Such a Pretty Fat

May 5, 2008
A surprisingly charming weight-loss odyssey, Lancaster's third weight-centric memoir (after Bitter is the New Black and Bright Lights, Big Ass) tells the story of her struggle to drop the ice cream and step away. Though morbidly obese, with a worried doctor hovering anxiously, Lancaster is blithely casual and never feels sorry for herself: "I'm a hundred pounds heavier than I was in high school, my veins are full of creme fraîche, and yet I look in the mirror, take in the hair and makeup, and think, Damn baby, you fiiine." Still, at the end of her thirties, she knows she needs to lose weight-mostly to stay healthy, but also because she can't face the shame of having to buy an extra seat on an airplane. While the first chapter is full of chatty asides and aren't-I-cute footnotes which can grate, Lancaster relaxes into her journey through Atkins dinners, Jenny Craig coaches, Weight Watchers meetings and bouts of personal training with the winning honesty and humor her fans have come to expect. Anyone struggling with weight issues while trying to maintain a sense of humor (if not necessarily a positive outlook) will find much inspiration, and plenty of laughs, in Lancaster.