- Published: 30 April 2020
- ISBN: 9781473555549
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 304
This is Big
How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World (and Me)
- Published: 30 April 2020
- ISBN: 9781473555549
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 304
For anyone who has ever felt defeated by food, betrayed by their own body, embarrassed for not only lacking the willpower to change their habits but also embarrassed by the desire to change their own body, Marisa Meltzer sees you, has written this book for you because she is you. While simultaneously delving into the history of the woman who started Weight Watchers and bravely and honestly examining her own complicated relationship with food and weight, Marisa has written a book that perfectly captures our country's obsession with THIN and the struggle with obesity at this moment in history
Busy Philipps, author of This Will Only Hurt A Little
This is Big is a brave, bold, funny, honest, riveting book that made me have every kind of feeling in the world
Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up
This book was so good that I devoured it (with no guilt)! Meltzer shows us, through honesty, rawness and deep vulnerability, the complexities of living in a body that doesn't adhere to society's narrow beauty standards in an era that holds up body positivity as gospel
Mara Altman, author of Gross Anatomy
A witty and meaningful look at our obsession with weight and dieting; blending the story of the founder of Weight Watchers with her own saga, Marisa Meltzer crafts an amusing story with universal insights
Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us
This book is an incredible hybrid: both a detailed study of an extraordinary American life, and a candid and revealing memoir. Meltzer is the biographer Jean Nidetch deserves, crafting a portrait of the woman and the world in which she lived. She’s also a bracing memoirist, a warm and honest voice unafraid to offer readers the stuff of her own life to help us better understand the culture we now share. It’s a remarkable feat
Rumaan Alam, author of That Kind of Mother
Marisa Meltzer is an ingenious writer. This is Big expertly weaves together two engaging tales: the charming, funny, and often heartbreaking account of Meltzer’s lifelong attempts at bodily transformation, attempts that will have many readers nodding along in recognition, especially when she decides to join an unforgettable group of Weight Watchers in Park Slope, Brooklyn; and the little-known story of a largely forgotten American icon whose lasting accomplishments deserve to be known: Jean Nidetch, the irrepressible, path-breaking entrepreneur who founded the now billion-dollar company Weight Watchers in her modest living room in 1963
Nancy Jo Sales, author of The Bling Ring
At once a biography and a memoir, this heartfelt, incisive book layers the story of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch with the author’s own lifelong journey through various fad diets. What emerges is a surprising portrait of a remarkable but little-known life in business, as well as a thoughtful critique of America’s obsession with thinness. Meltzer, who has herself subscribed to Weight Watchers, brings a personal angle to this fascinating, far-reaching story of a phenomenon that has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of women
Esquire
This Is Big is an inventive memoir that examines Meltzer’s own experience with weight loss alongside Nidetch’s lucrative belief that community, not secretive shame, could transform people’s bodies and lives
Bitch Media
This is the anti-diet book I have been waiting for. I loved its honesty, charm and celebration of an unlikely but compelling feminist heroine. I think many women -- me included -- really struggle to find a voice in a culture where wellness and body positivity both noisily vie for our attention. For the first time I feel seen and heard
Daisy Buchanan
Meltzer has created a singular companionate text for those who know the agony of frustration surrounding weight as an issue, both personal and political. People — women, especially — who ping-pong around the weight spectrum will feel less alone when they read it... Nidetch may be long gone, but Meltzer carries on her legacy of putting a public face on the challenge of weight management. Acerbic, culturally astute and genuine, she makes exquisite company in the struggle, and that is no small thing.
Lily Burana, New York Times
Sharp... frank and incisive
Charlotte Lytton, The Telegraph
Frank, funny and feminist, she [Meltzer] describes her struggles with charm and honesty, questioning how a (mostly) happy person can be made so miserable by calories, portion sizes and scales
Eithne Farry, Sunday Express
Fascinating... Meltzer's whistle-stop history of America's body image is both effortlessly informative and efficiently selective
Eleanor Halls, Daily Telegraph
A life-changing book
Viv Groskop
A fascinating deep dive into the insatiable rise of the multibillion-dollar food and diet industries... What's particularly pleasing about this warm book is the weighing up of what "success" can look like for different types of people
Jewish Chronicle
A unique memoir on dieting and body politics... Funny and thoughtful, this is both an inspiring anti-diet book and a biography of an idiosyncratic entrepreneur whose impact is still felt strongly today
Eastern Daily Press, *Book of the Week*