Wake Up, I'm Fat!
by Camryn Manheim

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Book Reviews of Wake Up, I'm Fat!

Book Review: Compassionate, poignant, and hilariously written autobio!
Summary: 5 Stars

But that's not the only reason I applaud Manheim and her work - she is clearly a gifted, dedicated artist who continually strives to improve her craft as an actor, writer, and activist. She is a strong-willed, determined fighter as well as a compassionate and empathetic person who clearly values honesty, loyalty, and kindness to others among all human characteristics (and practises what she preaches!!) She is also modest enough to thank those who helped her along the way in both her professional and personal growth.

And people have problems with this?????

Camryn Manheim's memoir was an inspiration to me personally and professionally, as I'm a software-engineer-by-day-trying-to-make-it-as-a-would-be-writer-by-night, who has also dealt with weight-related issues from both sides (I was slightly overweight in high school, then became bulimarexic late in HS and college). Having only recently reached a healthy (though not "ideal") weight is only the trivial side of my "success" story - I feel my true personal success came at age 28, when I finally began to accept and forgive myself more, understand myself (as well as other people!) more deeply, and work harder for what I wanted and what I believed in. I identified so succinctly with Manheim's own personal struggles with parents, friends, peers, and colleagues; her memoir will always be a positive reminder, reinforcing me and making me laugh and cry at the same time. I'm ever so hopeful that people who initially shun Manheim's work will have second thoughts and become enlightened, and those who do understand (like many of us here) will hopefully never "drop the torches"...thanks Camryn! :)

Summary of Wake Up, I'm Fat!

But can she write? Yes. This memoir is by turns funny ("If Barbie were a real woman, she'd have to walk on all fours due to her proportions") and excruciating. It helps that the material was honed in a one-woman show that sold out at New York's big-deal Public Theater, but the subject matter was strange and interesting in the first place. Manheim could not possibly be a less likely candidate for artistic and commercial success on TV. Born Debi Manheim in Peoria, the very metaphor for mainstream culture, Manheim re-created herself as a dozen-earringed California biker chick, a Renaissance Faire wench, a protester who helped drive the Miss California Pageant out of Santa Cruz, and one of 28 actors in America accepted at NYU's exclusive graduate school. In her book, Manheim gets even with her cruel, fat-bashing teachers; credits the director who gave her her first ingenue lead role (Tony Kushner, who cast her in Fen); and tells how the same temper that got her booted from school and arrested also won her the TV role that made her name.

There's good gossip for drama buffs. Manheim ribs her famous boss David Kelley within an inch of her livelihood; rips into Celeste Holm for cattiness backstage in Clare Boothe Luce's The Women; and opines that Bridget Fonda, whom she got naked next to in a movie, "could use a sandwich." But it's the private-life stuff that sticks with you. Read her touching, hilarious account of a personal-ad date from hell, and how she got even by picking up the hunky model who plays the Marlboro Man. She is not making this up!

Actors & Actresses Books

• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Actors & Actresses
• Entertainers
• Historical > United States
• Specific Groups > Women
• Humor & Entertainment > Television