Book Review: "This is Big" by Marisa Meltzer
“This is Big” by Marisa Meltzer
Synopsis: Marisa Meltzer began her first diet at the age of five. Growing up an indoors-loving child in Northern California, she learned from an early age that weight was the one part of her life she could neither change nor even really understand.
Fast forward nearly four decades. Marisa, also a contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Times, comes across an obituary for Jean Nidetch, the Queens, New York housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963. Weaving Jean's incredible story as weight loss maven and pathbreaking entrepreneur with Marisa's own journey through Weight Watchers, she chronicles the deep parallels, and enduring frustrations, in each woman's decades-long efforts to lose weight and keep it off. The result is funny, unexpected, and unforgettable: a testament to how transformation goes far beyond a number on the scale. - Little Brown
Rating (out of 5): 4.5
Trigger warnings: drug use, eating disorders, asshole misogynists, diet culture
Review: I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting the summer before eighth grade. I had always been a chubby kid, like the author — I preferred reading and creating more than sports, but it was much more of a preoccupation to my parents than it was to me. Like Marisa Meltzer, I have a moment that stands out in my head, and it’s something I think about probably on a weekly basis; when I got my tonsils out in fourth grade, one of my parents remarked that the accompanying liquid diet would be a good opportunity to lose 10 pounds. (Yes, I talk about my food issues in therapy all the time — can you tell?) So, Weight Watchers, which had recently signed Sarah, Duchess of York, as a spokesperson, seemed like a good spot for my parents to send me.
Like many women in 2020, I have fought my weight and body image issues almost my entire life -- and I think that including "in 2020" is an important point to distinguish. One of the things that I found so interesting about this book was the impeccable research that Marisa (yes, we're on a first name basis) did on the establishment of diet culture in America.
Did you know that it started with men during the Industrial Revolution? Me either. It was only after World War II that women began to feel directly impacted, in large part due to 1950s culture and innovations. Jean, Nidetch, the erstwhile founder of Weight Watchers, started by helping out her friends after losing some weight herself -- I am sure that she never saw the success of her business coming.
"This is Big" is told in two connected stories -- both Marisa Meltzer and Jean Nidetch's experience with Weight Watchers.* Marisa, who tells you within the first 10 pages that she has lifelong food issues, is trying to finally lose weight for the last time, and after seeing Jean's obit in the NYT, she both joins Weight Watchers, and researches the genesis of the organization. I feel like this started with one of my favorite hobbies -- an innocent internet search that turns into a deep dive -- and then it became a book. I'm so glad that it did because not only did I genuinely enjoy reading it, it made me think deeply about my life and my experiences in a new way.
I have been excited about this coming out since I read a blurb last year, and I have to say that it delivered more than my high expectations. If you've read any of her pieces around the internet, you know that she's a talented writer, but this book is her at her best -- witty, disarming, and hilarious. I so appreciated how candid she was with her past (and present) food issues, and how she let the audience in to her head space. I really was rooting for her the whole time, the same way I was waiting to see what happened next with Jean.
Even if you don't have deep-seated food issues and have never weighed in while in a strip mall in your lightest clothing, I still wholeheartedly recommend this read. While Marisa's story is wonderfully compelling, the research that she did about the rise and insidiousness of diet culture is equal parts insane and fascinating. While this isn't the same type of comfort read I've been recommending during Shelter-in-Place, I read it in one afternoon. It's almost as satisfying as a mallomar in your laundry basket, I promise.
*Now rebranded as WW, because late stage capitalism has decided its easier to sell wellness in this decade.
TL;DR: A clever memoir + a weighty examination of diet culture + some real 60s flamboyance - junk food = a great read.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“Untamed” by Glennon Doyle (tbh, I haven’t read this one yet, but it’s on my list —- I have the audiobook, thanks to libro.fm!)
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