Moose. A Memoir of Fat Camp :: Education by Design Store

Editorial Review

With her signature acerbic wit and captivating insight, the author of the wildly popular Straight Up and Dirty offers a powerful and beautifully stark portrait of adolescence

While she is pregnant with twins, one sentence uttered by her doctor sends Stephanie Klein reeling: "You need to gain fifty pounds." Instantly, an adolescence filled with insecurity and embarrassment comes flooding back. Though she is determined to gain the weight for the health of her babies--even if it means she'll "weigh more than a Honda"--she can only express her deep fear by telling her doctor simply, "I used to be fat."

Klein was an eighth grader with a weight problem. It was a problem at school, where the boys called her "Moose," and it was a problem at home, where her father reminded her, "No one likes fat girls." After many frustrating sessions with a nutritionist known as the fat doctor of Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Klein's parents enrolled her for a summer at fat camp. Determined to return to school thin and popular, without her "lard arms" and "puckered ham," Stephanie embarked on a memorable journey that would shape more than just her body. It would shape her life.

In the ever-shifting terrain between fat and thin, adulthood and childhood, cellulite and starvation, Klein shares the cutting details of what it truly feels like to be an overweight child, from the stinging taunts of classmates, to the off-color remarks of her own father, to her thin mother's compulsive dissatisfaction with her own body. Calling upon her childhood diary entries, Klein reveals her deepest thoughts and feelings from that turbulent, hopeful time, baring her soul and making her heartache palpable.

Whether Klein is describing her life as a chubby adolescent camper--getting weighed on a meat scale, petting past curfew, and "chunky dunking" in the lake--or what it's like now as a fit mother, having one-sided conversations with her newborn twins about the therapy they'll one day need, this hilarious yet grippingly vulnerable book will remind you what it was like to feel like an outsider, to desperately seek the right outfit, the right slang, the best comeback, or whatever that unattainable something was that would finally make you fit in.

Marie Claire, for Straight Up and Dirty
"Stephanie Klein’s raw account of divorce at age 29 is refreshingly honest and funny, without delving into cheesy chick-lit territory. You’ll easily relate to Klein--even if you don’t have a 'wasband.'"

USA Today
"Klein is a talented writer who tells the story of her love life with boldness and irreverence."

Publishers Weekly
"Klein’s sense of humor is downright wicked . . . a great, fun read."

New York Times
"Nothing, it seems, is too private not to share with . . . Ms. Klein’s legions of followers. And that is exactly how they like it."

People
"You could call her ‘a real-life Carrie Bradshaw,’ but it wouldn’t do Klein justice. With a fearless voice, the blogger weaves a memoir filled with heartbreak and humor . . . a compelling writer."

Kirkus Reviews
"Candid . . . inspiring . . . With vivid characterizations, spot-on locale descriptions and sly jokes at her own expense, Klein offers an original and touching take on the all-too-common problem of childhood obesity."

Elle, for Straight Up and Dirty
"Klein’s appeal comes not just from her nocturnal wonderings, but from her relentless plumbing of what went wrong in her twenties and how those mistakes inform her present."

Daily News, for Straight Up and Dirty
"[Stephanie Klein’s] confessional, intimate writing style has a magnetic and often voyeuristic appeal that transcends the gloss of her Sex and the City-style escapades."

Susan Shapiro, author of Lighting Up, for Straight Up and Dirty
"A kooky, heartfelt, and ultimately triumphant chronicle of young divorce and the importance of family, friends, and a good shrink."

Marie Claire (UK), for Straight Up and Dirty
"Beneath the wisecracking tales of solo supermarket shopping, phone therapy and Hamptons houseshares, the raw emotion about her divorce and nightmare mother-in-law rings true."

Cached date: AWS Called=true

Customer Reviews

Not what I was expecting...

2008-07-28
I read Stephanie's first book and loved it. Her writing style is/was exactly what I look for in a book, especially a memoir. I was waiting for this book to hit the shelves because I was very much looking forward to not wanting to stop reading. My husband bought this for me at Borders, hard cover, and that night I dove in. He mentioned it was in the nutrition section, which kind of caught me off guard. Regardless, I dove into it that night, and was surprised to find myself wanting to put the book down after the first 10 pages. Perhaps the subject isn't for me. After all, I wasn't an overweight kid. I guess I couldn't relate. And it wasn't just that -- I coudn't relate to how she wrote it. It was way too long -- and I know this because I made myself finish it (expensive hard cover that it was).

Great Read

2008-07-22
The book definitely shed some light on what overweight children go through. I think Ms. Klein is admirable for not being afraid to expose every detail regarding what she went through at this time in her life.

Great storytelling

2008-07-18
I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept me interested from start to finish as I learned about the authors struggle with her weight. It is very honest, poignant and insightful about what it was like to grow up overweight and issues with "fat camp". I'd highly recommend this book.

The humorous and touching tale of a self-proclaimed "fat camp champ"

2008-07-11
In her second memoir, Stephanie Klein attempts to get to the root of the lifelong battle that has been her weight. At the age of eight she went on her first diet with the help of a local diet doctor in her Long Island hometown. At age 13 she attended Camp Yanisin, a summer camp specializing in helping young adolescents lose weight. Arriving at the camp nestled in the mountains of Massachusetts, Klein is already a weight-loss pro, a self-proclaimed "fat camp champ." She knows all the fads and the tricks, and is determined to shed her schoolyard moniker of "Moose."

