I'm not exactly Jennifer Weiner or Cannie Shapiro. Combine the two and we have a TON in common. Jennifer is based in Philly and Cannie lives there. I was born and raised there. Jennifer worked for the Centre Daily Times in Central PA. I live in State College, PA and was at Penn state when she began working there. I still live in State College. Jennifer and Cannie are overweight. I stopped giving a crap about it after hitting 40 years old. I'm tall, with a large frame and will never weigh 100 pounds. I'm not exactly carrying a Michelin tire around my waist but I'm no model either. There's a bunch of other stuff too.
It bothers me that some women have reviewed this book and called Cannie's story, "whining." Sounds to me like Cannie is just being Cannie. I don't think she's a perpetual victim, I think she's just trying to figure out years of bad things happening to her. Keep in mind that JW can't take you through every step of Cannie's growth. The book would be way too long. I think the fact that she's left Cannie under the care of a shrink tells you she's not done fixing the way she reacts to bad things that happen to her.
I have to wonder how many readers who wrote that Cannie was a "whiner" are really, really thin and have nooooo problem frolicking down the shore because they can wear some boob stickers and some string and call it a bikini?
Well, truth be told, there are more of us than there are of you. I'm not as big as a 16 but I'll never be an 8. And for the not so thin ones who said the same, do you envy Cannie because she got a lot of good things in one quick swoop? Because again, it's a book. It kinda has to be really kind of fast or you'll get bored.
The book was amazing, plain and simple.
