My 2019 in Books: Best Body Positive Books

I read a lot of fat positive/ body positive books in 2019, which I find to be an excellent sign that the idea is growing that fat people can and should be positively portrayed in literature.

I got to meet Julie Murphy at BookCon in June 2019. She is the author of (among others) Dumplin’ (the book that the Netflix movie was based on), its sequel Puddin’, and the standalone Ramona Blue. If you haven’t seen Dumplin’, I’ll wait–go, watch it right now. It’s the story of Willowdean, an unapologetic fat, white, and grumpy high school student in Texas, and her mother (played by Jennifer Aniston) who fight over many things, most specifically the pageant. Willowdean’s mother is an always-dieting beauty queen. Spoiler: Willowdean ends up with the hot guy, Bo. And she stays fat, and doesn’t try to lose weight. Plus, Dolly Parton and drag queens are featured. I wish I’d read such a book when I was a teen. A quote, regarding the song Jolene: “THE Dolly Parton is singing to some mysterious Jolene who she thinks is more beautiful and more worthy than her, begging her not to take her man . . . it’s this reminder that no matter who you are, there will always be someone prettier or smarter or thinner. Perfection is nothing more than a phantom shadow we’re all chasing.”

Puddin’, the sequel, is even better. Set in the same town with many of the same characters, this is the story of Millie, a minor character in Dumplin’. I identify so much more with Millie, with her planners and crafting and positive, type-A personality! Millie also gets a guy, and weathers a difficult friendship with a dance-team member, Callie, while standing up for herself with her mother and getting into journalism camp. I would love for this book to be turned into a movie, as well. Quotes: “My magic truth–the thing that has changed everything for me–is this: the body I have shouldn’t change how deserving I am of my dreams. I stopped obsessing over my body being too round or too wide or too lumpy. Because I’m not too much of anything. I’m just enough. Even when I don’t feel like I am.” And “I want to help change the rules, you know? To help make everything more fair. But no one cares about evening the playing field or changing the rules unless they have some kind of connection. I guess…well, that’s what stories do. They connect people. Stories change hearts and then hearts change the world.”

The main character in Ramona Blue is not fat, but she is very tall. She is white, and came out as a lesbian early in high school, and lives in a trailer with her father and slightly older sister. They live along the Gulf Coast in Alabama, and Ramona works bussing tables and has a paper route and a group of friends, mostly other queer white kids. She’s about to start her senior year, when she reconnects with Freddie, the biracial grandson of an old friend who has moved back to town. They become good friends, and Ramona needs that, because her sister is pregnant and her friend group is full of drama. I included this as body positive because one of Ramona’s friends is described as round and not apologetic about it, and Ramona’s height is not a huge part of the book–it just is. The best part is how Ramona realizes that she may not be entirely gay as she spends more time with Freddie.

Mrs. Everything was one of my favorite books of 2019. It’s fat-positive because one of the main characters, Bethie, is fat, she accepts it, and her body size has nothing to do with her eventual success in business and in love, although she did spend a lot of time dealing with shame because of trauma. Jen Weiner gets it.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon and American Street by Ibi Zoboi are not focused on fatness or body size, but they each describe fat characters in a very neutral or positive way. That’s progress. Both are haunting and beautifully written.

In an Orchestra of Minorities, by Chigozie Obioma, the main character’s love interest is a plump woman verging towards being fat, and she is much desired. The main character turns his life inside out for her. It’s a very unique story, as it’s told by the chi, or guardian spirit, of the main character, and is a modern twist on the Odyssey and Igbo cosmology. It’s well worth the time if you want to be immersed in a different world, as it’s set in Nigeria in the 2000’s.

In 2019, I read a couple of books by John Green and Hank Green: Turtles All the Way Down by John, and An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank. While there are no explicitly described fat characters in either book, I respect the fact that I have never seen either of them rely on fatness as a stereotype for negative qualities. They’ve never focused on the way their characters look as some male authors do, and they’ve handled mental illness (John) and a bi/pansexual character (Hank) with grace. While I would prefer fat characters to be included more often (and not only when a scapegoat or miserable character is needed), I think authors who refrain from using fatness negatively should also be praised.