of struggling through 400 more pages.

[Sheri S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am surprised at how much I enjoyed this book about first year medical students' experiences in their gross anatomy class. The book primarily concentrates on four individual individuals who work together at one lab table on one cadaver. It sounds kind of morbid but the book is well written and informative. I'd recommend it!

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was actually really disappointed in this book. The book moved extremely slow... which made it seem even longer. And then the ending was super lame. There were no twists and turns in this book. I found everything to be very predictable and very "meh." Oh well, I guess this is what I get for purchasing one of the super discounted books off of Amazon...

[Tamera · Rating 5 out of 5]

an intriguing, somewhat funny, character-driven plot of family revenge and intricacies.

[Rachel]

The subtitle of this book is wrong. It's just called Body of Knowledge.