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Reviews & Awards: Thorpe Menn Award
From the judges' comments to the award committee:
When it arrived, we opened your weighty package of books with the
same great anticipation we feel when opening a new box of chocolates.
Experience has taught us that the finalists for the Thorpe Menn award
are always of exceptionally fine quality and will offer us a high class
menu of reading selections. And we are not disappointed -- the 2007
nominees are as rare and savory as a juicy Kansas City steak.
That is the introduction to a letter we might have written a few weeks
ago. But author Ann Pai has firmly refocusd our metaphorical lens. She
has given us Joyce, who even in her darkest, heaviest hours is so much
more than chocolate and steak, though at a glance that may be what
you first see when meeting her. Joyce is the safe and experienced big
sister, a storyteller, a photographer, a teacher, a loved member of the
family, and an obese young woman. Joyce is like all of us -- a composite
of her genes and experiences. Ann Pai's memoir is the loving,
compassionate, respectful, honest story of Joyce who has been a vastly
important part of Ann's life.
Ann's choice of format for this memoir is profoundly effective. She relates
her story of Joyce by inviting the reader to see Joyce in short vignettes
where Joyce is a main character, in snippets of Joyce's journals, in
stream of consciousness thoughts of the author herself struggling with
issues of restraint, and in medical descriptions of Joyce's symptoms -- all
against the backdrop of the 9/11 drama and tragedy. By integrating
these several forms, the writer deftly recreates the complicated
character of Joyce.
Perhaps the most problematic roadblock toward Joyce's recovery is her
inability to communicate her feelings and needs. The author masterfully
uses extended metaphor to underline Joyce's way of coping with this
disability. Several metaphorical threads tie the story of Joyce together
for even the least observant reader. Joyce is a photographer and
throughout the memoir, we are given glimpses of her in this role. In a
rare moment, she confides to Ann that she likes to take pictures
because then she will not be in the picture. Ann tells readers that
"Owning a camera is like owning the world." In Joyce's world, where she
has lost control of almost everything, she can control and communicate
this tiny bit of what she sees and experiences. Another metaphor the
author employs is sign language -- a very quiet and limited form of
communication for Joyce when she no longer can find her voice. Other
effective metaphors of journaling, music, and storytelling add to the
richness of the memoir.
Media bombards us with information about our nation's struggle with
obesity. Statistics, law suits, popular diets, photos and videos, even
comedians, feed us a steady diet of fat information. But Ann Pai quietly
and compassionately gives us Joyce. The story of Joyce surpasses all the
rest. It reminds us that we are all just people here, stuggling and caring
people.
And so we quietly and respectfully place the 2007 Thorpe Menn winner,
My Other Body, back into the return package. We are not thinking about
chocolate and steaks. We are thinking of the two small sisters pictured
on the front cover of Ann's memoir. We are thinking about Joyce.
American Association of University Women
Awards My Other Body the 2007 Thorpe Menn Award
Awards My Other Body the 2007 Thorpe Menn Award
| My Other Body: a memoir of love, fat, life, and death by Ann Pai |