Even when her trusted roommates tell Victoria she looks terrific in her new outfit, she never really believes them and only delves deeper into the comfort of ice cream.
Despite being a lovely blue-eyed blonde child with a kind spirit, Victoria was wounded by the unkind and depreciating jokes her father made at her expense, starting from the name she was given to snarky comments on what she ate and what work she wanted to do. Her parents, Jim and Christina Dawson, have the good looks admired by their L.A. counterparts and are obsessed with impression management and presenting the picture perfect image to the world. As Victoria's own gifts and body type differed from the box they tried to squeeze her into, she never received the welcome attention they bestowed on her baby sister whose slender, dark haired features only emphasized how she was the one who belonged in the family portrait.
While Victoria half-heartedly deals with her weight and family issues, she doesn't fully realize how profound their negativity and disinterest had affected her. But, when she sees her sister is about to enter into a similar situation as her mother, Victoria knows she has to act. But, it is too late? Will they only think she is jealous? More importantly, what can she do for her own self?
Danielle Steel is a writer in a league of her own. Her hallmarks are well crafted characters and strong storylines. In BIG GIRL, she carefully interweaves a number of themes affecting family and sibling dynamics, especially around abuse patterns of belittling kids, including alternating between poking fun at their weight while facilitating access to cookies and ice cream and the impacts that continue into adulthood, especially when they think they had a "normal" childhood. Having been born the black sheep with blonde siblings in my own family, I could identify with Victoria on some points. This intriguing telling of Victoria's journey certainly makes one fully aware of the needs to accept the gifts and uniqueness of children and to be careful of some of those family stories told for a laugh. Even the title highlights how the identity is lost behind the euphemism.
Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family,
especially in body-conscious L.A. Her father, Jim, is tall
and slender, and her mother, Christina, is a fine-boned,
dark-haired beauty. Both are self-centered, outspoken, and
disappointed by their daughter's looks. While her parents
and sister can eat anything and not gain an ounce, Victoria
must watch everything she eats, as well as endure her
father's belittling comments about her body and see her
academic achievements go unacknowledged. Ice cream and
oversized helpings of all the wrong foods give her comfort,
but only briefly. The one thing she knows is that she has to
get away from home, and after college in Chicago, she moves
to New York City.
Behind Victoria is a lifetime of hurt and neglect she has
tried to forget, and even ice cream can no longer dull the
pain. Ahead is a challenge and a risk: to accept herself as
she is, celebrate it, and claim the victories she has fought
so hard for and deserves. Big girl or not, she is terrific
and discovers that herself.
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