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Life in the Fat Lane
Author Cherie Bennett Tackles The Tough Subject of Kids and Weight By Donna Smith
The story Bennett weaves is an intriguing one. Lara Ardeche, the main character, is what most every teenage girl aspires to be -- popular, a great student, friendly and well liked, the Prom Queen, and most of all, she is thin. Lara's world begins to change when she suddenly starts putting on weight, and a lot of it. Over a seven-month period, she will put on 100 pounds. Lara does not take the weight gain lying down, but diets, exercises, and even visits doctors, but the weight keeps piling on. She is eventually diagnosed with a fictional disease called Axell-Crowne Syndrome.
Why did Bennett feel compelled to give her main character a fictional disease to explain the weight gain? "I wanted to write about the WHAT of weight, and not the WHY," says Bennett. "Let's face it: when we see someone on the street who is overweight, we have a whole bunch of visceral reactions and we jump to a whole bunch of conclusions. Yet in actuality, we know nothing about that person besides what she looks like; we don't know if she is a compulsive overeater or if she is taking Prednisone in a life-and-death battle against lupus. Both can give you a big weight gain. All we know is what she looks like -- fat." By creating a fictitious disease, Bennett was able to "divorce" the book from the "why", and concentrate on the "what."
Lara's "what" revolves around her changing world. She is faced with people looking at her differently, losing people she thougt were friends, her family's embarrassment, and not liking herself anymore. She finds herself on the other side of the fence, and does not like it. As the story progresses, Lara grows and learns some valuable lessons about life, though she still longs to lose the weight.
