THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

By Tommy Tomlinson

Tommy Tomlinson is a writer. Wow, is he ever. His background as a reporter for over 20 years and as a writer for ESPN, Esquire, Garden and Gun and other publications has fine-tuned the writing skills that I believe he was probably born with. He knew how to grab me and keep me interested in his story from the first page all the way throughout the book.

His story? Living as a morbidly obese person for almost his entire life. As someone who has struggled with weight issues myself, I ate up this book as if it was a box of hot, fresh, Krispy Kreme donuts. Although I’ve never weighed nearly as much as Tommy, who reached 460 pounds, I still felt every emotion that he described. And the fact that I felt it necessary to mention that I’ve never weighed that much underscores the rationalization that we, the overweight, feed ourselves, along with the food we devour. Tommy Tomlinson would get it.

Never been overweight and don’t think you can relate? I beg you to read this anyway. There are laugh out loud moments and there are dampened tissue moments, but every moment is as real as it gets. Tommy writes as if he’s talking face-to-face with the reader. He tells of his family life, his loving wife, his career, deep joy and deeper loss, and his hidden inner pain. It’s all shared by a man who knows how lucky he has been in life yet also knows what he has missed and what he has caused others to miss because of his weight. But he makes it clear that although his addiction is food, there are many of us that have the same feelings deep down, whether we are addicted to drugs, alcohol, gambling or anything that holds us back from the person we hope we are inside but may be afraid to meet.

Brilliantly written and wonderfully readable, this is neither a pity-party saga nor a self-help book. It’s a candid, brave story by someone who wants to do better for himself and his loved ones. I fell in love with this guy because of his honesty and his ability to share his life so openly with me, the reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Reviewed November 2018