But MOOSE is not just about the author's struggle with her weight. It's also a treatise on pubescent awareness, self-esteem, and in Klein's case, a slightly precocious interest in sexuality, earning her the nickname "Porno Queen." She devotes much of her time conjuring up excuses to visit the boys' bunk rather than focusing on her health and quickly spots a hazardous pattern in her behavior: "Eventually, I'd give in, realizing I'd not only pleasured my way through the cranberry-walnut pie, but I'd inhaled the whole of our kitchen. It seems I didn't just do this with food, I did it with boys. I Crosby, Stills, and Nashed my way though adolescence and loved all the ones I was with. If I couldn't be with Adam, I'd be with everyone else." If she couldn't satisfy the hunger within with food, she'd try boys.

Klein deals with family issues, like the distant, sometimes strained relationship with her strict father and remote mother, and her never-ending search for approval, acceptance and success, and how she thinks that she would've gained all of these if only she had lost the weight: "You're either likable or you're not. And some people just give you more chances if you were thin. Because after all, it was just as I'd imagined all along: thin could wear red and be a bitch and people would still like her."

As an adult struggling with the difficult labor and delivery of premature twins, Klein attempts to leave her food worries behind her once and for all, not just for her own health but to be an example for her newborn son and daughter. But through caustic wit and humor, she admits that the years of counting calories have not taught her much in the way of wisdom. She continues to struggle with food and probably always will: "I haven't conquered any battles with food, with the bulge, or within myself. I still fight with my weight. Sometimes it fights back. It was messy when I was younger, and it continues to be. I can recite positive affirmations, trying to convince myself I'm no longer Moose."

Through her humor and self-effacing charm, Klein imparts her struggles in a completely relatable way. Who hasn't struggled with self-esteem, especially as a teenager? Who hasn't thought of elaborate "I'll show them!" scenarios? The author is painfully honest (sometimes excruciatingly so) about her issues and opinions, and lays bare her behavior without apology. A person's foibles, for better or worse, don't define that person, but they do help build a certain character.

Given the chance to go back and edit anything, Klein begs off: "That's the thing about being a former fat camp champ; when asked if I'd change my past if I could, I think for a moment and always answer no. the pain in being an overweight kid, the humiliation, makes you think twice before ever cutting anyone else down. There's something almost perfect in the ugly duckling syndrome. Something just. Something that just makes it mildly worth it. Because a sensitivity is tattooed on a part of you no one else can see but they can somehow guess is there. It's always with you. A scar maybe, some hurt that really does make you better."

Stephanie Klein is no longer known as "Moose," but it's safe to say that the memory of that painful time, as well as the lessons she gleaned, will be with her forever.

--- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller

Liked it; didn't love it.

2008-07-07
I'm a fan of Stephanie Klein's blog and I loved her first book. This one was a pleasant enough read but definitely easy enough to put down when an interruption came.

The book "Moose"

2008-07-05

With her signature acerbic wit and captivating insight, the author of the wildly popular Straight Up and Dirty offers a powerful and beautifully stark portrait of adolescence

USA Today
"Klein is a talented writer who tells the story of her love life with boldness and irreverence."

Publishers Weekly
"Klein’s sense of humor is downright wicked . . . a great, fun read."

New York Times
"Nothing, it seems, is too private not to share with . . . Ms. Klein’s legions of followers. And that is exactly how they like it."

MMoose - more than fat campmemoir

2008-07-04
As a psychotherapist I read Moose expecting it to be helpful in understanding some of my clients who were heavy during adolescence and still carry the stigma, fighting inappropriate eating daily. It was so much more. The story is intersting and at times funny. It captures the feelings of being an adolescent who is awkward and a little different; someone who is not in the popular group. Klein does a great job of decribing her parents reaction to her weight issue and their subtle messages as well as direct and great advice. It is well-written, descriptive and openly describes the emotions of most adolescents.

Fat Camp or Sex Ed

2008-07-02
I wanted to love this book as much as the other reviewers. I just couldn't. This book could have been half the length if it was just about being an overweight pre-teen at fat camp. The rest of the book is about an oversexed pre-teen. I had no idea young girls were that into porn and that type of porn. The description of the magazines while she is at the "doc's" office was more than I needed to know. I had a hard time believing that the magazine guy would sell tons of porn to an 8th grader...that was shocking as well. I'm just having a really hard time finishing this book and I'm only half way through. It would have been a really good story without the sexual stuff. Be forewarned....this book gets sexually graphic.

MOOSE

2008-06-30
Very entertaining and revealing. As a weight loss counselor, I see young girls who are being teased about their weight and now I can identify more closely with what they are going thru. Easy read and humorous take on a serious subject.

a great book

2008-06-25
This book was funny and sad and oh so true to life. I'm no fat camp champ (you need to read the book to find out what that means) but so much of this book is a reflection of what I remember my teen years to be like. Great book and I can't wait to read her other book.