Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs

October 27, 2003
As is evident from this book's cover—featuring a cat in lime-green glasses and purple wig, posing with its tongue sticking out—Peck's debut collection of humorous personal essays and poems is nothing if not irreverent. Originally self-published for the benefit of her friends, family and cat, these warmhearted reminiscences cover everything from Peck's childhood (when she was driven to be the "first, fastest, loudest and best" and therefore hated by her peers and feared by her four younger siblings) to her experiences as a gay woman of size. In the title story, the 50-something Peck explains how she came to conclude that "no self-respecting fat girl ever really trusts a lawn chair," and in "Wounded in Action," the most hilarious and dramatic entry, she describes her misadventures on the softball field: "I gathered every fiber of my being—and there are many, many fibers in my being—and I pointed them all toward first base, and I leaned in that direction, hoping to add speed at a later date...." A few of her essays fall flat—such as "Does a bear...?" a tale of her inability to pee outside—but her many witticisms ("Women were never asked to fight in the war in Vietnam or any other war. But if they had been, girls would have won. Girls would have felt guilty for not winning it sooner, and girls would have restored all of the roads...") compensate for these low points. Cat lovers will appreciate the goofy narratives ostensibly told by Peck's cat, Babycakes, but the author's self-deprecating wit and ability to see the drama in everyday situations make this collection so inviting. (Jan.)

Forecast:
A major ad/promo campaign, which includes print ads and a radio satellite tour, will get the word out on this spunky collection. Warner is positioning Peck as "a gay Erma Bombeck," and—to our minds, anyway—she doesn't have much competition for that distinction.

November 15, 2003
Peck's short essays are, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek and ironic. Some, however, are serious and even moving, such as the one sincerely noting the miracle of her niece's birth, and they relieve and point up her more usual mode of self-deprecation in pieces on, for instance, being so fat that she becomes imprisoned in lawn chairs and is a reverse role model of effort to others at the gym. She also ruefully recounts her adventures in softball, which forced her to run, an action the 46-year-old hadn't taken since 1962. More drifting than running, "with the grace and delicacy of perhaps a hippopotamus," toward first base in 94-degree weather, it occurred to her, when miraculously safe on base, that advancing to second was more likely via ambulance than on foot. Whether reading Peck on the lure of gardening (an occasion signaled by pet cat Babycakes' shedding each spring) or on building a boat with her father, most readers will find this enjoyable first book worth their attention.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)