Julia Goodman has an addictive personality that she
controls only with the help of her shrink, Dr. Ness, who
functions as both her drill sergeant and her conscience.
Though she has changed the names to protect the privacy of
her friends and family, Julia has immortalized Dr. Ness in
her best-selling self-help book, Up in Smoke. She's slated
to follow up that title with Food Crazy, which will detail
how she has used Dr. Ness's techniques to battle food
addiction.
Julia's world starts to fall apart when her best
friend marries and then moves away, her director husband
heads off to LA to work on a project, and Dr. Ness announces
that he's moving, too. Julia turns to sugar for comfort
and, without Ness's drill-sergeant-style guidance, she
starts putting on weight. This makes her sure she will be
labeled a fraud when she begins making media appearances to
promote Food Crazy. Desperate to maintain her image, she
makes appointments to see eight psychologists over the next
eight days, hoping that she will be SPEED SHRINKING her way
to her replacement mentor.
While Shapiro (whose other books include a number of
nonfiction self-help guides on addictive behaviors) gives
us a protagonist that is laugh-out-loud funny, there is a
lot of serious ground covered in this book; from dealing
with people who don't see food addiction as a real
psychological disorder to the frequent failure of one-size-
fits-all programs marketed towards the masses who are
trying to loose weight. Anyone who has ever dealt with
emotional eating will be able to commiserate with Julia's
journey toward self-understanding (and delight in the
gentle lampooning of some of the best known weight-loss
programs out there). Those who've never been tempted
by the call of a cupcake will gain insight into the
struggles food addicts face. Everyone will want to cheer
Julia on as she tries to understand just what it is she's
really hungry for after all.
Manhattan self-
help author Julia Goodman thinks she’s got her addictive
personality under control. Then her beloved psychoanalyst
moves away at the same time her husband takes off to L.A.
and her best friend gets married and moves to Ohio.
Feeling lonely and left out, Julia fills in the void with
food, becomes a cupcake addict, and blimps out. This is a
huge problem—especially since she’s about to go on
national television to plug her hot new self-help book
about how she conquered her sugar addiction.
Navigating
her insurance network, Julia desperately sees eight
shrinks in eight days, speed-dating for Dr. Replacement—or
any other new guru—to help shrink back her body and
anxiety in time for her close-up.
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