When Austin-based author Stephanie Klein (Straight Up and Dirty) set out to memorialize her years at “fat camp” – first as a camper, later as a counselor – she had plenty of material to work with: namely, her childhood diaries, from which she quotes at length. Weight-obsessed and frequently wincing, Klein’s diaries will touch a nerve with any woman who hasn’t completely blocked out being a girl. Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp (out today) isn’t a rah-rah kind of a book; while Klein comfortably skips between chatty and bracing (and sometimes exasperating), she’s always brutally honest about her lifelong battle with her weight.
Klein kicks off her book tour tonight at 7pm at BookPeople (603 N. Lamar) with a camp food buffet of hot dogs and s’mores. (Is this some skinny somebody’s idea of a joke? Because it’s sooooo not in the spirit of the book, unless BookPeople wants you to follow up the party with a weeklong bender of self-loathing and cabbage juice, or some other “miracle” diet directive.) She’ll also appear at Barnes & Noble (1000 Research Blvd.) on June 29 from 3-4pm.
Fun fact: The UK’s Observer recently ranked her confessional blog, Greek Tragedy, as the 26th most powerful in the world.
This article appears in May 23 • 2008.
