~Good in Bed~

by Jennifer Weiner

      Heroine: tall and plump

     Spirited entertainment journalist Cannie Shapiro is completely floored when her "ex" boyfriend lands a plum job writing for Moxie magazine, and subsequently uses their former love life as fodder for his new column.  How dare he publicly expound upon his trials and tribulations of "loving a larger woman"?! 

     Heartbroken and confused, normally sassy Cannie, who was only looking to take a break from their relationship, finds herself wandering through the achingly familiar territory of abandonment once more.

    What will it take for Cannie's emotional inner compass to stop spinning in crazy circles and finally point to happiness and true love once again?

      What worked for me:

    I thought that this was a delightful peek into the sometimes painful life and mind of a curvy young American woman, who is struggling to remain sane while carrying around a ton of emotional baggage.  Although she was a deeply-flawed character, I felt sympathetic towards her and was glad to see her finally begin to grow by the end of the novel.

      Some other characters worth noting were: Cannie's divorced-"turned"-lesbian mom, who made a pretty good foil for her angst-ridden daughter by providing an example of a larger woman who's gotten herself together, and the handsome, helpful doctor from the weight loss clinic who kindly offered Cannie his support when he discovered that she was "C." from the Moxie articles.   ( I also loved the anecdote about the history of Cannie's odd little dog and how he got his name.)

      And how refreshing was it that it was the guy who was the inexperienced half of the couple for a change?!

      Size-wise, well... it was hard for me to really picture Cannie.  She described herself as feeling as though she was rather abundant, but then tacked on the fact that she was quite tall and a size 16.  I know that in our society any woman bigger than a single digit size is considered "large", but I think that a tall, large-framed size 16 woman sounds healthy and lovely, like Valkyrie supermodel and fashion correspondent Emme.

What didn't work for me:    

     Some folks might find a few plot points in the story to be predictable and perhaps even a little unbelievable. (The Hollywood scenes, for example.)  But it was all right by me.  I enjoy a big-girl-makes-good "comfort" read as much as the next gal.

     Perhaps not everyone will care for Cannie's constant reflections upon her weight, but her actions and attitudes are typical for a lot of women in Western society, especially when there's some other emotionally painful situation at hand for them to (not) deal with.  And for those who feel her self-effacing is excessive and merely for the sake of drama, I can honestly say that it is not.   This book just barely scratches the surface of that societal condition known informally as "girl disease". (This is not to say that men do not experience similar feelings.  They certainly do.  But this particular slang terminology stems from how publicly vocal women are with their feelings about fatness, and eavesdropping in any restaurant, department store fitting room, or public restroom will bear testimony to this fact.)

Overall:

   "Good in Bed" is a witty, bittersweet Singleton faerie-tale that reads quickly but stays with you long after you finish it.

Warning: there is some coarse language, a few steamy scenes, and some discussion of lesbianism in this book.

Special Note:  I'm glad that I have finally read and reviewed this particular book, because it is the one that started my quest for plus-size literature.  I saw a review on it in MODE magazine and found myself wondering if there were more stories of this sort around.  That innocent thought has led me through nearly a year and a half of querying authors, readers, librarians, and publishers.  The results of those queries are what made this website possible.

If you liked "Good in Bed" you might also enjoy: "Love at Large", "Inappropriate Men", "All of Me", "The Way It Is", "Coffee and Kung Fu", "Switcheroo", "Last Chance Saloon", "Bridget Jones's Diary", "Jemima J.", "Having It and Eating It", and "Getting Over It".

Have you read this book and have a comment to make on it? Join a discussion about the book at the Dangerous Curves forum or submit a review to this website.