by: Judi Marcin
Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo Fat Angie is a refreshing and passionate book. It is also a book that readers will think they know what it’s about, perhaps by the title and cover, but will be blow away by the writing, characters and content. It is one of the 2014 ALA Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Book Award winners, along with Kirstin Cronn-Mills’ novel, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, also highly recommend. (See http://www.ala.org/glbtrt/award/honored for a list of Stonewall Award winners. This is a great place to find outstanding LGBTQAI+ books for adults and young people) |
The overweight character, who refers to herself as Fat Angie, struggles on many levels while searching out her identity. From questioning her sexual orientation to dealing with a negative self body image to feeling lost in her own family, this novel follows Angie as she discovers her individual voice. It is painful to watch, as the protagonist never calls herself Angie but instead only Fat Angie. Readers view her through this critical lens as well, until they are able to see her empowered through her own actions |
Added to the complexities of Angie’s life is the loss of her sister, who is listed as MIA by the military while serving a tour of duty in Iraq. Her small Midwest town of Dryfalls, Ohio was at one time obsessed with the MIA status of Angie’s sister, but all have given up hope for her safe return. Angie is the only one who refuses to believe her sister has died and instead clings to the idea of missing. |
This book is about pain and redemption, grief and loss and the exploration of the spectrum of how we humans cope with these difficult things. The talent of author and filmmaker, e. E. Charlton-Trujillo, is evident in the way she manipulates the words on the page in the same way she might manipulate the lens and shots of the camera. The novel begins in a distant third person voice. Fat Angie cannot detach herself from that identity, almost as if the character is watching herself in her own documentary. As the story progresses, the reader moves closer to Angie as Angie moves closer to understanding herself. | Image used under creative commons, borrowed from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/425308758530726033/ |
Fat Angie is one of the most fulfilling stories I have read in a long time. It tackles many deep and difficult subjects in a way that is satisfyingly realistic. The best part of this book is that nothing is either/or. There are lots of fuzzy spaces in between, consistent with the messy, complexities of life. |
Behind this amazing novel is the author who chose to fund her own cross-country book tour in June 2013. Driving from her home in Cincinnati, Charlton-Trujillo ran free workshops across the United States with at-risk youth, talking about the world-changing abilities of storytelling and the importance of expressing their own voices. Her journey is recorded in her own documentary, At-Risk Summer. |
This author proves that stories are powerful and young people can find ways to harness that power, much like Angie did in this story. Fat Angie is Charlton-Trujillo’s third YA novel. Her newest novel, When We Was Fierce, is coming out in 2016. (Learn more about her projects here at www.bigdreamswrite.com) |