Dietland

This is a complicated book, not a lighthearted, fluffy romcom romp. That is not to insult the romcom--I am a big fan of fluffy and fun when I'm in the mood for it. Dietland, on the other hand, is a brutal, often hard to take, depiction of life as a woman.Told mainly through the lens of its 300-pound main character, Plum, this is a book that makes you cringe at the way society tends to treat people who don't fall within an "acceptable"--whatever that means--body type.However, the book is more than that as the narrative is framed as a deep, deep deconstruction of what drives the kind of discrimination and cruelty Plum faces. It's an exploration of themes of acceptability that encourage women to subvert their feelings and subject themselves to extreme dietary and beauty methods in order to fit into the narrow (quite literally) role society defines for them. The book is a pretty disturbing meditation on the ways women are encouraged to strive for a "best self" that has little to do with a woman's own happiness or interests in life.This aspect of the book in particular left me unsettled. It's as if Plum isn't a person, but a project. Rather than engaging with and living her life, she's put it on hold until a future version of herself can start living it. After being bombarded with messages both implicit and explicit, it's easy to see why she lives in the kind of stasis she does, and it's a state I think many women can probably relate to. It's sadly common for women to think things like "when I'm ten pounds thinner, I'll...", begging the question of what they'll do in the interim. Why do women often do this? Why not go out and live the life we have while we have it to live?I thought Plum herself was a good embodiment of the utter frustration, confusion, and outright pain of being a woman. This book tackles a lot--weight, beauty standards, porn, rape--precisely because women are bombarded with all of these things, often on a daily basis. In a startling scene, one character discusses this and then asks whether it could be considered a form of terrorism. I think there's something to that point.I could not put this book down, but I gave it four stars instead of five because I was uncomfortable with the violence, even though I suspect that's part of the point. After all, we live in a world where violence is disproportionately visited on women, and we're making very slow progress with changing that sad fact.

A friend recommended this book to me after I told her about my transition into an anti-diet lifestyle. I have been on this journey for a while now, as I have come to the conclusion after 30 years of dieting that it just doesn't work. This doesn't mean it's easy to give up on thoughts of dieting, so this book came at the perfect time! This book takes the reader on a fictional journey that exposes some of the prejudices we all fall for in the quest for the perfect body. Some of the parts of this book hit a little close to home--I had my own pre-packaged food journey--and some of the parts of the book were a bit graphic, but, with a similar outcome as some characters, the point was well taken. The way women view their worth as it's connected to their bodies is a problem, and this book serves as an apt metaphor.

I wanted to love this book. I still want to love this book. But the comp titles given for Sarai Walker's Dietland were dead on the money: books that came so close to giving the reader a body-positive heroine to root for and then falling short.When we first meet Plum, she's working for a magazine styled after <i>Seventeen</i>, answering fanmail and advice requests emailed to the magazine's editor-in-chief. She's also counting down the days until her scheduled bariatric surgery, which will provide her with the thin body she's always wanted. Everything is derailed when she finds she's being followed by a college-aged woman who leaves her a copy of a book revealing the secrets of a weight-loss company she'd once been a subscriber of, and Plum is dragged down the rabbit hole into a world of feminists who want to help her on the path to self-acceptance. Meanwhile, a vigilante group is wreaking havoc on society, going after rapists and other sex offenders who escaped justice.I often found myself having the same type of surreal reading experience I did reading Alison Wonderland, that I thought I knew where the book was headed and then it was suddenly derailed. Plum is a heroine I found I couldn't connect with, and while Walker has some really insightful things to say about body acceptance (I found myself highlighting compulsively at times), ultimately, Plum really didn't.The subplot that attempts to tie the whole novel together -- the vigilante/s known as "Jennifer" -- attempts to bring an Anonymous/V aspect to the story and lend it more gravitas. In the end, it leads to a distinct feeling that the author wrote herself into a corner and had to valiantly write her way out of it.I'm still thankful for last year's Dumplin', which gives me hope that there are more body positive books out there waiting to be written that won't leave me cold in the end.

This book changed my life, no exaggeration. I've read a lot of books about feminism and body positivity etc. etc. but there's something about the novelization of the issues that women struggle to transcend (all of us, no matter our size) that made me finally able to shush that hyper critical voice that I've had in my head since I was 9 years old. Plum Kettle is a protagonist who inspires such empathy, maybe that was it. I was able to see myself in her and to want for myself what I'd want for her, to feel like she's more than what she looks like and that she's worthy of respect and love as-is, for her to spend her time/energy on being herself instead of being consumed with how she's perceived by others. Buy this book. Watch the show, too. Marty Noxon and crew do a great job of bringing the story to the screen and taking the drama up a few notches, as well.

Dietland is a cliche-busting stonker of a good read that challenges the normal 'rules' about fat and feminism. We've all read the books where the fat but lovely girl can't get a man, struggles with self-esteem, loses the weight and everything works out wonderfully after all. That's absolutely NOT what happens in Dietland.Plum Kettle is a big girl who has spent her whole life trying to lose weight or, if she can't do that, to be as invisible as possible. She's tried all the diets and knows all the systems but the weight just won't come off. Too big to be allowed to hang out at her publishers, she works from home writing reassuring responses to thousands of young girls who send her their agony aunt questions. Then one day Plum spots that she's being followed and soon falls in with a set of intriguing and challenging women including the daughter of one of her old diet gurus. With a date already set for stomach stapling surgery, Plum is told that she has to follow a 'new Baptist diet' and if she gets to the end, she'll be given $20,000 to spend as she pleases.Meanwhile, in the background, the worms have turned - women are on the rampage and they're angry as hell. A pair of rapists get mushed to bits on a freeway, a 'dirty dozen' of scumbags and porn industry 'stars' get dropped out of a plane, and a figurehead called 'Jennifer' is calling bad guys to account.Men (bad men anyway) should be relieved that the Me Too generation hadn't read this book or things could have got really really nasty. This is revenge fantasy with a good dose of irreverent humour and a lot of ballsy women saying 'No more'. It's time for the big women to stand up and be counted and to stop hiding in black sacks and keeping their heads down. It's time for more authors to recognise that 'happy ever after' doesn't mean getting into the tiny frock and marrying prince charming. Maybe it means getting a perfect pair of stomping boots and filling your face with cake.I love it. I wasn't at all sure where it was going but I loved every page.

Dietland was a very suprising read! I picked it up because the kindle edition was £0.99 on Amazon and the premise was intriguing so I went into it knowing very little. It starts off fairly straightforward- Plum is an interesting character with an unusual job and it was thought-provoking to hear about her life of dieting and yoyo-ing relationship with food. Then... I'm not quite sure. Things got a little bizarre and the book morphed dramatically into a tale of an extreme, feminist terrorist group. It covered a wide range of feminist issues in a surprisingly dark, yet comic, way. I was definitely left a little shell-shocked throughout a lot of the second-half of the book, but I'm very pleased I read it!Perhaps an uncomfortable read for some as it doesn't shy away from issues such as the treatment of women in pornography, objectification of women's bodies, body positivity, rape etc. Unless you feel you may be triggered by some of the topics, embrace the discomfort and enjoy how shocking this book can be whilst at the same time very witty and enjoyable!

It took me ages get why this book was described as feminist because so much of the story is based on the wonderful and thought provoking Dietland. When the feminist elements do drop in they really do stimulate your mind and make you think. This was GREAT angle to approach the feminism it really helps you support feminist opinions you may have. The elements of the book about weight, body image and diets really got me questioning how hard it could be to live your daily life when people consider you not normal or ugly before before ever getting to know you.

Excellent novel, very well written, the voice is engaging and characterisation excellent. I particularly liked the relationsips between female characters and the brutal honesty with regards to male entitlement and violence that permeates our culture. No doubt, it'll cause a few man tears and reflex put downs of this book (male-only one star rating club made me chuckle), but let that not deter you from giving this excellent and unusual feminist novel a chance.

Thought provoking and important. Illustrates very cleverly the ridiculous standards that are set and accepted by society for women with an interesting look at how men may react/respond should the tables be turned.This however is only one element of the story which is a multi layered discussion, in the form of fiction, of the age old issues of patriarchy in the media/diet industry, body issues and self acceptance - such a shame we still need to address such issues!!Read this - it won't take long as you won't want to put it down!